Teacher deliberately didn't help kids to revise for upcoming mock to teach them a lesson!

[Stuckinarut23]

D's did horrendous with his GCSE history mock as did his class mates. He normally is very good at history but this exam was based on local history which he covered a long time ago, plus there are no revision books in this section. Anyway we went to his parents meeting and teacher basically said she deliberately didn't revise for it prior to the exam and that they covered it a while ago (possibly last year) so she wanted to put the responsibility on them and for them to basically learn that anything could crop up in the exam so they should be studying all of it. Apparently the other class did revise the local history and did well. She did mention that they do have a handbook on the local history although again this was given a while ago and guess what D's can't find it! This was the same teacher that when we first met said she waited to instill confidence and that she is a specialist in history and has the best degree blah, blah.

@LocalHistory Thank you. I'm still bemused by the local history bit, to be honest. I'm aware of the thematic studies and period studies, etc and we switched from OCR to Edexcel when the specification changed in 2016. As far as I was aware all exam boards have to cover a British Period Study, a world Depth Study and then a Thematic study with an Historic Environment. What I don't see is how exam boards can mark a local history paper.

How would they assess it? What knowledge would the examiners have of local history?

What has your DS done about the lost handbook? He didn’t bother getting a replacement before the mocks, is he going to pull his finger out and get one for the real thing?

Complain to the headteacher and get her sacked, OP. Doesn't she know that it's the teacher's job to do the kids' revision for them? Discusting!

Nailed it

Come on, OP. Your son needs to take responsibility for his own revision here - and the class would have been told that anything could come up in the actual exam. so it's up to the students to do the revision, the teacher doesn't have a crystal ball to tell them to revise a,b,c and forget the rest.

And if the book's gone missing, who's fault's that? You are very stroppy about the teacher's qualification, but she's qualified, so presumably managed to pass her own exams. How about being constructive and putting some of the blame on your son? She's his teacher not his wet nurse.

Better that you child fails a mock, gets a fright and puts in proper revision for the real thing, than having a good mock result due to spoon feeding and a bad real result because they cba to revise!
It's for your child to know where their revision booklets are and to ask for a replacement in good time, if it's been lost!
I'm sure the mock wasn't a surprise to your child - stop trying to put this on the teacher!

Do you have 2 sons OP? In another thread you talk about your violent, dope smoking 19yr old sending sexual messages to a 14/15yr old girl.

Do you need any parenting support? (Meant kindly)

It's not the teacher's job to reteach and revise material for the mock exams. That's the students' job to do.

I always told my classes that they should revise everything in year 10 for year 10 exams, everything in year 10 & so far in year 11 for year 11 mock exams.

They need to learn the whole course for their final exams so what's the point in me spoon feeding them for their mocks? It doesn't give me or them an accurate assessment of their attainment.

@Hatty65 it is a bit woolly on the marking front depending on your chosen site. I haven't got the paperwork anymore but it was things like why the site was built and why there, development of the site and choose a period of your site, is it typical for the time? Great for some sites not so great for others. I think the markers are given some facts about the site otherwise you could make dates up.

The tudor house is Temple Newsam in Leeds and built as a 4 sided fortress after War of the Roses, Lord Darnley was born there who married Mary Queen of Scots, a fire made it 3 sided how it remains today, showy we love Charles II come see our walking gallery and then Georgian monarch love, later landscaped by Capability Brown and a WWII hospital. The place is stunning if you are ever in Yorkshire. Supposedly modelled on Hampton Court. It isn't a patch on HC but still an incredible site in stunning grounds.

I was talking to another Mum the other day. She said her DC had just done badly in their GCSE mocks ... she then said 'I'm delighted!', insofar as she thought it would give the DC the kick up the bum they needed. Children have to learn to take responsibility for themselves are there are many ways of doing that. Respect to the teacher!

To be honest he has been attending after-school revision and revising at home he said he wasn't expecting it to come up in the exam and it was studied last year so totally forgot about it. The topic was based on our local history as part of the Elizabethan era I think, I have brought all the revision guides he needs but can't get one for this part. Obviously the other class did refresh and cover it again and did alot better. As for mocking the teachers qualification, she totally put the previous teacher down (they have had a few teacher changes and I think the previous teacher taught this part) said she was better qualified to teach it etc, etc but then didn't actually refresh it whereas the other classes did. She said when she took over the class their confidence was really low but I can't see how this will help them. Yes a lesson learnt for my D's and his friends.

This.

It's a bit of a non issue from your update OP.

Your child forgot to revise a topic.
It came up on his mocks.
He didn't do well.

Now he knows to revise it and will, I assume, work hard and revise between now and his real exams.

Your reply to me has just been deleted but after your foul language I'm starting to see where your sons get their attitude from.

If it's on the syllabus it can be on the exam - not rocket science.

Revising specific information prior to a mock is not realistic and doesn’t shock the learners into realising that anything can come up.

Better to have them fail now on a practice paper, be disappointed and then start studying previous learning in preparation for the real exam, than let them think they’ve done brilliantly - as some learners will genuinely think that they don't have to work any harder for their grade.

OP, it is completely normal for kids to come up with excuses for not performing as well as expected in exams, or worse working out how to blame others.

You know why he didn't perform well - he didn't revise all the necessary topics because he forgot a session.

It is also normal to complain the "other class" had it better than you did.

The best thing you can do is make sure he has learnt from his mistakes and not encourage attempts to shift blame.

He should also have most of this information in his long term memory by now and not be trying to cram it in the night before. By reading over his notes and the readings frequently he won't need so much revision right at the end.

If I were you I'd find out the name of the exam paper/exam board and I'd look online for the syllabus and for past papers.

They should have learned to sort themselves out and study independently by now. It's a bit late moaning about it. Maybe this will be the kick in the bum your Ds's class needs to pull their finger out. No one is going to hold their hand through college and Uni, better to fail the mocks than the GCSE's

If I've understood correctly, the teacher taught the material and gave out a handbook, yet your child's failure to revise for a mock exam. or use the handbook are (checks notes) the teacher's fault?
Does your child, or you, know what mock exams. are for?

Just as well she did that, then, as they'll all be revising more than the last topics they covered for the final exam now they've been shown exactly why they need to revise.

We were just told to revise everything for mocks and real exams. The teacher isn’t going to know exactly whats on the real exam in the summer so it’s pointless doing a mock where she basically warns them what’s on it! Otherwise they learn nothing!

Your son hasn’t revised everything he should have and you’re trying to blame the teacher. Typical of the modern day parent.

I’m so glad I got out of teaching.

I didn't revise in class with my year 11 biologists because we simply don't have time. I made this clear to my students and gave them past papers for home whilst we continued the new content in class. It happens every year.