Maths issues

[Anxiouswaffle]

My son is struggling with Maths at school and its impacting him hugely.. he is in a high stream but suddenly this year doesn't seem to get it (year 9). I don't think he's doing enough homework to cement ideas but even then i don't think he gets some concepts. he did badly in a maths test last week (he did ok in the one previously but not well in the one before...) and then said he couldn't answer a single question on another topic in class. More worryingly he didn't tell me or his dad about the test results but claimed to be sick and didn't go to school until breaking down in tears last night. Whats made it worse is that one his "friends" apparently was teasing him about his result. I think it may be better if he dropped down a set but he's adamant he would hate that (embarrasment i think) - i did say maybe its just the teacher he doesn't get but he says the teacher is good.
I'm going to speak to his teacher to try and understand what he's like in class etc and see what we can do.
I just feel really bad as I've been cross with him for some of his results- because i can see that he's not working - but i don't want him to feel bad if he can't do it - its just trying to understand what the situation is - its a vicious circle - he has now missed lessons so will be behind... any tips?

he's probably just missed one particular step in a sequence.
after speaking to his teacher i would look into hiring a tutor to help review this section.

It's very normal in maths for students to have particular topics that they struggle with.

So often it's a student who is good at number but finds shape hard. Or the other way round.

It's also easy to get lost if you miss the first lesson in a sequence and then are there for the next two. You've missed the start as it were.

Email the teacher and say the he didn't understand the last topic. Ask if the school has resources - Dr Frost or Sparx maths that has videos and explanations that will help him catch up.

Try White Rose maths online, under the home learning tab you can watch videos, these are very clear and full of examples. You can also buy the workbooks that you use alongside the video.
I'd also let the teacher know how upset he is.

DS had similar at same age. He dropped down a set and it was a revelation - the pace was just a bit slower which meant he kept up whereas in the top set he’d not have time to understand something before they moved into the next topic.

If he’s embarrassed at the idea of dropping a set and too scared to tell you about his tests, then if your reaction is to go running off to his teacher to say “my poor boy is crying over his work” then I think he may completely lose his faith.

Tell him this: maths is supposed to hurt a bit sometimes, like a really hard workout at the gym. Your brain is a muscle and the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. Some exercises are harder than others - I cannot do a back flip, but I can boot a ball all the at up the pitch. So when the teacher wants you to back flip, I might need to do some extra exercises to practice and warm myself up; I might need to practice bridges and hand stands and kick overs before I can flip. That doesn’t make me a dud, just means I’m bright enough to know how to build myself up to be good enough. There is no substitute for doing the work - no one can back flip for me. But I can get help from people who do know how to backflip so that’s one way of getting support and keeping myself motivated.

Maths makes us judge ourselves more than most subjects - it is upsetting when it makes us feel objectively dumb. Remove that feeling and see it all as a series of little challenges to stretch your brain’s capabilities and the emotion reduces. Then you can focus again and face the fact your aren’t going to rock it like a prodigy. There comes a point when EVERYONE find a maths hard, and I mean everyone.

Tbh it could be the fact that in Y9 they often go in hard and fast with factoring polynomials, and this is mostly straightforward but there is a ‘magic technique’ which many teachers won’t explain (for factoring a polynomial where the leading coefficient isn’t 1). It’s messy to prove and the pupils won’t be familiar enough with gcds to understand the proof properly. So it can land with these 13 and 14yos as completely inexplicable and drawn from nowhere, and this particularly affects the able students who like to understand the foundations they are building on.

i recommend looking for videos of the topic on YouTube (whether it’s this or another topic that has got your dc confused) watch them yourself first to check they’re okay, then go through them together.

The problem isn’t necessarily not understanding the maths, but what he does or doesn’t do when he doesn’t understand. At the moment he is panicking and failing. He probably needs some support at home to get in a routine of looking things up. Do the school use a maths platform with videos like mathswatch? Or could he use a free website like https://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/gcse.php

A bit of going over things at home after the lesson will probably boost his confidence and improve his attainment.

Easy solution to this, just hire a tutor. Can get good ones for as little as £20 p/h.

Some people don’t have money for a tutor, in which case there are loads of really good free resources on the internet. Or ask if there’s a maths help club after school.

Tutoring. My son is top notch at maths because he has 3x per week math tutoring with the student..