Resigned to failing English

[Fightingdragonswithyou]

DD Just got 2nd lot of mock results. She only got a 2 in English, Nov mocks she got a 3.

Shes devastated.

She was diagnosed with dyslexia a year ago and struggles so much to put stuff down on paper but if you ask her she knows it. She's been put in bottom set and says it's full of kids pissing about and she can't concentrate.
She's been going to revision sessions after school every day, she has an English tutor once a week too and revises at home.

I don't know what else to do. She's just above the cut off for extra help in the exams and behaves well but says she cannot learn in that class due to all the disruption.

We have Parents evening in a couple of hours and I'm currently trying to calm her down, she's so defeated and doesn't see the point in even trying as she's not going to pass and terrified she won't get into college.
I'm trying not to cry with her!

Any glimmer of hope anyone can give me?

Have you seen any of her mock papers? Ds's school don't allow them home but did photocopy them for me so I could see what Ds had written and why he was getting low marks, literally scraped into a grade 4 in a mock. Therefore I could see the marks he got and the teacher's response. DS has processing disorder so just didn't know what to write.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you as a parent is to look at the past papers yourself, all online and open a paper and a mark scheme and see what she has to do. I did this with DS and we could walk through a paper together.

Pay attention to the mark scheme , read all the stuff in the beginning which lays out what they are looking for and each answer. This will help you to help her. As for the narrative, look up some good descriptive words, literally google, to describe a person, their facial features, she doesn't have to come up with these things by herself, you can prep her beforehand and regurgitate. That way she will hopefully feel more confident going in.

She needs to develop exam technique. Identify the key words in the question and grasp what needs answering. Can you afford any tutoring or look at bbc bitesize or similar.

She needs to start with Q5 in both papers, the 40 mark ones.

Then work through the rest of the paper.

She is doing Eduqas for Lang. She can do Section B first if she wishes but the format is different to AQA and AQA-specific advice isn’t especially helpful. Eduqas require candidates to write two shorter transactional pieces worth 20 marks each in Component 2.

How long has she had the tutor, OP? What exactly are they doing with her? Even in one hour a week a decent tutor should be able to walk her through enough papers to have a sold exam technique ready to go.

What on earth has the tutor been teaching then?

I'd go for more tutoring (maybe 3-4 x a week) with a really strong GCSE tutor who will be able to help her with the basics and also help her to understand the marking scheme so that she can pick up points wherever she can. Print out past papers and get her to practice those as well. And if she is dyslexic see what's available in terms of extra time etc (I'm sure you have!). If she could get her mark up to a 4 that would make a massive difference to her future opportunities. If she's had 3's in previous mocks then a 4 should be achievable. Also keep in mind that if all else fails, she can retake. And exam results are not everything......they are important but so is her mental health and make sure she knows she has other strengths. Whatever happens she will be ok, and she will always have your support.

I feel for her. I was never great at exams but I've done well in life....

DS was so stressed that he froze up and didn't write anything in several of his English resits. It is possible. I would also be careful of jeopardizing the other GCSEs by cramming English, over the next 2 months when she should be revising all of them.

My DCs school recommend/offer functional skills in maths and/or English for students who are achieving a 2 or below after the first round of Mocks in Y11 (autumn term).

My DS had the same results as yours in English literature mocks in year 11. He never got above a 3. His actual result was a 6.

He attended all the extra revision sessions they put on.

At home I bought the York notes and the essay writing guides in the books he was reading eg merchant of Venice. I read them with him and we talked through them. His best revision method is discussion so do what works for your DD.

I also bought the DVDs which we watched together then chatted about and took him to see the plays of two of the books he was reading.

Finally I printed a load of past exam papers and marking schemes and we went through techniques on how to answer the questions.

Now I’m dyslexic and I find learning in small chunks then doing something physical for a few minutes helps the learning go in as it gives the brain time to process.

Hope some of these suggestions will be helpful to your DD.

I agree with those advising getting tutoring. My DS failed miserably in his English mock exams. Did really well with everything else.

We got him an English tutor once a week and he passed his Higher English ( Scotland) with a B.

The Eduqas English Language website is really good- there's loads of blended resources and walk through for students. 10 mark questions= 10 points) quotations. V different to AQA!

They are incredibly harsh on SPAG though. It's disheartening sometimes.

Definitely ask for a different set asap for emotional support.

The people suggesting she have a scribe - it is quite difficult to get one. The SENCO will need to be the one to organise this and they will need to get a move on for this year's exams. Your daughter would also need to have this as her usual way of working and this is an issue for a lot of schools.
To get such a low mark she must not be writing anything at all - I understand the noise in a disruptive classroom won't help but presumably the mock was sat under exam conditions so no noise?
Even kids who write a lot don't necessarily do well - the questions are testing specific skills and she needs to be clear on these - aware of how much or little to write for each answer based on the marks awarded.
In terms of the Lit - I would essentially write that off - it is difficult and a lot of colleges want the English language to meet the entry requirements although more have started to accept the lit instead of rather than as well as.

Functional skills is another option - there are online providers where the exams can be sat at home via computer.
Depending on what she wants to study at college - if she wants to study a level 2 course most colleges will let her study GCSE alongside this. If she wants to study level 3 and has a good set of other results they may also allow her to study it alongside the level 3.

The writing question on the English is worth half the marks and they are assessed in part on their spelling ,grammar and punctuation. If you assume she is not going to score highly on that aspect - she needs to make it up the content and she will need some quantity.
The reading questions - she is not marked on SPAG so only 20% of the overall weighting is from SPAG - and assuming she doesn't get no marks or top marks for this element - although definitely harder for dyslexics - it is still achievable.

Now you’ve had some clarification from the teacher, you need a serious talk with the tutor. A decent tutor would look at what’s happened in the mocks and set out a plan to build on the skills your DC had but didn’t manage to show in the mocks. If your tutor can’t communicate to you what the course of action is, they are not the right tutor.

I wouldn’t bank on the SENCO being able to arrange any further support in the exam at this point, but it is worth asking for a meeting to discuss the panic attack. This is a real concern because if she’s had a panic attack that affected one mock to this extent, school should want to prevent this happening in the real exam period, which can be even more stressful. If your DC is prone to them often or this is brand new will make a difference to the conversation, but it would not be fair to your child to not address this in preparation for the exams. This could take all the good work done in classes and wipe it out, so school should be helpful here. Start with the SENCO and then move to pastoral if they send you there or you aren’t getting any response. If neither help, it could be worth seeking outside advice.

You said she is allowed a laptop - does she actually find it easier to type her answers or is this holding her back and she’d be better writing on paper? That’s worth evaluation.

Is her coursework all complete? Are her marks there considerably higher than the mock marks? (If coursework is also in line with a 2, that’s a different discussion that if the coursework is 4+.)

What is her set text for literature and does she understand it? This is one section where it’s possible to be very prepared, and there are many resources to help with that. She should be able to give you a timeline of what happens in the story and tell you about each of the main characters. If she can’t do that, this is preparation you can do all home as there are lots of resources available for free.

In terms of moving sets, it may not be feasible if different sets have different set texts, but there’s a chance if the books are the same. But it is a big risk to move her up if she is struggling in a lower set, as unless the sets are very close in ability, she will be thrown into the deep end and that may make her less secure instead. The teachers should be able to predict what would happen here, knowing her and the mix of students in the sets. I would not present this as ‘she needs to move sets’ but question ‘is there any other class where she is more likely to thrive?’ as part of a bigger discussion that shows you are a supportive family reacting to the result and putting the work in on your side.

my dd scored a low 3 in her GCSE Eng lang last summer, I had pulled her out of sitting Eng Lit in March.
She is autistic and is very clever so was at grammar school, but has a language processing issue and so struggles with written work.
Her only exam consession was use of a lap top and that she can take breaks if needed (so if panicking, she can take a break and calm down and try again)

She went to college and resat her eng lang in Nov and got a 5.

I asked her what made the difference.
The teacher at school was always giving them long complex correct answers, and telling them to try harder, write more but not given them very concrete things they could write.

The teacher for resits at college was really excellent at teaching kids who have failed how to pass.
She gave them simple model answers at a grade 5 level, not a grade 9 level.
She told them for each question what they needed to put to pass.
They did lots of practice questions and then she gave them model answers for each one.
She picked up on a few key things that dd could easily change, rather than overwhelming her with all the things she got wrong.

@steppemum Agree. The college resit tutors at DD's college also focused on getting that 4 with straightforward teaching.

Definitely this.

If she has a tutor once a week surely she should. E getting exam practice to help with her nerves.

I agree with Steppemum. A good tutor should make a lot of difference.

I would ask her to.be moved class. Often struggling students are put in set 4 as they can be smaller groups, but they are often poorly behaved students in these groups to. There isn't normally much difference academically between set 4 and 3 so ask for her to be moved.

Why is she not getting extra time?? My DS has a dyslexia diagnosis and gets 25% extra time in all exams despite consistently achieving 7s in English. The school is definitely letting her down here!

You can only have an electronic reader for EngLang I think, not a human. If you have a scribe you also lose the SP marks of the SPaG.