ds year 8 exam results - really bad!

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Yes I know it's only year 8 but it is year 8 not year 2 or 3 or 4 and we are getting closer to year 9, 10 and 11 - H E L P please as only mumsnetters can.

My main worry is how can I help? Especially in English. He reads lots but refuses to read a wide range. He will not look outside the box and refuses to expand on anything - does the least he can. dp no use so on my own. I know, I know - just accept it, he does enough putting in a full day at school and I don't want to make him feel useless, but he used to be so bright at primary school all his teachers kept saying how well he was doing, now I feel like they were all lying but they weren't his work was lovely. I've been searching for books websites anything but getting nowhere so- thank you for any comments and for reading this.

Has he said why he doesn't expand on his work? Have you asked him how he feels about school in general? It's often in year 8 that peer pressure kicks in big time and it is so 'not cool' to work hard and be interested in what you are learning because only geeks and nerds do that!! And I think it can be a lot worse for boys.

Yes I have he just thinks he gets by enough with the little he does. Does not want to be best in class - fair enough and maybe he would never be but in particular his English has slipped so badly and I have tried to encourage him but now feel he needs firm hand and I can't see how withouth help from books/websites as his teacher just said he's a lovely boy and then this happens. Teachers useless.

Reading a wider range will come with time - my ds (end of year 9) now reads a far greater assortment than he did before. Try mixing in some non-fic if he likes science, I bought ds one on things science can't answer and he's glued to it. Eion Colfer has just written a Hitchhikers Guide thing a la Douglas Adams, and that got read in a couple of nights. I tried with the books to approach it in a different way...ds has a subscription to Audible for Christmas each year and he can download two books a month, sticks them on his ipod and listens. Listenig is one of the key skills I think in English, so if nothing else, you're helping him there.

Be thankful that he does read!

It sounds like he has Year 8 dip, which is a bit of a boy thing and sent me into panic last year. A lot of it is to do with maturity, my ds seems to have grown out of it and now tries and expands his answers, as I have pointed out that nothing to mark means few marks at GCSE and crap sets lower down the school. (I'm a senior examiner for one of the exam boards so know whereof I speak, and he does listen when I tell him things like that.)

If he's a bright boy, then he may be getting all the geek and nerd name calling...the answer to this is that geek shall inherit the earth and make a bloody fortune on the way. I keep telling mine that brains are something you always have; being popular at school is fine til you leave.

The conclusion I have come to at the end of Year 9 (and I have been a form tutor), is that boys do a lot of 'hidden' growing up during this period. They have their comfort zones, but can be coaxed to try different things. The ds I have at the end of Year 9 is the one I thought I'd lost during Year 8, so they do come back.

A book that might help are Blame it on my Brain; readable for both worried Mums and confuzzled year 8s who know somethig is happening, but they aren't sure what! I find lots of toast, hugs and generally being there helps as well.

I feel your pain ... ds1 is also y8 and is currently doing his end of year exams

He is incredibly bright (98.8th percentile - he only had his IQ tested as there were 'issues' when he was younger, wouldn't normally know that precisely!) and yet the marks he gets are nowhere near what he should be getting - in subjects he likes (and crucially if he likes the teacher) he'll be getting in the high 90s, but with most other subjects it's high 60s, low 70s which is OK but shows that he's putting no effort in and is just coasting

He's also gone really, really vague and forgetful

When I suggest mildly that he might want to do a bit of revision, he looks at me like I've started talking in Aramaic and says not to worry, he'll start working in time for his GCSEs

xbox has gone until after the exams, but he still manages to be distracted by anything and everything

I'm encouraged by scaryteacher's 'y8 dip' explanation and am hoping that's what's happening. His teachers just say he's exceptionally bright and could try harder ....

Well, first of all. Don't panic!

It really is only year 8.

He will be making his GCSE choices in Yr 9 anyway, so perhaps he could drop the subjects he really struggles in. That won't include English of course, but when you say his marks were 'really bad', how bad do you mean? Also try and find out why they were so bad. Did he answer the questions in the wrong way? In which case it could be a case of poor exam technique - which can be taught. Were the answers poorly written? Does he need to expand his ideas? Was his handwriting so bad that his answers couldn't be read?

Trying to break down exactly what he struggled with in the exam would be a good starting point to help him.

The other thing that helps is prep. Ds gets in at around 1620. We chat about his day, get toast and a drink, and then he has ipod/free time until 1700. He then has to do two hours homework, or do what has been set if it doesn't take two hours. He knows that that is homework time and he has to take the rap if it isn't done. Seems to work so far.

Another one here with a yr8 dip boy. I was in tears at the yr8 parents evening, all everyone was saying was that he was lazy, disorganised, driving them nuts.

Yr9, he pulled his socks up because he could see the point (SATS). To him, yr 8 was a "nothing" year.

In yr9 he got an award (only 1 per year group) for outstanding academic achievement.

He's now yr10 and all the coursework marked & mock GCSEs have come back between A* and B.

Really, try very hard not to worry too much. These bright boys aren't daft, when they know they have to work, they do.

I think yr8 exams and reports are a time to sit down and have a serious chat with children about progress. The year 8 dip is not unusual. But it's certainly not inevitable. Unfortunately, it's also not inevitable that they will snap out of it in yr9.

So make sure he knows that you care, that you are monitoring the situation and want him to succeed.

Scaryteacher speaks much good sense on here.

Is there something that you could offer him as a reward (a day at Alton Towers or karting or whatever he wants to do), if he gets things back on track for his next report. ie effort/commitment grades sky high and achievement much closer if not on target! Set him specific, measurable goals or even better get him to set himself targets.

Just want to say thank you all, I've got a terrible headache so that's why not been back and can only glance through remarks but all make me feel a little better following this initial upset/worry. Imagine it's really unfair to say the teachers are useless but at parents evening they all said lovely boy doing so well now settled and now this shock. Partly it's because he does not see the need to revise "it's just year 8" and while he is happy at school I have been feeling that that's what I need to concentrate on so stop myself from nagging too much. So many thanks again - all comments are probably appreciated more than you can realise right now.

I got ds's school to monitor him for specific things I wanted to be improved, and it worked. he had to have a form signed each lesson for the specific things being targetted.

As Roisin says get him to set some targets and revise them each half term or term. They need to be SMART targets
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time related

So over a half term he might have to read 3 books by authors new to him and rate them. These can also be related to school and specific subjects. Ds;s this week was to learn avoir and etre as he had year 9 exams and takes his IGCSE next year. We've been repeating them for days; he knows them; target ticked off.

Pixie - the exam results were in the 60% which in itself may mean very little but in his school rate him as below average in his year and for English he was 58% far below average. I am going to print this off so I can act on suggestions so thanks again.

Just to cheer you up and see that there is hope, ds has just come from school, and he got 96% in his chemistry exam. He really worked this week revising and it has paid off. He could also see the point, he wants to do triple science at GCSE, so needed the marks. They do grow out of the Year 8 dip bit, honest.

scaryteacher - WOW!

I want to see the rest of the results before I go Wow! but I was thrilled at his chemistry, especially as I failed O level and have a CSE Grade 2. I am always impressed when he tries to explain physics to me as well, given that I haven't done that since I was 13 and am now 44!

It can also be due to a particular teacher that maybe your ds doesn't like or vice versa; my ds is always more motivated when taught by some rather than others.

Yr 8 = generally not so good..especially boys!
If he's bright and even vaguely motivated, he will shift into another gear next year..or yr 10

Probably no consolation right now but my own DS, who is only averagely bright (sandwiched between two very able sisters) was a nightmare in yr 8, yr 9, moderately improved in yr 10 then slid again yr 11.. his teachers were despairing!
BUT in the end.. (and with me printing out past papers and nailing him to the table til he did them) he passed all of his GCSEs with perfectly decent grades! He NEVER read for pleasure..still doesn't, did the minimum he could get away with... but he still got there in the end

(mind you I am now totally grey......)