am I being unrealistic?

[tabulahrasa]

DS is 14, nearly 15 in S3 (Scotland) so sitting his Standard Grades next year in mainstream, he has AS and a speech disorder, complicated by hypermobility and hypotonia which affects his writing massively.

I don't know how much people know about Standard grade, so say if it's not straightforward (unless you're one of the Scottish posters of course, lol)

anyway... he's sitting at about a 4 for English, he's just about to start with a tutor because I feel he needs some extra time and he's not getting it at school, his teacher has done the Foundation past papers with him and is about to start General (just had a parent's evening)with a view towards putting him in the Credit exam, he may well end up sitting Foundation in the end, but for fairly obvious reasons English is not his strong point.

He's Credit level (mostly 1's at that) in Biology, Chemistry, Computing and Business Management, all well and good.

Maths, however... it was always among his stronger subjects, much better than English, but last year it wasn't fantastic, this year, he's sitting on a 4 His teacher seemed quite happy with this and was telling me his test marks (about 90% pass marks for General ones) and that he's top of (admittedly a middle set)the class, when I asked if he was looking at sitting a Credit paper, he said no, Foundation, then Intermediate 2 and possibly Higher in 6th year, not 5th

My god this is long, lol.

Anyway, I'm a bit worried that he is now looking to be getting the same or better mark in English, which I know he struggles with as Maths which he never has done before, especially given that he's doing so well at other Math-type subjects (yes I know they're a bit different, but you know what I mean)

I need to speak to his guidance teacher soon about something completely unrelated, I want to bring it up with him, but past experience with his school has taught me that I'll need to really force the issue if I want it looked into - so am I right to be a bit about his Maths progress or have I just taken against the teacher because he spoke to DP and ignored me completely and suggested that I give DS handwriting worksheets with zig zag lines and stuff on them to do (which are obviously magic ones if they'll work better than years of support for learning and OT )

I'd be a bit worried if his best subject? has plateaued so much. I'm in England so I don't understand the grades, but foundation means he can only achieve a fairly average final result at best? Do you want to push for the credit paper? Will that give a chance for higher grade?

Is it just a poor teacher this year? That can affect DC a lot.

Could he do foundation paper and then do resit on credit paper if he does well. No point in insisting on credit if he might just fail it I suppose.

Can you afford to tutor in Maths as well to get him over the plateau?

Sorry if not much help.

it's the fact that he was always better at it that's worrying me

he's had the same teacher two years running and I was vaguely worried last year at his lack of progress

basically they sit two exams, everyone sits General - then they do either Credit or Foundation, Credit's a 1 or 2, general a 3 or 4 and Foundation a 5 or 6

so if you sit Foundation (and General) the best you can possibly get is a 3 - the numbers seem to fit the letter grades you'd get for GCSE, so effectively he can't possibly get over a C (ish, lol)

yep the Int 2 is effectively a resit, it's a course they invented to bump up the marks before going on to higher (which is instead of A level)

So he'd still get there, just like I said, it's more the lack of progress that's bothering me- which when I put it like that, it is worth moaning about isn't it?

I could get him a tutor, I'm a bit loathe to though, partly because the English one is someone I went to Uni with (she's an English teacher) and she knows him and more importantly he knows her...

I don't know how well it would work with a stranger

that's why I posted in here rather than in education, lol, he's not gifted or anything - but he's pretty bright, but he still has AS and it does affect him

I would put priority on puting maths back on track. Especially getting at the bottom of why progress slowed down. Is it the teacher, environment (some ASD do well in GSCE but poorly in Alevels because its more self directed). Or is it level of abstraction? Maths is mostly about practice. Can you buy books and practice with him?

I am not sure that helps though

Rereading your posting the maths teacher seems in denial of his obligation to understand and meed DS needs (but that's too agressive, sory )

I've subtly asked him about the teacher ( I must admit he rubbed me up the wrong way, but I thought I'd ask, lol) and he likes him and he's not moaned about that class - which makes me think it's not likely to be the teacher or environment because if he was bored or it was noisy he'd say so (his two biggest moans, lol) and he's still at the being fairly heavily taught stage.

I've not grilled DS about his maths because his teacher's just told him that he's doing well and he's top of the class, I'm not about to knock that from under him, lol

He's doing pretty well at what he's being taught - I suspect that because he's top of that class his teacher thinks that's good enough, where I think he should be doing better than that set, so no, no specific areas that he's falling down in.

I can of course get him stuff to do at home, but if he's not entered for the exam then it's not going to help...

The English tutor is less because I'm worried about his exam marks and more just because I know he needs support with it, I've always known he was going to need support with it - communication not being his strong point, lol.

The more I think about it, the more I think that I'm going to have to talk to his guidance teacher and go from there, because I'm really not happy at his lack of progress and it won't matter what I do if the school don't agree with me.

Cheers

Hi i use o live in fife so understand the system what schools he at? I would def question it but then also got to think that better he passes the general and foundation than fails the credit paper. I took foundation maths and got a 4 but I was rubbish at maths if your lad is good at it then push for the credit paper. I truly hated maths and still got the 4 so I'm sure he could do better than me :)