Apathy in students

[Rory786]

Hi everyone,

Any tips for teaching secondary school pupils who are low ability and unmotivated?

Giving them a taste of success.

Making them feel valued.

Taking an interest in them as people not just as pieces of failing data.

@noelgiraffe

Love it! Thank you so much.

Have a read of motivated teaching by Peps Mcrea. Nothing earth shattering or revolutionary in it but some of the strategies have helped my classes.

Consistency and routine along with feeling success helps. It's a gradual shift rather than an overnight change.

I have a foundation year 10 group (targets of grades 1-3).

I find that relentless positivity and praise really help. Clear, achievable tasks so that they experience success -I use a lot of backward fading to help with this.

When they do assessment, I link their grade to their target - most will get a 1 or 2 in assessment so I point out that they are hitting their end of KS4 target which is amazing and that they can make even more progress by Y11.

Many in classes like these have little confidence in their ability so they need to know that we have faith in them.

You need to be consistent. It’s taken me over a year to get my unmotivated Year 11s on board(-ish). They had been “abandoned” by their previous teacher and talked down to.
Relentless praise, facilitating success and showing an interest beyond the classroom. It was, and is, hard work.

Don't give up on them even when they give up on themselves. I've just had a lad move into my year 10. He's got a rap sheet for behaviour as long as your arm and he's failing at everything. I sent mum an email
after lesson 2 praising him for trying. He couldn't believe it. Now he tries more often.
Breaking things down and repeating them over and over and over til it sticks. We will gone over each exam question that they'll get dozens of times (it's easy because in English we already know the questions) so they see themselves getting better.
It's hard work.

I have great success with the lower groups. I actually prefer teaching them. I've always been very honest and told them that yes we (I always say "we" because we are a team) have a way to go but we are hard workers and we will always be able to improve. I value every contribution. I always value every tiny step forward. I greet them with a smile and enthusiasm every day, even when I feel like utter shit. I have high expectations of work ethic.

Lower sets are fantastic, if you can get them on side

Thank you everyone for all your fantastic points. I will be in charge of a small English intervention group after Christmas. I cannot wait to get started with them.

Good luck. If they're my y11, you'll need it 🤣

@MrsChristmasHamlet

Year 9's- lots of time to catch up and fill in those gaps.