advice re ks3 results and mock gcse foundation paper

carebear13

my 14yr old acheived a 6c in his ks3 sats but has just missed out on a 'c' in his mock gcse foundation paper that has been used to find out where to place him in yr 10. is that about the right level- do they tally up. or should he have achieved a better score based on his key stage mark. have got a meeting with the principal tomorrow to discuss lots of things about the school, but just want to know if our expectations are unrealistic or not.

daisiegg

carebear13 wrote: »

my 14yr old acheived a 6c in his ks3 sats but has just missed out on a 'c' in his mock gcse foundation paper that has been used to find out where to place him in yr 10. is that about the right level- do they tally up. or should he have achieved a better score based on his key stage mark. have got a meeting with the principal tomorrow to discuss lots of things about the school, but just want to know if our expectations are unrealistic or not.

Er, what subject are you talking about?

From my experience with English I'd say that sounds about right. 6c is fairly low for the end of KS3 (there are no 'KS3 SATs' btw...)

daisiegg

Just wanted to add, a mock paper used at the start of Y10 as a baseline test won't necessarily indicate how he will do by the end of Y11, as he still has 2 years of teaching left. We do this in our school and I teach top set Y10 English and some of my pupils got E grades in this initial test but I know full well they will get at least Bs by the end of Y11 if not higher.

But it would help replies if we knew what subject you are talking about

carebear13

oops sorry- it's maths and its 6a not c, - it was the teacher assessment thingy for ks3 if that helps?

thanks.

daisiegg

carebear13 wrote: »

oops sorry- it's maths and its 6a not c, - it was the teacher assessment thingy for ks3 if that helps?

thanks.

Sorry, can't help with maths! Hopefully someone will be along who can.

Savvy_Sue

One question to ask the school: is the child showing a lack of understanding or a lack of application? In English DS3 got a C at the end of year 10 and a D in his mocks, simply because he was barely attempting the exam, but staring around the room because he was 'bored'. Rocket applied to backside ... but he had to hear it from the school that even if they allowed him into the 6th form without English they'd ask him to leave if he failed the resit, so he might as well just get on with it!

BTW, they sent him home with some foundation and some higher papers to do at home, to work out which level to enter him at, that could be useful.

susancs

We were told in a options meeting by daughter's school that to do the higher tier paper in most subjects (top and second top set) you usually need to have attained a grade 7 at the end of KS3.

carebear13

Thank you for the advice and info.
not sure whether its understanding or application- bit of both probably.
in high school he is in the middle set for maths and apart from a couple of problem areas wasdoing okay with a bit of 'encouragement'. what does concern me though is that apparently they were given the option of doing the higher or foundation paper in class, they all only managed to do half of it during the lesson, so on the following monday they had to finish it, but he wasnt in that day and when he next had maths again his teacher had apparently decided that instead of giving the rest of the paper to do, she was going to grade him according to the half he had done and that he acheived a 'd'- how can a teacher do that!!
acrossthe board he seems to be doing ok (according to teacher assessment @ks3) eng 6a,maths6a,science 7c,ict 6c, and the rest of the subjects are a mixof 6,a,b,c.
he wants to do a very technical job and needs good grades in core subjects, and i'm worried that if they only expect him to be capable of the foundation paper that they will be teaching him at a level less than he is capable of.
we have chosen to put him in a studio school (academy) rather than normal route as they specialise in engineering and am now very worried we have done the wrong thing. we have got a meeting with the principal this afternoon and there is a parent eveing next week so am hoping i will get some reassurance.
i will definetley be asking for copies of foundation and upper gcse papers though for him to do at home, and if i cant get them from the school then hopefully i'll find something online.

Apologies for the long post, and i hope a dont come across as one of those parents who thinks their child is cleverer than they really are, it's just really frustrating to think that it's all a huge balls up.

SmallL

Id like to point out that in most schools 'sets' are flexible.
On my GCSE mock i got a C which placed me in the bottom set, i went to that set and was moved to the 3rd (out of 4) set as i clearly did not belong in the bottom. If your child does do better in classes rather than this mock the teachers will see it and move him/her accordingly.

Also you say he wants to do a technical job? I wouldnt push him about his career at this age, let him do what hes interested in with minimal guidance. My OH's parents though he wanted to become a doctor but in reality he just didnt say otherwise to appease them. Your son could be anything at the moment, choices dont really affect you until a-levels.

EDIT: I ended up getting a strong A in mathematics, mocks are a really bad indication.

susancs

SmallL wrote: »

Id like to point out that in most schools 'sets' are flexible.
On my GCSE mock i got a C which placed me in the bottom set, i went to that set and was moved to the 3rd (out of 4) set as i clearly did not belong in the bottom. If your child does do better in classes rather than this mock the teachers will see it and move him/her accordingly.

Also you say he wants to do a technical job? I wouldnt push him about his career at this age, let him do what hes interested in with minimal guidance. My OH's parents though he wanted to become a doctor but in reality he just didnt say otherwise to appease them. Your son could be anything at the moment, choices dont really affect you until a-levels.


EDIT: I ended up getting a strong A in mathematics, mocks are a really bad indication.

Movement between sets studying for GCSEs is not flexible anymore as the top set usually cover coursework at a faster pace and take exams earlier than lower sets in a lot subjects. A student who is moved up a set after a GCSE course started would usually not have covered enough work to allow them to keep up. For example in AQA GCSE triple and double Science, both groups study the same first module but the triple group take their exam after three months of study and the double study it for nine months before taking their exam. Top sets in Mathematics take exams early to allow them to concentrate on the extra statistics GCSE they do.

SmallL

susancs wrote: »

Movement between sets studying for GCSEs is not flexible anymore as the top set usually cover coursework at a faster pace and take exams earlier than lower sets in a lot subjects. A student who is moved up a set after a GCSE course started would usually not have covered enough work to allow them to keep up. For example in AQA GCSE triple and double Science, both groups study the same first module but the triple group take their exam after three months of study and the double study it for nine months before taking their exam. Top sets in Mathematics take exams early to allow them to concentrate on the extra statistics GCSE they do.

It must have changed recently, im only 20!
Besides the teacher should accomodate a quicker learner in the class and i dont see any reason why he wouldnt achieve his potential.