Querying Y9 maths set
Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 10:17 am
Some advice needed please - haven't had to deal with this before because dd1 is at a grammar school, but DD2 has been home educated all her life, and has just gone into Y9 in a comp. When the place was confirmed in the summer, they said to me that they would probably put her in the middle sets (for Maths, English, Science and Languages) and that they test regularly and do move students. I said then that she was good at Maths and that she had covered nearly half of the GCSE syllabus.
On Monday we went in to school to buy uniform and have a short chat, and I took in some Maths and Science KS3 SATS papers that I'd printed off the web and she'd done (on holiday. I'm not really a pushy mother from ****, honest) - she got about 97% on the level 5-7 Maths paper, and 90% on the 3-6 Science one. They said they would pass them along to the relevant heads of dept, and that her timetable hadn't been quite finalised yet.
Anyway, by Tuesday afternoon it had been, and she's had a normal couple of days since then. She does seem to be in middle sets for English, French (she has done no French ever - they told me they would put her in the bottom set!) and Spanish, but was in top set Science to her slight surprise. Which is fine. And then went to her first Maths lesson where she is again in a middle set.
I know the first lesson back is never going to be too demanding but she came home moaning about it being really easy and about lots of the class playing up. (They had a supply teacher so obviously worse!)
With the other subjects I'm happy that it will all be fine and that there's enough new stuff going on to keep her occupied. But I do know the Maths curriculum pretty well, as I tutor Maths privately and have had to get to know it! And obviously I know exactly what DD2 has done and that she has a good grasp of it. And I also know that if she has 3 hours a week of getting bored in Maths that she is going to hate it.
I'm also a bit worried because they stream them for the GCSE years, and she wants to get into the top stream, so I don't want to let this drift and then get told in February when they are choosing options that she can't be in the top stream because she's in the wrong maths set. But I do realise I might just be making up worries here! Am not normally a neurotic parent, lol, but am fretting a bit this week
So can I query this without seeming like a nightmare parent? Should I get in touch with someone straightaway or do I leave it to see whether they do have tests at halfterm and whether she does get moved? And who would be the best person to make first contact with? I was thinking her form tutor? Not that I have an email address for her.
On Monday we went in to school to buy uniform and have a short chat, and I took in some Maths and Science KS3 SATS papers that I'd printed off the web and she'd done (on holiday. I'm not really a pushy mother from ****, honest) - she got about 97% on the level 5-7 Maths paper, and 90% on the 3-6 Science one. They said they would pass them along to the relevant heads of dept, and that her timetable hadn't been quite finalised yet.
Anyway, by Tuesday afternoon it had been, and she's had a normal couple of days since then. She does seem to be in middle sets for English, French (she has done no French ever - they told me they would put her in the bottom set!) and Spanish, but was in top set Science to her slight surprise. Which is fine. And then went to her first Maths lesson where she is again in a middle set.
I know the first lesson back is never going to be too demanding but she came home moaning about it being really easy and about lots of the class playing up. (They had a supply teacher so obviously worse!)
With the other subjects I'm happy that it will all be fine and that there's enough new stuff going on to keep her occupied. But I do know the Maths curriculum pretty well, as I tutor Maths privately and have had to get to know it! And obviously I know exactly what DD2 has done and that she has a good grasp of it. And I also know that if she has 3 hours a week of getting bored in Maths that she is going to hate it.
I'm also a bit worried because they stream them for the GCSE years, and she wants to get into the top stream, so I don't want to let this drift and then get told in February when they are choosing options that she can't be in the top stream because she's in the wrong maths set. But I do realise I might just be making up worries here! Am not normally a neurotic parent, lol, but am fretting a bit this week
So can I query this without seeming like a nightmare parent? Should I get in touch with someone straightaway or do I leave it to see whether they do have tests at halfterm and whether she does get moved? And who would be the best person to make first contact with? I was thinking her form tutor? Not that I have an email address for her.