Thirteen year old's declining performance

[questforbest]

Hi all,

My son just completed his end of year eight exams and I must admit he didn’t perform his best in it. He is lacking concentration a lot lately. He is usually good in maths but lately due to lack of concentration his grades are suffering. Any parent with same kind of experience. He is thirteen now. Not sure if it’s the age thing and will phase away. Any advise at all?

[Guest55]

Each child is an individual and they do not progress in a straight line. [Ofsted please note!]

Is he bored at school? Year 8 can be a bit flat as GCSEs seem ages away and hormones are beginning to kick in.

Why not go an look round a uni or try to find something he is interested in as a career so he realises for himself that school is a stepping stone.

[KB]

Traditionally year 9 was the tricky year with them feeling confident at school, hormones kicking in and GCSEs not yet looming. Perhaps he's just a bit ahead of it!
Worth trying to distinguish if its lack of motivation v any other problems.
Lack of motivation is a well known issue especially with teenage boys!
Atm I'm with Guest in using carrot rather than stick and help him see a point to the studying.
Frankly though year 8 may not have been that important for him. It is a marathon not a sprint so better he has a lull now than in year 10/11.

[ToadMum]

The 'visit a university' idea might be worth a try; it is coming to the end of the formal open day season for this year (and places are often limited, so it would be unfair on others as well as irrelevant to his stage of education to book onto one of these anyway, imho), but some universities at least still have campus tours in the summer, or you may be able to pick up maps etc for a self-guided tour. And yes, it will only be the enthusiastic (and remunerated in some way) students who show you round, but at this stage, that is exactly what you want. Accentuate the positive, as they say . If you are within sensible travelling distance of UEA on the outskirts of Norwich, for example, the campus is pretty stunning and even the concrete sort of grows on you.

I don't know what your DS's interests are, or where you are based, but if he is interested in design / architecture, we are also into the 'summer show' season. This week it is Central St Martin in London - 12-8 today and 12-5 over the weekend - but no doubt a few others, too.

[kenyancowgirl]

Ask if they have revisited the exams as part of their recent class work and if he knows where he went wrong? It may be that he does not know how to revise - in Y7 the exams are really relatively easy and only testing one year of work - some of which will be repetition from Y6, so he may have done OK in those based on his memory. Y8 covers two years work and will be more in depth - relying on memory alone won't cut it, so if he doesn't understand how to revise, he may have fallen foul of that. Don't just assume that everyone knows how to revise - different people use different strategies - most schools offer some sort of session on how best to revise in the lead up to GCSEs so ask your school when it is. And, if it is none of these, it could well be that he has reached a period of plateau - it happens and he will learn at a different rate again in teh future but in the mentime encourage him, check his understandng, encourage him to see teachers if he doesn't understand a topic and yes try adn inspire him with thoughts of the future.

[questforbest]

Thanks a lot all for your help. Had a very long and good chat with him last night. Yes its true he need to understand and build up strategies for revising so much more than he ever had to before and he need to concentrate on topics/subjects he is not very keen on as well. This gave him bit of a jerk so lets hope for the best

[KS10]

To be honest, I have seen teachers rush through work because of the course content and then not do any lessons on how to revise. The Learning Support team then get frantic emails for teachers saying that so-and-so isn't keeping up and could we do something about it. It drives me mad! Knowing how to revise is such an important skill - why do some teachers think it doesn't need to be taught? (Obviously, not all teachers but in my experience far too many.)