dip in year 9 results, normal for boys, or worrying?

[Amber]

They did Amber, I remember marking tests in the early 1990s - they were national tests but marked by schools. It was not for my own class but for another teacher who was ill.

OK I stand corrected. I know that the externally marked ones only lasted a few years until there was some kind of marking fiasco with a foreign company. Personally I would scrap all end of key stage tests and GCSEs as well, so the demise of national testing at any level would not have caused me to weep into my soup.

[Guest55]

It was about saving money. The decision to scrap them came out of the blue and I remember it particularly because I was at a meeting that day and we'd talked about the tests. They did continue to be produced for a few years after 2008 but few schools bought them [we didn't because they stopped producing the level 5 to 8 paper].

The KS3 maths questions were actually very good and better than GCSE in those days.

The tests were used to try to address the 'KS3 dip' and so in those days schools were judged on KS2 to KS3 progress as well as KS3 to KS4.

Back on topic, I agree that a Year 9 dip is nothing to be concerned about.

[Amber]

The tests were used to try to address the 'KS3 dip' and so in those days schools were judged on KS2 to KS3 progress as well as KS3 to KS4.

The KS3 dip would only go away if there were to be a radical and creative restructuring of the entire secondary school curriculum.

For anyone interested in the demise of the tests, here are links from a left and a right-leaning newspaper:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... s-scrapped" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/p ... ision.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Amber]

It was about saving money. The decision to scrap them came out of the blue

Not sure it did...if you read both of those reports there had indeed been a marking fiasco as well as lots of contractual problems with the American providers. Not important now though...and only one lot of SATs left to abolish.

ETA my son saw the title of this thread and laughed out loud. 'Nobody works in Year 9'. I don't post about my own children but I can reassure you that he ended up doing OK.

[Guest55]

The 'fiasco' was over-blown by people with an agenda [no problem with that!] - my DS sat them that year and it was only a delay in English in some schools. English tests were notorious for poor marking; we sent them back every year.

[FunkyMonkey]

This happened with my older son who 2 years later has done pleasingly well in his gcses.
My younger son has steadily risen in the ranks.
Younger one is apparently less talented or rather his talents or latent and actually useful for exams.
Point is, different people have different approaches.
Me and my wife and older son argued about devices. He spent hours playing fortnite even in the height of revision season.
He did not revise much for mocks and did poorly. We said if he just makes more effort and raises the grade in each subject by one grade in the proper exams then he will do well enough.

This made sense to him and he did do that and his grades were nearly all one bettet than his mocks and in some cases even better.

He only got a B in his weaker, meaningless to him, subjects...Biology and R.E.

[Eccentric]

My DD hasn't taken her GCSEs yet but she has completed year 10. She now laughs at herself for getting so wound up about years 7, 8 and 9. She also now understands the need for consolidation which was a problem for her in year 7 and 8. I am sure she will laugh at herself for getting equally wound up about GCSEs and then also about A Levels.

The reality is that none of it really matters except getting a C/level 4/5 in Maths and English because they can always do a subject specific access course after they have left school to get into University anyway. Most people don't realise that you can go straight on to do an MA as a mature student in many cases without even GCSE to your name let alone an A level or an undergrad degree all you have to do is show that you can cope academically. Our young people are under so much pressure and certainly in my opinion year 9 results don't matter.

[Amber]

+1 Eccentric

Once they have done their A levels they laugh at how easy GCSEs were, even though at the time they moaned about the workload. I think A levels might be as hard as it gets though, as once you get beyond that a lot of what you choose to do is self-determined.

A teacher friend was celebrating last week as he doesn't have any lessons with year 9 this year. Calls it 'desperate stuff' and 'not for the faint hearted'. And he teaches in an all girls grammar school, so we can forget the gender and ability stereotypes as well!

[marigold]

+1 re mature students.

I work with someone who had rather rocky teenage years, had a baby at 18 and is now doing an MSc. She is sailing through and got 100% in two modules a couple of weeks ago.

[ConfusedAylesburyMum]

My ds has just gone into Year 10 (at an all boys gs). Last year his effort codes and attitude to learning were shockingly bad (Yr 8 wasn’t a huge amount better). Loads of homework letters, detentions (for petty reasons) and issues with school. It was a bad, bad year for us all.

However, he kept saying that when he hit year 10, he would start putting in the effort and working.

I know it’s only 2 weeks in but so far so good - he is keeping to his word and is even getting merit marks from teachers who last year thought he was a nightmare. He is also generally a much nicer person at home too.

Let’s hope it lasts!!