Low attendance at secondary school
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Low attendance at secondary school
My DD has come back from her grammar school saying that another pupil is hardly ever in class. It seems as if this child is away at least a couple of days a week. There's no suggestion of any illness - and the child doesn't bring in a note to explain the absence.
DD is asking how she should tackle this because she's concerned that the child doesn't have the chance to mix with the others in the class properly and build real friendships. It has crossed my mind that there are probably lots of other kids that would like this grammar school place if this child isn't able to take full advantage of it!
How would other tackle this? It's not the sort of school that normally has persistant truants!
DD is asking how she should tackle this because she's concerned that the child doesn't have the chance to mix with the others in the class properly and build real friendships. It has crossed my mind that there are probably lots of other kids that would like this grammar school place if this child isn't able to take full advantage of it!
How would other tackle this? It's not the sort of school that normally has persistant truants!
low attendance at secondary school
Not sure which area you are in Sterling but our DD2 has had quite a lot of absence from year 7 so far this year. The reason for this is that she has learny virtually nothing since september and we are fed up with her wasting her time, especially in maths. Last week's maths prep was given to an 8 year old who dealt with it easily for example.
We made excuses for the school for the first term and last term but have rather run out of patience as has DD2.
DD1 says she learnt nothing of importance before the middle of year 9 and is doing very well now.
DD2 spends a lot of time doing tests and assessments and comes top or nearly top in all of them but to quote one of Chris Woodhead's favourite proverbs "Nobody ever made a pig fatter by weighing it"!!!
The school are very helpful and suggest DD2 (and several others - she isn't some precocious genius!) could do extra work but it is a bit like saying "You are a very good teacher and have done really well so you can teach extra hours each week for no extra money!!"
DH who is a maths teacher confirms that the pace of work in years 7-11 is cripplingly slow as the standard demanded at GCSE is so easily reached by those of even average ability.
So, the child your DD talks about could be like our DD - could even BE our DD if you are in the Midlands! (do feel free to PM me) or it could be due to other problems at home.
Our DD does not want to be incarcerated at school doing very little when she could achieve the same and enjoy herself a lot more at home. We still think both our DD's deserve their places at Grammar school - they are described by teachers as a pleasure to teach, neither of them join in with the general "Bitchfest" at school and both of them produce academic results which are a credit to the school.
As J S Mill ( I think) said " An education must be good to justify depriving a child of its liberty".
We made excuses for the school for the first term and last term but have rather run out of patience as has DD2.
DD1 says she learnt nothing of importance before the middle of year 9 and is doing very well now.
DD2 spends a lot of time doing tests and assessments and comes top or nearly top in all of them but to quote one of Chris Woodhead's favourite proverbs "Nobody ever made a pig fatter by weighing it"!!!
The school are very helpful and suggest DD2 (and several others - she isn't some precocious genius!) could do extra work but it is a bit like saying "You are a very good teacher and have done really well so you can teach extra hours each week for no extra money!!"
DH who is a maths teacher confirms that the pace of work in years 7-11 is cripplingly slow as the standard demanded at GCSE is so easily reached by those of even average ability.
So, the child your DD talks about could be like our DD - could even BE our DD if you are in the Midlands! (do feel free to PM me) or it could be due to other problems at home.
Our DD does not want to be incarcerated at school doing very little when she could achieve the same and enjoy herself a lot more at home. We still think both our DD's deserve their places at Grammar school - they are described by teachers as a pleasure to teach, neither of them join in with the general "Bitchfest" at school and both of them produce academic results which are a credit to the school.
As J S Mill ( I think) said " An education must be good to justify depriving a child of its liberty".
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raceytracey
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low attendance at secondary school
Indeed you are quite right Guest 27. Many people in the former Eastern Bloc were equally concerned for their neighbours!!
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SunlampVexesEel
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- Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 9:31 pm
magwich2 - my dd attends a Kent grammar school for girls. She is a year 7 and from day one came home with a year 8 math text book to follow. Some topics can be easier than others of course, but generally it is very challenging.
In fact, in the Easter hols I showed her in WHSmith a Year 9 SATS paper for math which we both decided that her 10 year old brother could attempt a lot of! She is certainly not following a curriculum that an 8 yr old could deal with, like your children..how come both our DC attend grammars that follow different curriculums?
In fact, in the Easter hols I showed her in WHSmith a Year 9 SATS paper for math which we both decided that her 10 year old brother could attempt a lot of! She is certainly not following a curriculum that an 8 yr old could deal with, like your children..how come both our DC attend grammars that follow different curriculums?
low attendance at secondary school
I think that if I were to make sufficient fuss the school would undoubtedly do their best to help and to provide work from higher year groups but to what purpose?
What DDs and I want is more time to ourselves and as a family. We neither want nor need the free childminding offered by such long school hours and we would all prefer more challenging academic exams taken at the age of 16 in a maximum of 10 proper subjects - we could even call them "O" levels!!
What DDs and I want is more time to ourselves and as a family. We neither want nor need the free childminding offered by such long school hours and we would all prefer more challenging academic exams taken at the age of 16 in a maximum of 10 proper subjects - we could even call them "O" levels!!
‘There may well be reasons of a private/medical nature which may not be common knowledge’
Quite so.
Or perhaps she is very talented at a sport so is taking time off to pursue this. I know of several girls who are very good tennis players or hockey players who don’t attend school on what I would call a full-time basis.
Or perhaps she is a very talented musician (really not my area of expertise
)
Quite so.
Or perhaps she is very talented at a sport so is taking time off to pursue this. I know of several girls who are very good tennis players or hockey players who don’t attend school on what I would call a full-time basis.
Or perhaps she is a very talented musician (really not my area of expertise
)That's possible - one of the girls in my DD's year is an international-standard junior skier and spends months overseas training - but usually that sort of talent would have been celebrated in the school and would be well known.Rob Clark wrote: Or perhaps she is very talented at a sport so is taking time off to pursue this. I know of several girls who are very good tennis players or hockey players who don’t attend school on what I would call a full-time basis.
