I wouldn't attempt to tell you what to do as a parent but I will say one thing. It makes me very angry to think of a child of ten feeling that she is not good enough for what is clearly a better resourced or motivated educational setting. At ten years old I too failed a similar test in Gloucestershire (in 1979) which meant I could not go to the local grammar school and instead faced going to a very scruffy, demotivated school next door. My parents who were not in well paid jobs worked extremely hard to pay for me to go to the local independent girls school where I arrived thinking I was probably not bright enough to be there.
At about 15 years old something changed for me - I started to be more focused and could concentrate better and did well in my O levels. ... I went into the sixth form and gained 3 a grades in A levels and won a place to read English at Oxford University where I gained a good 2.1. This was the girl who like your daughter at 10 was labelled a failure. ...
Last year I took part in some research into dyscalculia, which is the maths equivalent of dyslexia. After 25 years of wondering why I always did so badly in 11 plus exams and number based exams I was told I had dyscalculia. Which explained to some degree my very low score in an exam at 10. It is completely inappropriate to make a snap judgement about children at this age unless you can guarantee that the education those children receive and the expectations that the teachers and school have of them is equal, whether or not they go to a grammar or a secondary school. ...
Charlotte H, London
Hey, are you on dyscalculiaforum.com? Lots of support :)
ReplyDelete