Granddaughter is disengaged from schoolwork

Ellianne that's something that worries me. My GS has always done better in exams than his teacher predictions. Don't know what will happen, he's doing A levels. I do know DS is aware of the problem and will challenge the teachers if he's not happy.

Just like Lucca said, " how do you make the horse drink?" You can put every device, book, worksheet you like in front of some teenagers, involve their house mistress, pay for private tuition but when the stubborn, contrary madam won't accept help and support what is to be done?
Too much pressure can often have the opposite effect.

Ellianne far from stubborn or contrary my GD is feeling disconnected from her support of friends and teachers and overwhelmed by it all as I’m sure are many more yr11 and yr13s.

Cabbie it's the Head of Year's jobto ensure good outcomes for their cohort.
The HoY will also have a pastoral team.
(I am a secondary school teacher, I specifically teach children with SEN.)

trisher

Ellianne that's something that worries me. My GS has always done better in exams than his teacher predictions. Don't know what will happen, he's doing A levels. I do know DS is aware of the problem and will challenge the teachers if he's not happy.

That sounds just like my eldest son trisher. He always performed very well in exams but wasn't interested in giving of his best and impressing his teachers in class. The masters who didn't know him underestimated him totally and gave him average Cs.

tanith

Ellianne far from stubborn or contrary my GD is feeling disconnected from her support of friends and teachers and overwhelmed by it all as I’m sure are many more yr11 and yr13s.

Yes tanith they all struggle in different ways (the stubborn, contrary quote by the way was my own DD not your DGD). It all amounts to the same thing though ....... the assessment grades (or exam results) will suffer. I wish I knew the answer

Ellianne apologies I misunderstood you ?

No worries tanith, you have brought it all back to me like yesterday!
They all level out eventually.

What does she want to do when she leaves school?

Could discussing her options and what qualifications she will need motivate her?

If nothing works, point out that neglecting her school work will come back to bite her in the bum, then leave it.

At sixteen we were all rebels and quite capable of cutting off our noses to spite our faces, weren't we?

Her mother should of course write back to the school and tell them that she has tried to get her daughter to do her school work, but that madam is not listening.

trisher makes some good points about the links between creativity and dyslexia. As trisher says, even 'mile' dyslexia leaves children struggling to organise their work and school life.
tanith says her granddaughter feels disconnected and overwhelmed. That isn't being stubborn or rebellious, or cutting her nose of to spite her face. The pressures on that generation are grim aren't they. Isolated in their bedrooms, working from home with none of the ordinary school life they may grumble about but are missing now.
There are a lot of mindfulness and physical activity/yoga type classes on line now. I wonder if something like that may help, especially if school friends join in on zoom.

Cabbie21 I don’t think it is right to say don’t pressurise the students, they need to keep up. I agree that there are various ways and means of support, but the girl needs to be willing to engage with them.
Sorry but this is exactly the attitude that caused my DS to be out of school from the age of 14. Fortunately he had me (a teacher) to support him and a lot of other support from out of school people who recognised his abilities. Otherwise he might have been one of the hundreds of dyslexics who finiish up in prison. It is the professional's job to engage with the child and find ways to do so. The responsibility is theirs, unfortunately the child often suffers the consequences of their failure.

“ The pressures on that generation are grim aren't they. Isolated in their bedrooms, working from home with none of the ordinary school life they may grumble about but are missing now.”
Absolutely and this is why I kind of say that messing up gcse this year does not need to spell disaster long term.
Lots of good helpful suggestions here but I’d say a kind grandmother keeping in touch but maybe chatting about other stuff could be useful.

Cabbie. Easier said than done. My son was resistant to every form of inducement from me, from his teachers, from his father.....and that was without a pandemic.

She is 16. What does she want to do next year? Surely not re-sit her GCSEs. Presumably she wants to do to college/6th form to do something creative. The only other alternative is an apprenticeship. (If she doesn't get the right grades for English & Maths, she will have to re-sit them, regardless of what she does.) She will have to have an interview for any of those 3.

My honest opinion, as an experienced Y11 form tutor, is take out £50 cash. Write down how many pieces of work she is behind for each subject. Sit down (or Face Time) with her (Amazon open in front of you), and with the cash and the list of missing work in front of you. Ask her what Art stuff she'd like to buy. OK so what is she prepared to do for your £50?

Good luck.

It’s all been said Chardy she seems quite resigned if she has to do resits so be it. She was given copious amounts of art stuff for Christmas I’m glad she has her art as a distraction. She really isn’t impressed with money offers so that won’t work. I’m going to do what I do best just be her Grandma.

I feel so sorry for teenagers.. such a tough 'growing up 'time for them and so much emphasis os put on one off exams, rather than the concept of on-going education, that now GCSE/Alevels are cancelled it has taken purpose away from many. If the approach had been continuous assessment of work plus an exam score then it would feel less futie. However teachers will be using course work now to inform them of the grades they will submit to the exam boards. Howthose grades are used eventually is still unknown.

I would send her a treat of some sort , tell her you love her to pieces and how can you help her get the best outcome at the end of the school year?. Good luck

Helpfully, the Times today had a very short paragraph about this, the main points of which I will list. They called it GCSE/A-level deflation and suggested ways to address it.
1. Exams are a rite of passage and the culmination of the time spent preparing for them. Many students feel it's not worth it as the 'finishing line' has disappeared. However, not to finish with your cohort carries its problems too (my observation).
2. Validate their feelings and recognise it's hard at that age to maintain motivation. Ofen helping them with a plan and breaking the work up into small chunks helps. They can see an 'end'. Emphasis that grades achieved are still grades even if not delivered in the exam hall.
3. Try to focus on the fact that what is certain is that they will leave with grades and working for better grades is a good idea.

You are probably not able to be with your GD at this time but you could encourage via online conversations - e.g. you tackle that essay and I'll clear out that cupboard I meant to last lockdown. After 45 minutes we'll compare progress.

I'm a retired teacher, and my betting is that many of her friends are doing more than they say. They just want to follow the crowd.

If you know the subjects and exam boards you can look up online how they award the marks for each grade, what they expect in a piece of work. That can be a real motivator. They often haven't a clue, no matter how often you tell them in class. Be careful though, you do have to know Board, Syllabus number, units entered etc. For the Art and DT knowing what they expect would be useful.
If the school is doing what it should the work set by the exam teachers should reflect this. Many students were caught out last year but motivated schools set extra work to help them with grades.

Good luck with it. A hard task but worth the reward. And, as many have said, not the end of the road if grades do not reflect her true ability.

Isn't this something her parents are supposed to manage?

Hithere if you read all the posts you will understand the difficulties.

Dear Tanith, my son was exactly like this, made an awful mess of his A levels, scraped into the wrong university course and then dropped out of university to our despair. However, after a few months in an awful dead-end job he found his feet and now works really hard at a job he loves. So all is not lost of your DGD does not do well in her exams. She will find her way.

Don't despair. Even if she keeps refusing to engage and do the work it's not a lifelong disaster. I absolutely hated school and skipped as many classes as I could, leaving school at 15 with no qualifications. I bumbled through jobs like being a shop assistant until I was 26, then decided to return to education and got A's in my O levels and Highers (not sure what those are called now). Then went on to do another course, and ended up a qualified Social Worker. So there's plenty of light at the end of her tunnel. (p.s. a good friend with dyslexia had a similar educational background to me, but decided to do F.E. - eventually she ended up with a 1st in Podiatry from a University here in Scotland.)

Hithere

Isn't this something her parents are supposed to manage?

Harsh. For example read my post, as a teacher myself I couldn’t sort out my own son. OP. Is not asking to take over from parents just asking how she can help. Or is that not allowed Under your regime?

posh paws, your journey through school, various different jobs and finally to University for a vocational (and academically demanding) qualification mirrors that of so many good social workers. Lots of varied life experience and moving into that area of work that needs exactly that

There's too much pressure put on children to get the right grades. My son really struggled at school - it later turned out he had undiagnosed autism and the teaching methods were never going to work for him. He believed the teachers whose job is to tell the kids they'll never get a good job without 5 good GCSEs etc. Consequently when he failed all his GCSEs he thought his life was over. The good news is he now has a rewarding job and also got a degree through Open University.
Most of his fellow students from school who'd been written off at school are now running successful businesses.

Above all else, Tanith, don't worry. Despite my nagging, all my three did the absolute bare minimum - my daughter tells me now that she truanted a lot! It's just that with the possibility of checking online login individual non-involvement stands out. All three went to university - my daughter to study Law! They have good well-paid jobs and are happily married. Your GD is just being a normal teenager.