I think I should have worded my question a bit differently. I'm not overly concerned about her school performance nor about her lack of direction. She has many great qualities and while she could do much better at school than she currently is, I have some strategies for encouraging her and I think things will work themselves out in the end. She's the sort of kid who will find her way and TBH after getting here as someone who didn't attend school, had taken drugs and was being taken off for weekly drug and alcohol tests, whose boyfriend was a drug dealer and who was very close herself to being put in juvenile detention ... I think she's doing pretty well and keeping her safe and out of trouble matters much to me than her being a stellar student.
What I'm trying to say is that I'm used to grades A-E being given throughout high school. That makes it pretty easy to tell how you're child is tracking. These days they're only given a Satisfactory or Not Satisfactory until they do a VCE subject and then it's A-E.
So Satisfactory or Not Satisfactory doesn't allow me to gauge very well whether she's in the top bit of Satisfactory (As and Bs equivalent) or the average/below average (Ds and Es). My interpretation from having looked at her report and taking into account the only A-E score she got (ie. the D) is that she's doing averagely. That's really all I'm after - help interpreting her results so that we have a realistic view of how she's going. I mean, look, I know that she's not going to get into medicine/law etc. that's commonsense but, not having been through the Australian school system, I had no idea whether average VCE results would get her into uni. Nor am I hellbent on getting her into uni, if that makes sense, I just don't want her to be thinking for the next two years that she's going to uni if she's way off the grade. It's really about giving her a realistic view of how she's going so SHE can understand what's going to be required of her. I think looking up the average VCE score (53.9) has helped me get a handle on it - that would basically mean that she would struggle to get into a lot of Melbourne-based unis and TBH that might be the greatest motivator I could ever use. If she knows that she might have to look at going to a regional uni, I think we might see a significant extra effort being put in. She won't be keen to leave the bright lights of Melbourne!
How does everyone else work out how their non-VCE child is doing? How d'you tell from the report? Or d'you base it more on what the teachers say?
So far her report - which continually says she doesn't keep up with her homework .
Talking to the teachers is still a good idea if you can swing it. Thats how I learnt that DD German teacher actually WAS a total biartch...and her maths teacher was quite a kind and helpful man...
I reckon talking to the teachers is the way to go even if it takes a while to organise, as you'd hope they'd have a good idea.
From my understanding, A levels are significantly tougher than VCE exams.
Gee, I was annoyed when we stopped putting plus and minus on the report cards. How can the parents possibly know how well they are really doing if it is just S or U on the report?
Sounds like you will have to speak to the teachers if you want details on her progress. Make sure you call either before or just after school or during lunch breaks so you are most likely to catch them, otherwise ask when that specific teacher has their spare lessons and call then. In my experience, as long as you aren't calling to abuse them about something then most teachers are happy to talk to you.
Do you know if there is a year level coordinator? Sometimes parents can just contact them and they can get all the teachers to give them the info you are after and get it to you.
Yep, it's a little frustrating because I don't go to the parent/teacher nights. I feel a little like that's overstepping the step-parenting boundaries - like I'm checking up on her, if that makes sense. So DP goes on his own. The teachers basically tell him that she's capable of good work but is easily distracted. Basically when she hands homework in, she does good/very good and when she doesn't, she does poorly. Not rocket science!!!
As I said, I've got a few things up my sleeve for encouraging/supporting her with the schoolwork side of things but I think she really needs a simple explanation of how she's going and I don't think the school is giving that to her. I've tried explaining the ENTER thing with a gymnastics analogy (she does gymnastics) - if you choose to do a vault with a triple pike and double somersault then that's a hard vault and even if you don't get it quite right you'll get a higher score than someone who attempts an easy-peasy vault but does it perfectly. Anyhow, I'm getting off-track - what I'm saying is that I think she's confuddled about the ENTER thing and I don't think she has any idea about what sort of ENTER score she's likely to get if she carries on with mediocre grades.
D'you think it would be accurate to say to her that if she gets Ds in all subjects, like she's currently doing in Biology, that she will find it very tough to get into any uni course? And that to be safe and to be able to keep her options open, she really needs to be aiming to lift her grades to more like a B for a 70 - 75ish ENTER?
I don't trust the school to be able to convey this to her simply in language she will understand which is why I'm trying to do it myself!
That (TER explanation) sort of makes sense in a very basic form. It changes from year to year as it depends what everyone else gets. When I did VCE, I got 87 with a B+ average.
I would say it anyway as motivation for her. Even look up the TER scores for the areas she thinks she may like to study and talk to the teachers (DH can do it) about what sort of grades shes looking at to get in to that sort of course
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