First marks of the school year: when should you really worry?

After six years of private tutoring, the reflex I find least useful is to start straight from the number: “he got 8, he needs to work harder.” A mark shows a result in a given situation. To know what to do next, you need to understand why the points were lost.

1. Why a first mark is not enough to draw conclusions

The first weeks of the school year can shift several reference points at once: a new teacher, new expectations, a different chapter, a faster pace or a change of school. This is particularly visible at a major transition, such as starting collège (lower secondary school). A literature review on the transition from primary to secondary school shows that, for some students, this transition can bring academic and psychological adjustments linked in particular to new expectations, new teachers and greater independence. The findings do, however, vary between students and contexts.

A mark at the start of the year should therefore be read as information, not as a verdict on future performance. The ministry itself uses national assessments at the start of the year to identify what students have learnt and what they need, in order to adapt support. The useful idea for a family is the same: an assessment serves first and foremost to show what needs strengthening.

Three questions before reacting to the mark

1. Is the mark consistent with the work done? A test that was barely prepared and one that was prepared seriously do not tell the same story.
2. Do the mistakes all concern the same skill? A targeted difficulty is often easier to deal with than a general lack of understanding.
3. Is this the first time, or is the same problem recurring? Repetition changes how much attention it deserves.

A 9/20 followed by a 14/20 after targeted correction does not mean the same thing as three successive assessments in which the same mistakes reappear despite regular work.

2. Analysing the nature of the mistake before talking about a “drop in level”

The marked paper is often more informative than the average. Two students can get 8/20 for opposite reasons.

What the paper shows	Hypothesis to check	Useful action
The lesson is not known	Insufficient learning or an ineffective memorisation method	Rethink how revision is organised and test recall without notes
The lesson is known but poorly applied	Difficulty choosing a method or transferring it	Do varied exercises and explain the choices made
Many calculation errors or careless mistakes	Working too fast, no checking, or a high cognitive load	Analyse precisely when the mistakes appear
Questions left blank at the end of the test	Time management needs work	Do a timed practice run
Correct answers orally but freezing during the assessment	Possible test stress, without jumping to conclusions	Compare several situations and talk with the student and the teacher

Our article on the signs that may justify private tutoring starts from the same idea: what matters is not one isolated poor mark, but the nature and persistence of the difficulty.

3. Spotting a trend across several assessments

A trend is not simply “the average is going down”. Look for what is repeated:

• the same chapters or types of task cause problems;
• the mistakes stay the same after correction;
• the student is working harder but the results are not moving;
• they need more and more help to do their homework, which suggests building independence step by step;
• the difficulties appear in several subjects that rely on the same skill, such as understanding instructions;
• marks pick up as soon as the working method is changed.

The ministry reminds families that following a child’s schooling does not rest solely on numerical results: parents must be regularly informed of their child’s results, progress and well-being, as part of a regular dialogue with the school. This notion of progress is important: a student may still have an average mark while some mistakes are disappearing and their independence is growing.

Which signs show that the situation is improving?

Even before a clear rise in the average, you may see:

• an instruction understood more quickly;
• fewer hints needed to get started;
• a recurring mistake that disappears;
• a better ability to explain the method;
• work prepared more regularly;
• more complete or better-organised papers.

These signs do not guarantee the next mark. They indicate that some of the causes of the problem are being addressed.

4. Distinguishing gaps, method and stress

When the first marks are low, three explanations often come up. They can also combine.

Gaps: a prerequisite is genuinely missing

The clearest sign is that the student cannot carry out a step that is supposed to have been learnt already. In maths, a new chapter can reveal long-standing difficulties with fractions, equations or algebraic expressions. In a language, a writing exercise can reveal that basic vocabulary or a basic grammatical structure is missing.

The answer is not necessarily to redo the whole of the previous curriculum. You need to identify the precise prerequisite that is blocking the current task.

Method: the student works, but not on the right activity

A student may spend time on their lesson without really checking what they can recall or apply. Rereading, highlighting and copying out produce visible activity, but they are not always enough to prepare for the type of task set in the test.

Revision then needs to be brought closer to the assessment: questions without notes, exercises without a model, written work, document analysis or practice runs. The problem is not necessarily a lack of willpower; it is sometimes a mismatch between the way of revising and what will be asked.

Stress: to be considered without using it as an automatic explanation

A meta-analysis of 238 studies on test anxiety found a negative association with various indicators of academic performance. The relationships observed are generally small to moderate and correlational: a poor mark therefore does not make it possible to diagnose an anxiety problem, and anxiety does not automatically explain a drop in results.

The signal becomes more worrying if the student describes a lasting fear of tests, repeated freezing or distress that goes beyond a single assessment. In that case, the discussion needs to widen beyond results alone and, if necessary, involve the appropriate professionals.

5. When should you contact the class teacher?

There is no need to wait for the termly school report if a difficulty remains hard to understand. The ministry explicitly recognises parents’ right to information and provides for regular dialogue with teachers; if there are difficulties, families can ask to meet with the school.

Getting in touch is particularly useful when:

• several assessments show the same problem;
• the student is working seriously but the family does not understand the gap with the results;
• the expectations or assessment criteria are unclear;
• the difficulties also appear in class or in homework;
• the student seems to need support that the family cannot define on its own.

Which questions should you ask?

Avoid “why did he get 8?” as your only question. Ask instead:

• which skills are currently the weakest?
• does the problem concern the lesson, its application or the method?
• do the same difficulties appear in class?
• what should be mastered as a priority in the coming weeks?
• what type of exercise would show progress?

The aim is not to dispute the mark, but to get enough information to decide what to do next.

Our guide to communication between parents and a private tutor rests on the same logic: talking on the basis of precise objectives and observations rather than piling up general impressions.

6. When should you consider outside support?

A private tutor is not necessary after the first poor mark. It becomes more relevant when a difficulty is identifiable and persistent, and when more individual support can help work on it.

The Education Endowment Foundation considers one-to-one tutoring a well-documented approach for targeted support, particularly when a student is struggling in specific areas. It also stresses that tutoring is more relevant when it is explicitly linked to classroom work and when needs are correctly identified. Results vary from one programme to another: this does not make it possible to promise higher marks to any given student.

In practice, consider support when several factors combine:

• the same block persists despite corrections in class;
• the student understands with a lot of help but cannot manage alone;
• homework regularly becomes a source of conflict or of dependence on an adult;
• working methods do not match the demands of the level;
• a specific objective requires targeted work: prerequisites, method, a chapter or preparing for an assessment.

Conversely, if the first low mark is clearly explained by a poorly prepared test and the next one picks up, immediately adding regular support may be disproportionate.

Choosing a tutor based on the real problem

The right criterion is not just the subject. You need to be able to put the need into words: “difficulties with proportionality problems”, “lesson learnt but poorly applied”, “shaky essay method”, “needs to become more independent in organising work”.

On NOEO, the Our tutors page lets you browse profiles and also offers a questionnaire focused on the student’s level, objectives, difficulties and availability to guide the search. Being put in touch and exchanging with tutors is free; the family only pays for the sessions it books.

7. A four-week action plan

When the first marks are disappointing but there is no particular urgency, four weeks is a good practical timeframe for observing change. It is not a scientific period at the end of which you absolutely must reach a conclusion: it is simply long enough to put an action in place, get new pieces of work and compare.

Week	Objective	Action	What you observe
1	Understand	Reread the marked papers, classify the mistakes, talk with the student.	The precise nature of the difficulties.
2	Correct	Go back over one or two priority points with a different method if needed.	Can the student redo it with less help?
3	Test	Set exercises or questions without a model.	Do the mistakes come back outside the initial context?
4	Decide	Compare new papers, independence and regularity.	Carry on alone, contact the teacher or consider targeted support.

What should trigger a faster response

There is no point waiting four weeks when academic difficulties come with a marked change in behaviour, school refusal, lasting distress or a situation of bullying. The ministry encourages families to talk with the school’s education staff and, in the case of problems or changes in mood or behaviour, with the school’s social and health staff.

In that case, the question goes beyond “how do we raise the average?”. Private tutoring may address a specific academic need, but it does not replace the professionals who are qualified to deal with other difficulties.

Reacting to first marks without adding needless pressure

A parent can be worried while still avoiding turning every result into a judgement. Start by asking your child to talk you through the test: “what did you find difficult?”, “where did you lose time?”, “what did you know how to do?”. This conversation often gives you more than “why did you only get 9?”.

Also avoid immediately comparing with the previous year, a brother, a sister or the class average. A comparison does not explain the cause of the mistake. Look instead for the next observable behaviour: redoing the exercise alone, learning the next chapter differently, asking the teacher for clarification or managing time better in the test.

The ministry’s resources published for the start of the 2026 school year emphasise a regular, constructive and calm dialogue between families and the school system. That is a good guideline at home too: following results, yes; turning every mark into a family event, no.