A family moved to Male in October and their daughter joined a grade nine class already two terms ahead of the school she had left.
The assessment was uncomfortable. In maths she was solid up to about grade seven and had missed most of grade eight, which meant the current work was unreachable. In science she was fine in biology and had never been taught chemistry as a separate subject.
The plan we wrote gave up on things on purpose, which is the part worth describing. There was not enough time to close the maths gap and keep pace with grade nine, so we chose the repair and let her fall further behind the class for a term, on the understanding that the examination year is what actually matters. In chemistry we started from the beginning. In biology we did nothing at all, because she did not need us and the money was better spent on the other two.
By the end of the following term she was at the class's level in maths and ahead of it in chemistry, having been eight months behind in October.
The decision we would defend most is the biology one. A centre that had enrolled her in three subjects would have made more money and she would have closed fewer gaps.
