Any English Lit GCSE and A level teachers able to advise me please?

[EngineDriverInABunnySuit]

We are expats and my child is about to sit Cambridge board English Language IGCSE. He is predicted a very comfortable A, with high hopes of an A*

Up until this academic year his school has not offered English Lit at GCSE as the majority of children had English as a second language so were taking EASL at IGCSE. However in September 2015 they started Eng Lit IGCSE with this year's Y10 cohort.

First question: He has a provisional offer at a boarding school in the UK for sixth form (his current school does not offer A levels) and we are having to choose his AS/A2 subjects now. Would he be considered a suitable candidate for A level Eng Lit, having not studied it at GSCE? Even if they agreed to allow it would he be hugely disadvantaged, having never done it before?

Next question, He is the youngest child in his year group (late August baby) and in the event that his grades are not good enough to take up his boarding school place I am considering asking that he repeats the whole of year 11 at his current school rather than doing a handful of rushed re-sits alongside studying for AS levels, so he can really benefit from a whole year's extra teaching in the things he finds tough, ie. maths, science and MFL.

Do you think would be possible for him to go into Y11 and sit the English Lit IGCSE in one year, alongside the new Y11 cohort, given that he'd only be doing about three or four re-sits in subjects? Obviously it would be tricky as the rest of the class would be working on the latter part of the syllabus so I'm not sure how it could work, but it seems like a wasted opportunity not to try, especially as English is his strongest subject. What about some distance learning/home ed with some supplementary support and guidance from his teacher at school?

What are your thoughts on both questions? Many thanks in advance.

[EngineDriverInABunnySuit]

bump as all the teachers are probably still at work

[noblegiraffe]

I would be highly dubious about resitting Y11. I don't know about your DS's school but I can't imagine they'd want to offer it as an option, otherwise where's the incentive to do your best first time around? Instead I would go all out to get him the grades he needs this time. What is his offer? Can you get tutors in on the vital subjects? Easter revision classes?

[EngineDriverInABunnySuit]

Of course we will be going all out for him to do as well as he can, but no amount of me pushing him is going to make it happen if he just isn't capable in certain areas.

His offer is 4xA and 4xB. No intensive revision classes available during the holidays, only the revision sessions run by the school during term time and study leave which are pretty thorough. He's borderline C/D in maths and biology atm and I just don't think he understands it well enough to get to B in the time we have left. It's not a question of 'going all out.' He is predicted four As though, in the things he's strong at.

Obviously I am not offering him the option to re-sit Y11 now but it's an idea I'm putting on the back burner to come back to if we have to. I don't want him held back when it comes to sixth form offers or uni because of a D in maths, so if he has a chance to spend an extra year really getting to grips with it, I think he should. You have to remember that being in a small expat school is not the same as a large state school environment where something like repeating a year would be an alien concept.

If we were in the UK it wouldn't be such an issue as there are a range of schools and colleges and courses to apply for, but where we live there are far fewer options. As he's in private school and outside of the UK in an area with a very high density of expats the kids are frequently out of their true cohort for all sorts of reasons so it's not out of the question that this could happen.

[littlesupersparks]

If he took English IGCSE not English language IGCSE then that is a course combining English Lit and Lang.

[LIZS]

Ds started his iGCSE English Lit coursework in year 10 and some controlled assessments were early in year 11 so think it might be a huge ask to do it in one year. A level is a step up again in terms of critical approach and volume of work.

[LIZS]

In many schools they will have to have passed Maths (c or above) to enter 6th form.

[EngineDriverInABunnySuit]

no he's just doing language at IGCSE, no lit content at all.

Exactly LIZS that is my problem.

[Eastpoint]

Assuming he has a maths textbook he should be able to improve his grade by doing all the exercises for the topics he finds hardest until he can do them - how motivated is he? Will he spend 40 mins a day on maths from now until the end of the holidays. After he's finished his book he can download old GCSE papers/igcse papers and do as many questions as he can fit in. Hard work but with tangible results.

[jeanne16]

I would let him redo his GCSEs. He must get at least a C grade in Maths and it would be best if he did Eng Lit as well.

[Smileyaxolotl1]

I would have thought that if he got an a/a* at igcse and hadn't done lit as it wasn't offered most schools would let him do A level. He wouldn't be massively disadvantaged as skills in gcse are mainly about analysing language anyway which he would have done in Lang. Make sure he reads lots of books though including some classics.
In Cambridge igcse there is a no course work course and that would be better if he were to resit as he could study things he has missed on his own without worrying about catching up on missed essays.

[EngineDriverInABunnySuit]

Thanks for all your help, I will do my best to drag him kicking and screaming to a C grade in maths and hope that his 6th form place will still be offered, as he won't be choosing any maths based A levels, and if necessary I'll deal with the possible ramifications of him not scraping a C when the time comes.

Arrgh! So stressful!

Thanks again.

[LIZS]

As an example dc school requires a B minimum in English Language and Literature to do A level English Literature.