Has anyone done this?
My DS wants to drop French. He hates it. He isn't learning anything. The teaching's been poor - His class is is currently being taught by 2 teachers, having had one leave with no notice, and then a supply teacher. He bitterly regrets "choosing" it - was pressured by school who said at end of Y9 he would be on track for around a B. He's currently on track for a D - but should be getting A*-Bs in his other 9 subjects. I have been trying to support and encourage him to tackle the French, but I'm fed up with all the tears now. He either can't or won't learn. The school have said I can come in to discuss it, but I'm inclined to simply ask that he drops it.
It's too late to pick up a new subject. But there is a study support group (aimed really at lower ability kids) that runs at the same time. Do you think they would let him join it? Despite being generally bright, his spelling and handwriting are poor, and would benefit from some extra support. Are the school likely to put up opposition to him dropping it? And if so how could I counter their arguments? If it comes to it, could I simply threaten to not send him in for the exams?
Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.
Secondary education
Dropping a subject at end of Y10
yellowdaisies · 04/06/2015 14:00
It is possible to get reasonable marks in the controlled assessments by putting in a lot of preparation and rote learning- I don't think that's true. That's what we tried for the recent speaking exam. He really did work hard and had pre-prepared answers to all the questions they'd set. The teacher was patronising enough to tell him how hard she could see he'd worked, before telling him it was a "high D". She knows he's a bright lad for whom a D is not a good grade. 
DS says he answered the questions he'd learned, but that the teacher then asked him follow up ones and he couldn't remember the right verb forms. He's never got the verbs sussed. He's never really been tested on them or made to go back and learn them.
Thanks funchum - I am very much weighing up the need to teach DS to keep trying at something that's hard, and the need to be supportive of his growing maturity to make his own decisions. It's not easy.
Not much danger of him having to put in too much effort on homework - It's been set about twice this year in French. I asked his previous teacher (the one that left suddenly) whether they could be given vocabluary to learn and be tested on, but she said she didn't do that because she assumed they should know all the basic vocabluary by the start of Y10 
I could promise not to speak to any other parents about it if they let him 
Just thought I'd update here - finally got a meeting set up with DS's French teachers today. They told him it was the school's policy not to allow subjects to be dropped, and that they thought he was capable of passing if he put the effort in. But DS was adamant that he did not want to do that, and after much discussion I backed him up and said I could see no point in forcing him to continue in the circumstances. They then said that they'd already checked out other options and the only teacher prepared to let him switch into a new subject was music. DS then bounced to life with enthusiasm and swore he would love to do music instead . We still need to have a conversation with the music teacher but looks like they're going to let him drop the French. DS is delighted 
I think the plan would be just to do music lessons without doing the GCSE, but that's fine with me, and DS is keen on the idea and very much relieved. He just needs to keep quiet about at school until it's all confirmed, as setting a trend was clearly a concern for the teachers.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.