GCSE Results?

[CouthyMow]

My DD has just finished Y9. In June, her whole year group sat their RE GCSE exams. (They do them early at her school, for all students).

Should she have got a letter for results? Should she have gone into the school to get them? Or will she get results when she gets back to school?

The school have not given us any information on this, all I know is that she sat exams in June for RE and we have no idea how well or not she did.

[BeingFluffy]

I think it depends on the school to be honest. At my daughters' schools, children who sit early can go and collect their results on the GCSE day like every one else. Anyone who doesn't collect them has them posted the following day. Maybe ring or email the school on Tuesday and find out for definite what the situation is?

[CouthyMow]

So there should be something in the post soon? They weren't given a day or time to pick up the results from the school, in fact nothing about the results was communicated to the children or parents.

[JustGettingByMum]

At DCs school, the y9/10s taking early exams are given the results in the first week of term

[magentadreamer]

At DD's school Yr11 go in first then a couple of hours later Yr9&10 go in. it sounds as if your DD will get her results when she returns to school. Hope she's done well.

[VoldemortsNipple]

DDs school give them in the first week of term too.

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

DD got her results today. NOT GOOD.

She was expecting an 'F', which would be amazing, given her SN's AND the fact that the school makes all DC's sit RE early, this was the end of Y9, not Y11.

She got a 'U'.

She is very disappointed and disheartened.

[catwoo]

why oh why oh why?
what on earth were the school thinking of putting a 13/14 yo child with SN in for an exam where she was only expected to get an F

[noblegiraffe]

Utterly bonkers, especially as RE is a subject where the extra maturity of a 16 year old would help.

The school has failed your DD, make sure she knows that it's not her fault, that she worked hard and did her best but was simply put at too much of a disadvantage.

[Themumsnot]

Couthy, that is awful. I don't get why schools do this, it simply is not in the best interests of pupils. A Y9 is never going to get the sort of result in a subject like RE that they might be capable of two years later. Your poor DD. I hope she realises that the school are to blame for her result, not her.

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

They do it for ALL students, apparently it's the only way to fit it into their timetable to allow them to take 3 optional subjects in Y10/Y11.

If they didn't put her in for GCSE's where she is only expected to get a 'D/E/F' grade, then the next two years of her education would be utterly pointless.

The vocational training courses the school offers are irreplaceable to the occupation she wants to do - DD wants to go to catering college, and the vocational subjects on offer at her school are : Hair & Beauty, Childcare or Mechanics.

So she has no real option to get her onto the course she wants but to sit exams that she will get 'E/F/G' grades in (or even 'U' grades), simply because she will ace her Catering GCSE.

The change to linear exams for her year group has and will REALLY hurt her - she has been taught by the SEN Dept. for the last 3 years how to pass a modular GCSE course, with opportunities for resists to drag her grades up to a 'C/D' grade. The school have now issued new predicted grades for her based on linear exams with no opportunity for resits, and it's a clutch of 'F/G/U's'.

It sucks ARSE.

She has worked her fucking socks off, and now will probably not even meet the criteria of 'C/C/D' for her Catering college.

How the fuck I'm meant to support her if she ends up a NEET because of this I have no fucking clue. I'm a Lone Parent with disabilities that mean I can't work. I'll lose Housing Benefit, her Child Benefit and her CTC. She will have no income, and I'll have no income for her either, and she'll still need fed and clothed.

This blows, big style!

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Not 'irreplaceable'. IRRELEVANT. Sodding Autocorrect.

[noblegiraffe]

Why is she sitting GCSEs? There are other courses available like BTEC with continuous assessment that might suit her better?

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

As I said, the only BTEC's the school offer are Hair & Beauty, Childcare or Mechanics. All of which are irrelevant to her chosen career, and won't gain her entry to the Catering College.

And her options were chosen BEFORE the school told us about the change from modular exams to linear. We had to hand our options choices in by the 2nd February of Y9, this year.

Had I known about the impending change, I might have tried to find an alternative education establishment for my DD for Y10 & Y11.

However, having since attempted to do so, I have discovered that due to H&S concerns with knife handling in a workplace etc, the insurance for Catering courses only covers from age 16+, so none of the local school offer a vocational qualification in Catering.

I am at a loss as to what else to do, tbh.

She has been set on Catering since she was 7yo, and has a flair for it too. Wtf else can I do, except cross my fingers that she will make the 'C/C/D' grades by some miracle, and get into her Catering college.

If not, then the pair of us are screwed, and 14+ years of trying to get a DC with multiple SN's to become a tax payer and have independence will have been for nothing.

I REALLY HATE Michael Gove.

[noblegiraffe]

The school doesn't even do Science BTEC for the less able? (BTEC isn't only for vocational stuff like hairdressing, you can do BTECs in loads of subjects, music, PE, Art, for students who don't suit GCSE).

It sounds like your DD's school is really shit if they don't offer a choice.

It's not too late to move her.

[Kez100]

My daughters friend was planning on Catering at college at 16 and has just missed the Grades she needed and is still doing catering but it is Level 2 and she needed 4 GCSEs at D-G. Is that an option for your daughter locally, if she doesn't make the C,C,D course?

[catwoo]

If grades do drop when linear quals are introduced then likely the catering course will reduce its entry requirements accordingly.

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

No, doing the lower tier first won't work financially - she can do the two year Catering course, then she wants to do the 2 year patisserie course. I can JUST financially stretch to that.

If she was to do the 1 yr lower course, then the two year course, then I could only financially do one year of the 2 yr pat course, then she's have to leave college, move out WHEN SHE CAN'T SUPPORT HERSELF, with no help from HB at all as she will be under 25...

No, no option to move her at all. Only place with space in her year is A) Inaccessible by public transport for a DC with SN's, B) Cannot offer her even half the TA time she currently gets, and C) doesn't offer the BTEC's she needs either.

No, the school don't offer science BTEC, only one that does is the one that I can't get her to because it is two buses, involving a town centre changeover, that she can't manage - she still can't tell the time properly! The LA told me that if I moved her, they wouldn't find a taxi for her as she isn't statemented. She isn't statemented because they refuse to even assess her. Yet she needs 25% extra time for her GCSE exams, a scribe, a reader, and the use of a laptop...but her SEN's aren't even worthy of being assessed for a statement, much less given one...

(Yes, I do realise my LA are breaking the law by setting 'blanket' levels for even assessing for a statement, they have lost in court plenty of times on that ground, but I can't AFFORD to take them to court. IPSEA are adamant I would win, because DD has never been more than 1 sub-level above the one that triggers the LA deigning to even assess for a statement. But because she is 1 sub-level higher than Essex fucking LA's illegal 'boundary for assessment' -which is only for English, Essex don't give two craps if your maths skills are those of a 7yo at 12yo - always plenty of threads on TES about it, from special school teachers even, they won't bloody attempt to assess her, or even let her see the fucking EP. Twice in over a decade of being on SA+ have I managed to get the EP to assess, once when she was 5yo, and once when she was 11yo. AAARRRGGHHH)

So the only school offering better EXAMS for DD is both inaccessible AND can't give her enough TA time.



All other schools have enormous waiting lists for DD's year, as there was a school that closed from the year above hers (this year's Y11) until this year (this year's Y7). This put immense pressure on all the other local schools.

The reason she can't do the lower course for a year at the start of college is because it would affect her funding and my benefits.

And getting totally off benefits just isn't going to happen for me, as much as I would like to, as I am disabled and my Neurologist refuses to sign me as fit for anything more than 16hrs a week, light duties only. No way can I change the fact that my finances will always be fully or partly reliant on benefits, and 4 years at college is the most I can fund before I lose all benefits for her. And some of my own through part of my HB being docked for having an adult 'supposedly' contributing to the household, and loss of my single person discount for Council Tax, and also the loss of at least part of my council tax benefits.

She either goes onto the standard catering course right away, or I give the fuck up on attempting to make her a contributing member of society despite her SN's, and she goes on ESA. She will be totally unemployable.

And DD has said that if she can't do the two year patisserie course, then there's no point in her doing the catering course, she doesn't want to work in a restaurant, she wants to work as a chocolatier. It's been her end goal for 7 fucking years, since she was 7yo.



And if you got this far, please excuse me turning into Ranty McRantPants!

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Oh, and the Catering college has said that they will not reassess their entry requirements for her year group, as they need the first year to get to know what the new grades are like. DD will be that first year. Her year will be the first to do the linear fucking courses.

So DD will be the sacrifice that Mr Cunting Gove makes.

Her life doesn't matter. She will lose her only chance of working and contributing and having any independence, EVER, because he thinks that a return to the 1950's would be a jolly good jape. Ignoring the very real fact that in the 1950's, DC like my DD wouldn't have been educated, or even seen in society, because they locked the people with disabilities, the people with Autism, the people with epilepsy away in asylums.

[eatyourveg]

At our college (standard FE college not a catering college) the catering courses start from foundation (entry level/level1/foundation GCSE level) right through to level 3 (A level equivalent) Your dd could get a place on a foundation course with her grades

ds2 is also sn (ASD & MLD) and like your dd he loves catering and I am determined that in some way he will pay his taxes and contribute to his community just like everyone else. Even if your daughter does get Es Fs Gs and Us for her GCSEs she can still do catering, (not sure if it would be at a specialist catering college or a general FE place) it will just mean she is starting from a lower level but thats fine - she will be doing something she loves.

Don't give up on the idea of your dd succeeding - she will, in her own way and in her own time and on an appropriate course

[noblegiraffe]

It sounds totally shit, couthy. Are there any other options to the catering course to get into catering? Any chocolatiers or patisseries who could take on an apprentice? (on the job training is supposed to be the future). Work experience? Could she get her foot in the door that way?

[catwoo]

Couthy- the catering college might say now they won't adjust their entry requirements , but they may find themselves with an empty course if they don't!

[catwoo]

Could she get an apprenticeship in a catering establishment which would give her day release?
Are there any other schools you could get your DD to that do the BTEC catering.She should stand a good chance at appeal.

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Ok, thing is, she is ONLY doing the Catering course to give her access to the Patisserie course. If she does the lower level first, I can't afford for her to do the two year Patisserie course.

The Catering Course is a means to an end for her.

She can't get in through on the job training, the people who do apprenticeships won't take on anyone without a two year Patisserie course under their belt.

If I can't afford for her to do the full Patisserie course, she won't bother to attend the Catering course. It isn't what she wants to do, it's a means to an end IYSWIM.

To get onto the Patisserie course that she actually WANTS to do, she has to jump through hoops first - first get C/C/D at GCSE, then get at least a Pass on the two year Catering course, before she can apply for the course she WANTS to do!

If she has to do the foundation one year Catering course first, then she can't do the two year Patisserie course that she actually WANTS to do, for financial reasons.



There is no other route. And the Catering college usually admit for the course on B/B/A, but have already dropped the requirements if SN are involved. They will NOT admit anyone with lower grades!

[mysteryfairy]

Presumably she is sitting more than 3 GCSEs? Is there any way you can support her in the 3 she requires if it is specific subjects or those she is strongest at if not and get those up to the entry level? Just resign yourself to her under achieving in the others so she is not distracted or spread too thin.

[CouthyMowWearingOrange]

Even doing that, with the change to linear with no chance for resits, there is practically no chance of her getting C/C/D in any 3 subjects.

She may get a 'B' in Catering - A/A* from the practical and a C/D for the final written exam, but the other subjects it will be impossible as her classroom/controlled assessment grades for Health & Social care and Textiles will be more like a C/D, with no chance to resit them, and an F/G/U grade in the final exam. Giving her a best result final grade in her 3 best subjects of B/D/E.

It's just pissing me off. I have an appointment with the top LSA/SenTA at her school in a week and a half where we are going to discuss all this.

I just don't know what to do, this Catering course is the only way she will be able to contribute to the household, and I can't feed and clothe her on fresh air.

What do I do if this happens? Kick her out when she won't even get Housing Benefit until she's 25? Take food out of my younger DC's mouths to feed her if she becomes a NEET due to not getting on her course? We are already below the poverty line, that would make it impossible to feed all my DC's!

I am in such a quandary as to what to do, what to help her to aim for, how to survive if she can't get on this course - she can't do anything else, she won't get a shop job because she wouldn't pass a basic Maths & English test.

I want to know how I will continue to feed her and have her living at home without taking money from my younger DC's food money when I no longer get any money for her?