To think that 4 G.C.S.E's needed to do business studies is ridiculous

Thank you.

Or they spend all their time loitering on street corners and parks late at night.

I think you are in denial OP. Your ds has obviously put in minimal effort regardless of expulsion (if he was expelled so close to exams surely he would have had most of his study and revision under his belt anyway. It also sounds like he is not keeping good company if all his friends pretty much failed their exams too.

Off topic, but it’s quite scary that there are so many teenage boys who are now under the impression that they are going to “start their own business” and make a fortune because of Andrew Tate. Several of my 19 year old’s school contemporaries have said to him that this is their plan in life, with no apparent thought about what business they are actually going to create.

Probably just bullshit that the OP was all too ready to believe.

It can be caused by both things, to be fair.

No, a post at 12.4? confirms that the DS lives in the UK and OP hasn't for some time.

Agree with others that four GCSE’s is very low indeed, especially if you’re just talking about getting a pass. No criticism of kids who can’t manage that, but to expect to go onto further academic study without meeting this baseline is odd.

Suggest DS either resits his GCSEs so that he gets the required four, or looks for something less academic instead.

They call it uniformed services preparation these days I believe,

A bit of teenage horseplay? Yeah ok. So he's immature, violent, didn't even put in the bare minimum effort to pass his exams and you're wondering why they won't let him onto a college course...

OP, even I passed all my subjects at GCSE and I handed in a grand total of 3 pieces of coursework. Scraping a pass isn't that hard. You don't end up with no GCSEs through not being academic, it's a lack of effort.

Unfortunately this has probably had a detrimental effect on him, even if not intentional.

English and maths functional skills are what students do (generally) when they have either repeatedly failed their GCSEs, or have no chance of passing them at all.

Hardly any of his school friends passed any g.c.s.e's :(

This is not normal, unless there's a drip feed that he and all his friends have learning difficulties? What the hell.

This doesn't make sense you say your daughter was very academic and ended up with only " 5,and 6' which are still equivalent to Bs and C,s ,
But you must be aware not all kids are very academic,?
My son missed a whole half term of year 11 due to being critically ill in intensive he isn't academic and it had a detrimental affect on his already not highly predicted GCSE grades.

Do you live in the same country as your son @magicalmadmadamim ?

Yep, lots of OFSTED outstanding schools are churning out kids with barely any qualifications. Education needs such a huge injection of cash and there isn’t a way to fund it. I reckon they should put a charge on state education. Schools need money and those who access them should pay. Otherwise parents are going to find it awfully hard to shift grown up children from their homes, who don’t have what they need to parlay into a successful career, thus pay their own bills.

“The one he complains about is called Technical skills, which he says isn't challenging enough.”
You both need to view education as a ladder only when you have successfully climbed one rung can you move on to the next.
Because he hasn’t completed the level 2 rung ( getting 4 GCSEs or a level2 qualification) he can’t move on to the next rung level 3 or apprenticeship.

I'm a business teacher. It isn't a foundation course it's robust A level with high standards as any other A level is. If he isn't very bright he will certainly struggle with the course and the depth of analysis required in the essay questions

I wondered this as well.

My DC summer born - ND/SEN and school that went to shit while they were there - but all did well becuase they had a lot of parental input. It took a lot of work when SLT turned on DS just before GCSE to get him focused and not blow the lot - same with DD2 and two subjects with dire teachers - getting though to them teachers won't be impacted of they do bad they will was hard.

If you are aboard and getting second hand info - not sure you can do much but encourage him to stay on level 1 course till done and seek some local careers advice.

The people running the college have to give places to students who have proven they have the aptitude to benefit from them. He has to accept that on paper he's achieved virtually nothing so far in the way of proving his skills. I just looked at some Functional Skills Level 1 papers on line and it's stuff we were doing in the top year at primary school. So he just needs to focus on proving that he's got the talent to benefit from the course by achieving the prerequisites. Moaning that the course "isn't challenging enough" is fairly childish behaviour from a 16 year old, particularly one who didn't actually pass their GCSEs.

The permanent exclusion is a red herring. That isn’t why the college won’t admit DS to a level 2 course. DS still sat GCSEs and even if he hadn’t been permanently excluded it is unlikely he would have got GCSEs at grade 4+.

GCSE grades 1&2 are level 1 passes.

On the whole DC who get grades 1&2 at GCSE would struggle jumping straight into a level 2 course. Obviously there will be a few exceptions.

Functional Skills come in various levels. Whether they are the same level as GCSEs will depend on what level functional skills DS sat. They are accepted by some employers but not others.

I should have given a fuller answer! I’d suggest re-doing the GCSEs if circumstances rather than ability was the issue. He’ll not get far without English and Maths really.

Can’t believe nobody has commented on this. Wtf does a Minecraft server have to do with anything?

Hardly any of his school friends passed any g.c.s.e's :(

I would bet none of them so much as opened a book to revise for 10 mins