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

My husband is autistic, with ADHD and born at the tail end of August, he was definitely immature for his age (still is sometimes HA) and spent most of his year 10 and 11 in internal exclusion.

He still managed to get 10 GCSEs at 16 - this was in in the mid 2000s.

Statistically being a summer baby has an impact all the way up to 16 - but the way you have raised him should have helped him to over come that disadvantage. You don't seem to want to take responsibility for that at all - so his outcome is really not surprising at all.

*edit for spelling

I agree with you that he needs to see this through to open more doors for himself.

In the meantime he can still access business learning: almost all counties have certain libraries with business centres (BIPCs) that provide 1:1 support, mentoring, workshops, networking. Ask at your local library first and see what they suggest.

A friend has a 31 Aug baby. He went to a bog standard comp and got top GCSEs and A levels. Straight to Oxbridge for a 4 year science degree - first class. Now doing a 5 year doctorate in the U.S.

my December born son is a bit of a coaster, my September son more of an academic (both got 10 gcses). It’s all anecdotal but I don’t think summer born makes that much difference to GCSE results.

@magicalmadmadamim hi OP I am treading carefully here as you have had a few perhaps unfair comments. However, and I ask this kindly, how clued up on education in the UK are you? It is normal for students to need 4 or 5 passes at GCSE to progress onto the next level of education. Is that something you are aware of? Any college putting students on courses they don’t meet the GCSE spec for is setting them up for failure. For example if you want to do A level physics you’d need a high grade at GCSE to gain a place on the course. It is a difficult subject.

In your first post you said he has an interest in economics and investing. What do you mean by that. One of my adult children many years ago had the same interest. We sat down and looked at what they would need to do to get to what they saw as the ‘dream job’. That entailed excellent GCSE results which they achieved. Good and relevant A level subjects and a good degree. All achieved plus a Masters which was an add on they possibly didn’t require. Internships with several investment banks whilst at university and then a position secured where they wanted to be. Essentially their dream role. All of that required lots of sacrifices in terms of social life etc not to mention sheer hard work and tenacity to pursue internships-we did not have any contacts before anyone piles on.

I suppose what I am saying is if he has hopes and dreams they need some structure around them to make them happen. It’s not always about exam results BUT as someone upthread mentioned their son matured between school and college but doors were shut at higher levels because of poor GCSE results.

I hope it works out for your son.

And yet colleges accept grade 4 s for most level 3 courses....

No, I'm saying that children from deprived backgrounds face a whole lot more challenges which may make it harder to get through GCSEs and could impact on their behaviour and make it harder for them to stay focused.

From what you've described, your son had no real challenges, he just couldn't be bothered to do the work. Even if he hadn't been expelled, that last few weeks wouldn't have saved fails across the board. At that point it's mostly independent study anyway.

Until he takes accountability for his behaviour things won't get better.

Clearly you have no idea whst constitutes SEN ,a grade 4 a standard grade equivalent to a C which outside of the world of mumsnst is a perfectly acceptable grade.

Do you think that Mumsnet is only for parents with preschoolers?

I'm pretty sure huge numbers of us have teens or older and that we were even once teens ourselves. Of course we know what they are like but getting expelled and grades 1 and 2 at GCSE is not within the parameters of the vast majority imo

Academic qualifications aren't for everyone, maybe he needs to rethink his options

GCSE grades 1 & 2 are the equivalent of grades E - G. So not anything an employer would accept. Even a 4 is borderline C-D. So a very low level scraped pass.

5 is the GCSE entry level pass.

I think you are in a bit of denial of what hapenedwith his education and what is still happening.
Schoolsdont expel students on a whim, so it must have been a serious incident or a series of incidents with this being the latest.
Having a side hustle on social media does no tmake your son agreat investor nor businessman. I mean, good for him, but that does not mean he is the next Alan Sugar.
4 GCSEs is very low. Neither of the schools I have worked at would have offered him a Business Studies qualification, and dependingwhat they have on offer, maybe a Btech?
If hardly anyone passes GCSEs at his school... Yikes! Have you been supporting the school as a parent, or have you spent 5 years complaining they were useless, and you now found out?

My son was born on 28th August, so you can't get much later than that, but he got 12 GCSEs at grades 8 and 9 and then 3 As at A-level. He did this by working hard and not dicking around. Being summer born is absolutely NOT an excuse.

During the last 2 months of term he attended a different school where he took the english and maths functional skills which we were told are GCSE equivalent and liked by employers.

As an employer we would much prefer that someone come to us with Functional Skills as it means they can enroll on a L2 apprenticeship and they don't have to spend 1 day per week studying for their Maths & English. So yes, that statement is correct in a way.

But that is for a trade based apprenticeship, not an academic college course.

If this was a slip-up, it was a slip-up of several years. Missing 2 months of school, which included the exam period would only mean you totally failed your gcses if you were very behind to begin with.

He honestly sounds like he needs to pull his socks up. To do that badly in GCSEs, you've got to do really really badly in the exams.

He was so badly behaved he got expelled, it doesn't sound like his friends are any better so he's in with a bad crowd. Despite flunking his exams he somehow thinks his current course is beneath him. He sounds like he has an attitude problem, not the school being meanie pants!

He doesn't even want to try anything practical, which would be a good alternative where his academics are an issue.

I'm a bit confused about what actual qualifications he has. Functional skills level 1 are only equivalent to GCSE 1-3 so not a pass and not regarded as a pass by most places. Level 2 is equivalent to GCSE 4+.

a Level 2 qualification is a step up from a L1 - and he has failed spectacularly to get the targeted 5 GCSEs minimum that most courses and employers require, so no, I think it is totally reasonable to ask for 4.

As other posters have suggested, he should consider redoing GCSEs and/or a vocational qualification - a friend of mine’s DS did this, after a spectacular fail, huge behavioural issues at his secondary (involving the police), but completely came into his own in a new 6th form college.

Am wondering why it has taken until now to ask, assuming he got his results in the summer? What has he been doing since? Kids are allowed to remain in education until 19, so this could have been a resit year with access to L2 or 3 BTEC qualifications over 2 years afterwards?

But colleges and employers won't take that into account. They see someone with two low grade GCSEs and a documented history of messing around, who got kicked out of his last school, so the courses they will offer are to boost his tally to 5 GCSEs before he can hope to go on to anything else.

His best route really is to get his head down, pass the course he is already on, and PROVE he deserves better.

I don't think that is what they are saying....sounds more like your son is a spoilt brat, whose had all their bad behaviour and laziness excused away by his parents.

Right. This makes it clearer to me.

I'm sorry, but you can't rely on what your son has told you. Even the 'nearly everyone failed' schtick rings alarm bells for me.

Given that you son is under 18, you should be able to contact the college yourself in order to glean more accurate information about course choice availability.

The college cannot change its course entry requirement for one student. You need to get hold of their Options Booklet/Course Choice Info (possibly available online) in order to have a better idea of what your son will be able to tackle.

No, she's saying children from disadvantaged backgrounds who slip up are more easy to feel sympathy for than a middle class 16 year old who pissed about so seriously with his mates he was expelled just before his exams and couldn't even manage the bare minimum of 4 or 5 passes out of at least 8 courses.

You're minimising and excusing left right and centre and it's not going to help your son face up to his responsibilities.

What's a summer baby got to do with it. Yes my son was behind at primary but then flew at GCSE, A Level - getting a first from Loughborough. Stop making excuses. He needs to understand that he needs to work and get some qualifications under his belt.

Nah I'm with her on this. I have a summer boy and the difference in his maturity is MARKED compared to his friends. His Reception year at school was a complete waste of time because he just was not ready to be in a formal setting like that. I assumed it would help him - it did not. When his friends hit 14 and were wanting to go and hang out at the park to look at their phones and grunt at girls, he was still packing footballs and frisbees and trying to get them to play and they were all, not in these trainers... He still isn't really interested in girls (his friends tell me this - I know he wouldn't necessarily tell his mum). Or boys. He is still very very silly and immature.

He really isn't on the same development path as his peers, and I'm just lucky that he's also quite an anxious kid so not at all inclined to take stupid risks, and he had good friends.

I don't think all summer babies are like this. But I know enough that have been, to know that summer baby is A Thing.

@magicalmadmadamim it’s not the expulsion that caused him to fail his GCSEs….

4 GCSEs at a grade 4 plus is a pretty basic requirement. Our local college requires average of 5 over 5 best results including maths and english to get on a level 3 course. If you want to do level 2 and you don't have maths and English you have to do them alongside your level 2 qualification.

Come off it with the 'summer baby' guff, OP. I'm not sure that still counts when they're in high school.

(FWIW, my 'summer baby' (mid August), got 9 GCSEs, 3 A-levels and graduated from university with a 2:1).