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

I don't think being a summer baby has any effect once they're past primary. You are making excuse after excuse for him.

if it helps i got expelled from my very very expensive private school just before A-levels. Which i hugely fucked up.

But because i come from a lovely MC background with supportive parents, and i am a hard and good worker, it actually didn't have that much of a negative impact on my life. I have gone about things the hard way, but i am where i should be and am ok with that.

Your son just needs to knuckle down and do the boring thing before he gets to do the interesting thing. It will not hurt him.

"Plus he is a summer baby which has never helped. I sometimes wonder if it would have been better holding him back a year."

That won't fly either OP. My ds is August born, and the middle of his class but he got 10 GCSEs.

The basic fact is your DS has to knuckle down and work. There is no other way.

We don't have to look far.

'Sadly he was expelled a few weeks before his exams which IMO was completely out of order. It wasn't worth expulsion at all.'

You are imo an enabler

Not putting what level the Business studies course is gives you an F

Re-sits beckon, nothing wrong with that - or a different course

So what did he actually do to get expelled @op ?
If you can't admit it to yourself you are hardly going to be able to get him to take responsibility for it.

"Most of the people in his year group" Really? Is that a bit like my 10 year old telling me everyone else in her class has their ears pierced?! He's either at a ridiculously underperforming and challenging school or he has very gullible parents!

He needs to prove to a future employer that he has the ability to think, focus and achieve. Exam results are one way of doing that. He hasn't got that so he has to find another way to demonstrate that he can be a good employee. Can he get an apprenticeship or a junior role? Jobs in places like McDonalds or Tesco can teach you loads about customer service. business operations and the reality of work.

And yes, it's true, many successful people have no formal qualifications. They do have determination, drive and initiative. Arsing about and taking the easy option won't get your son anywhere.

Summer baby? Jeez - he needs to own his mistakes thus far and deal with it, and formulate a plan for the future. Not be told it’s always someone/something else’s fault that he isn’t where he wants to be.

Ah, summer baby... YES. My son too. Very youngest in his year. He is super bright with an amazing short term memory - he should have walked his GCSEs - and yet. He's definitely nowhere near as mature as his friends.

He did the bare minimum at GCSE and got 8 passes, mostly 5s, 4 in maths. Which is fine and enough to see him through to college, which was his objective and mantra when I was trying to motivate him to study harder. "I just need 5 4s - CHILL BRO!" The bigger picture was not something he could grasp.

Now he's just applied for university and realised the red bricks are out of reach because of his GCSEs. He's also applying for degree apprenticeships and horribly aware that he's likely to not even be considered to enter the race despite his decent prediction of 144 UCAS points, because there's so much competition. He didn't Fuck Around as much as your son ;-), but is Finding Out nonetheless. He's ready to learn now, but the system isn't set up for kids like him and I too really wish I'd kept him back a year.

It used to really worry me because I was SUCH a try hard at school, but now I see that he will find his way, and it will be fine. Probably.

OP, the issue is that if your son is not from a deprived background, and you say he is not, then two GCSEs is a very poor tally. Why would a college risk overloading someone who only managed two basic GCSEs last time?

If your ds wants to do something more advanced, he needs to prove he is capable, which means knuckling down, aceing the course that is 'too easy' and showing them that he is up to understanding the higher level.

Business studies is not an easy choice, it involves some elements of accounting, law, business strategy, economics and computing. Don't underestimate it.

I taught many summer-born teenagers who worked hard and did brilliantly. In a couple of decades of teaching, I can remember very few Year 11s who got themselves excluded before exams. Exclusion was in itself a very drawn-out and difficult process. Students who brought knives to school weren't permanently excluded. Students came back after violence and drugs. Certainly no one ever got excluded for harmless 'teenage horseplay'. Most students, whenever their birthday, stay in school and pass some exams. Those who make mistakes and bad choices need to prove themselves when they move on. The college need to see what he's capable of, and his boredom and frustration now is the result of his past behaviour. He's better off accepting this than complaining, and using it to help him learn to make better choices in the future. His previous ones are much more serious than most silly teenage behaviour.

Most colleges don't have the resources to offer actual GCSE retakes in individual subjects other than maths and English and in certain circumstances, Science. Hence why they offer a range of Level 1 and Level 2 Awards and diplomas instead.

Of course not …but white working class/ lower socio-economic status boys are currently the lowest performing ethnic group in the uk ( excluding gypsy/roma /traveller boys), consistently underperforming and with, on average, only 1/3 passing GCSE maths and English. It does lock you out from many opportunities.

If anything I think that is a low requirement
Places on all courses are limited to a certain number. It is completely reasonable that a college put a minimum requirement on entry. It is partly to ensure that the people they allow to take the course will commit to the necessary work.
Maybe now he is away from the group of non achievers he can play catch up with his qualifications.

This is incredibly patronising. You are stereotyping this person who’s just asking for a bit of advice. Does it make you feel better about yourself?

Just to add to the OP: your son doesn’t need a business qualification to run his business. He’ll probably learn more by just doing the research himself. I think it it’s unfair that he isn’t able to do the course he wants, as usually people exceed in their personal interests. But if he can prove himself in the other subjects, he’ll probably have more of a leg to stand on when asking to switch

This makes sense.

So he just has to put up with it being too easy for a few more months (will he finish in June - that really isn’t long at all) and the he can do the course he wants?

If he struggled all these years in the school environment then doing a course that is a bit easy will probably be good for his confidence.

What he needs to do is two things:-

1. Confirm what he needs to do in this year’s course to get on the Level 2 Business Studies
2. Get his head down and absolutely smash the course.

Back in my day you needed a minimum of 4 passes to do anything.

Being underprivileged is not a character defect or an insult. Most people would have more time for a child who came from a deprived background but did their best under difficult circumstances than a child who had everything they needed to succeed and failed due to bad attitude.

Summer babies even out way before GCSE level. And no, teenagers are not overgrown children, theyre young adults who have accountability for their choices. If you talk to your son this way- excusing away his poor behavior and making him the victim in everything rather than the architect of his own life- youre doing him no favors at all.

Just tell him to work hard even if its boring to get what he needs to move on to the next level.

If he’s only got functional skills maths and English then he won’t be on a T Level course. You need 5 passes grade 5 for T levels.

Students who get gcse grades 1 or 2 don’t need to resit maths or English the government accepts that functional skills is the right qualification for them.

if a student. goes to college with gcse grades 1 or 2 they will be directed to a level 1 course.

they way for your son to progress isn’t to resit more GCSEs - this isn’t really offered anywhere except in a few special cases - eg kid had cancer during GCSEs - but to successfully pass a level 1 course and then the college will let him on a level 2 course.

if he then successfully passes a level 2 course they will let him on a level 3 course.

some students go straight to a level 2 course but in order to do that they need 4 GCSEs. His route - because he doesn’t have them - is to pass a level 1 course first.

well most of us were teens, some posters here are teachers/college lecturers and some others have gone through the teenage years with their own DCs.

What i would say is that you, and preferably also his father, need to impress on your DS that he must show that he is willing to put in the hard yards, to knuckle down and do even the boring stuff. We all have to do boring stuff in life, it is just something you have to get on with.

If he really really wants to do business studies, getting through the boring basics will be worth it. That is something you need to impress on him.

tbh he needed that while at school but since that ship has sailed, you need to get it through to him asap.

Is your DS a member of the manoverse or whatever ridiculous term Tate uses,
I was horrified to find out that my DD ex partner was a fully paid up member.
His 'successful ' FOREX endeavours earned him about £3.30 in 3 years

Passing 4 GCSEs is not difficult unless you have learning or educational needs. You seem quite blasé about the fact that your ds got expelled a few weeks before exams. I’m sure school wouldn’t have done that lightly. He needs to sort himself out and improve his attitude.