GCSE reduced subjects advice needed

Most of us have areas of weakness, however intelligent we are in other things. My brother, for example, has a genius level iq but below zero common sense. Maths is important but it is often a subject that people struggle with - most of it is down to lack of confidence but specific learning difficulties, such as dyscalculia can also play a part. Many people have mentioned dyslexia as a possible reason for not finishing exam papers but another possibility may be dyspraxia. My daughter was diagnosed with dyspraxia yet still did not get extra time for her GCSEs. She passed some of her GCSEs but not maths and English, despite being very good at English. She went to a sixth form college, where she passed a level 2 BTech with distinction. We also had her reassessed privately and, as we suspected, she was diagnosed with mild autism alongside dyspraxia. This was enough to get her the extra time she needed in exams and we also paid for a maths tutor, who boosted her confidence as well as her ability. She passed both, as well as gaining an A grade in German. Armed with all this, she was then accepted at a highly selective sixth form in an ex-grammar school - the grammar school ethos was very much in evidence in the sixth form. She went on to university and finished with a distinction in her Masters in music performance. All is not lost, @Arizona29, even if it feels hopeless at the moment. If you are able to afford private assessment by an educational psychologist and maths tuition, it could well be the best money you ever spend. It was a stretch for us but we knew that our daughter deserved the opportunity. In the end, she has surpassed many of her peers who seemed to sail through at the first go. We, and her teachers knew that she was a quiet, hardworking, intelligent girl but she simply took a little longer to achieve her potential. I agree with others that a reduced workload for GCSEs is probably a very good idea as it will take the pressure off your son and ten GCSEs are not at all necessary. I would see if the practical route could be swapped for another humanity or a language and don't let the school put pressure on you and him to come to the final decision. They have sprung this on you and you and he need more time, along with discussions with the school, to come to a decision. I would also strongly think about BTECHs for sixth form, too, as they might well suit him better than the traditional A level route. A distinction at level three BTECH is considered to be the equivalent of three As at A level.

2 practical based subjects of his choice such as DT, art, music, cookery, dance, photography,

Does your son like any of these? These kind of subjects may be labelled as ‘Easier’ but they would be incredibly difficult for non-creative but academic children like mine to do. One of mine did DT and really struggled. Art I think is one of the hardest GCSEs. Looking at my kids’ friends, some of whom are incredible artists, used all their revision time and effort for art which is incredibly labour intensive. Music is not easy either. And how can they make him do dance if he’s not interested? I think it’s terrible to force him to do two of these subjects never mind one, if he does not want to.

I have only skimmed the thread and may have missed something. However, @Arizona29 have you not had half yearly reports since Y7? Have you not attended parents' evenings? What have been previous exam results in the context of percentage and place? What are assignment marks like? Was it not a clue when he entered bottom set for maths? Is the school selective? There must be a huge difference between bottom set at a non selective school and bottom set at a high performing selective.

Whether there are SEN or not, might some pragmatism and realism help your ds most of all? From all you have said, it appears as though he genuinely needs some additional support to fulfil his potential.

Also, perhaps a path different from A'Levels and university might be better for him and allow him to thrive better. This country, and schools, is unacceptably snobby about the skilled trades: carpentry (found a kitchen company), catering *catering company supplyong weddings/restauranteur, builder, landscape gardener, etc, etc. If he has trouble putting thoughts to paper, he will stuggle in an office/managerial type of role in one of the professions or associated professions and even my function, HR, is driven by data now.

"His year 9 assessment scores were all below the year group average. Not way below. But they were below. His results do not reflect his intelligence or capability. He said he knew all the answers but didn't get to complete the assessments as ran out of time"

This is the KEY thing here. if your son comes over as having really high academic ability in his classes and class work and all the teachers were really shocked at his exam performance, they will maybe research why his exam scores were so poor.

If he doesn't massively stand out as NOT at this level, then they will be none the wiser that he is anything but a somewhat below average ability student, as the exam scores show. You need to start by talking to the SENDCO or maybe his tutor about how he felt that he ran out of time and why he thinks this happened. What marks does he actually get in class work/home work and are his mock results low compared to this? It sounds as if possibly he needs extra time in exams, but if he doesn't get behind with class work, getting ET in his GCSEs is going to require some delving into why his results were so poor on the year 9 assessments.

This PP is right @Arizona29 . It’s quite some years ago but I was told by my school I could only do combined sciences ( I needed separate for my a level and planned career choices) and second stream maths in which the max I could get would be a B. My parents went to bat and they were formidable. I ended up with an A* and 2 As in sciences, the highest mark my school had ever seen in biology at A level and a B in maths, but only 2 marks form an A so I could have had a remark and probably got an A.

So you probably can get him bumped up but do think about what is best for him. I was overlooked as I was tiny and very quiet with (at that time) massive self esteem issues and was being bullied a lot). I am not super intelligent but I am clever and at that time had an incredible work ethic, honestly so tenacious, so I made it work. I also had a lot of parental pressure to succeed and tutoring for several hours every Saturday across yr 8 to 11. Not for everyone and could have backfired massively but worked ok for me.

Not trying to kick you when you’re down but you need to be much more actively involved and inquisitive about your son’s school and academic life, waiting for the school to talk to you doesn’t cut it unless there are massive issues/behaviour problems as they don’t have capacity and that’s not how much teachers work anymore (if most ever did)

Are you on top of his bomework with him? I sit in with my year 8 son whike hr does this and see how he is doing and get a feel for what he is understanding.
I would ask to speak to the head of year, who will have more of an understanding than the head of your sons capabilities.
I woukd also look at tutoring. It could be he is just behind with the work and can catch up.

As others have said the school can’t force this BUT I would really recommend a formal meeting to discuss why they are suggesting this and taking a look at the evidence- it will not be because of one mock exam where he missed a few questions.

No parent wants to believe their child is struggling academically or otherwise but if the school can show evidence to back up their suggestion then you won’t be doing your child any favours by pushing him to do more than he is capable of. He is going to be far better off attempting 6 subjects and passing them all than attempting 10 and passing 2

on another note I’m quite shocked that they are pushing practical subject as “easy” options. Many of them really aren’t. The practical components for many like music require a level of aptitude that not all students have. The level of theory for e.g PE is far harder than you might expect. Most students in DD’s PE class got their worst grade in that subject, and that included some very talented sports people. And some e.g Art are notoriously time consuming.

My DS16 is finishing school this year. All the options we have looked into, College, A.levels etc are not all worried about the number of GCSE'S they are absolutely looking good passes in maths, english, science and 1 other.
If the extra support gets your son good passes in the core subjects then take it.
4 or 5 good passes, (5+ is what we've been asked for) is way better than 7 or 8 lower grades.
English is usually 2 GCSE language and literature.
Science is a double award.
I would try and see this as a positive that the school are going to do all they can to get him the core grades he needs.

I've had 4 go through this already
In my experience schools want the best grades out of their students as it looks good on the school.
Two of mine took limited subjects,one did 6 GCSES one only did 3 GCSEs
The one who only managed 3 GCSEs did .maths . chemistry and physics at A level and got BBC ..the other doing 6 GCSEs is moving to A level next year.
So far it hasn't limited them .
I've always gone with what the school suggested,as they know the child's capabilities..
If they have reduced his GCSEs to give him extra maths and English then that is a good school in my eyes .. because it's hard to go forward with out maths and English and they really need to be the focus.
It does sound like your son is having some difficulty,as he is in bottom set for maths ..it's good the school are being proactive about this .try to work with them ,you all want the same goal ....the best GCSE results . Good luck

I have a question for you;

Is your Ds essentially running out of time to complete exams and struggling to finish, while at the same time seeming to be a very verbally bright and intelligent child? - If so you need to urgently get him a dyslexia test.

My DS (albeit younger at the time) was much the same - NOBODY thought he was dyslexic, the Senco suggested a test as I was unhappy and "on their case" about the seeming disparity between his test results and my perception of his ability... He was dyslexic.

If you want to move things then contact his tutor/head of year/head of key stage/deputy head/head teacher.
In that order.
Seriously misplaced that anyone would suggest going to governors first, it's so unnecessarily combative, will lead to massive delays in resolving it as they will only need to ask you what all the others before them have said about the matter when you haven't even approached them.
If governors are busy with school matters it will be ratifying whole school policy and big budget decisions, approving new staff and attending the most serious disciplinary panels.

I don’t know if it’s helpful to know that EBACC is not an extra qualification for the student, it’s just one of the outcome measures for school (how many students pass maths, English, science, language, humanity). I went through the whole GCSE process assuming my son got an extra ‘thing’ for this pathway because school pushed them towards it. Now applying for 6th form to do A levels for my second son and the basic qualification for any we have looked at is 5x5 including maths and English language. They do often want higher grades 6/7 in the subjects to be taken at A level, but there are other courses that don’t require that - BTEC or taking an access course for a year to keep options open.
Passing maths and English is the most important thing to allow progression (not doing so means college rather than 6th form, retaking them and probably vocational qualifications not A level, plus universities often need maths/English as a basic entry requirement) so I’d see extra support in those subjects as a positive. If he did maths/english/science (likely to be 5 GCSEs if it’s combined science) plus one other subject and got 5+ in all of them that would not restrict his options to go forward, unless the subjects he wants to study in sixth form require the specific GCSE. If he wanted to do particular A levels then speak to school about taking 2 academic subjects (7 GCSEs in total) rather than 3 extras and not taking the creative/vocational ones.
Agree with the previous comments about assessment for processing speed/dyslexia etc. If he is really doing well in the questions he answers but not finishing then extra time could be a game changer but look at the actual scripts because if he was actually getting good marks on say 2/3 of the questions he would not be scoring below average.

It's 8, English Language and English Literature they are just taught as separate lessons within the English block on the timetable. Separate papers.

Science will be the 3 subjects but he will get 2 grades for this, they either match like 6,6 of 5,5 or one lower with 6,5, and 5,4. I doubt he would be put in for triple science which covers more content and has individual grades.

You need 8 GCSEs to get into university. 8 is the maximum some state schools offer the norm is 9 and some go to 10. The sixth form that my high academic children went to caters for all abilities and their entry grades ate 5 x grade 4s but with some stipulations on certain subjects like 7 for maths.

You need to ring school and physically go in. Don't worry about school telling you the deadline is 27th February. It is just to give them time to go through all the children's requests and get an individual timetable for them. This will not be done in one day.

Our school always says there will be no change after the options date and there always is. You can write in the form that no decision will be made until you have a meeting with the school. Please stop worrying about that.
6 good GCSE grades s enough for A level.
I would add though that if he was getting average in years 7 and 8, below average in year 9 and also in bottom set, he isn’t as super intelligent as you perceive him to be. He clearly needs assessing for getting extra time in exams and the schools communication has been diabolical, but it sounds like he has an opportunity here to get 6 good GCSE grades with the extra support they are offering.

You say he’s in the lowest set for maths - clearly that’s not good and I suspect they’re trying to protect the results. If he’s already in the lowest set it can’t be a total shock they aren’t expecting him to do that well at GCSE? Even having said that I would complain to the governors and ask for a meeting with the head immediately. Can you afford any tutors? Could he sit an extra subject or two outside of school?? Good luck!

While the school's communication about the pathway has been risible, and you should raise that with the head, you should also listen to them. Your DS has dropped into the bottom group for maths, which means he's likely at Foundation level now. He's not finishing his papers. His grades are below average for his year group across the board. He's not doing well at school, that's a fact.

He might be bright but all the signs are pointing to him not being academic enough to sit 11 subjects and the 25+ separate papers that will include. My DD was forced to take 11 subjects and ended up with three passes. She too is bright and did well in class, but went to pot in exam conditions and couldn't retain an adequate level of information, which sounds very similar to your DS.

Eight grades will absolutely be enough for him to progress and it might be more beneficial that he takes fewer and does better. So take a pause and really listen to the school before doing anything or saying anything drastic.

He needs to pass Maths and English. That is the firm standard requirement to progress from GCSEs.
Instead of looking at this a failure, as he’s in bottom set set for maths, he clearly needs the intervention. I would take it as an opportunity for him to get the grades he needs.
By all means speak to school but I would sit down and have a good think about priorities.
You then have to sell it to DS.

First off the deadline the school sets is so they can get numbers and timetables sorted and is the deadline for the majority they can move it of course they can and I suspect can easily in this instance if there has been a mistake or can be changed.

But I think you need to take a very deep breath and actually focus now on how best to get your son through GCSEs - they are suggesting 8 and whilst a low number it is the number that is used to collect grade average etc so he won’t be disadvantaged

then listen if what your son is saying about finishing and anxiety is true then you do need to discuss it with SENCo as how best to support him

the Humanities for example are a lot of exams and time pressure - DD wants to do geography at University and she found the timing hard. Languages take a lot of children out unless it is their skill set

a huge amount of exam success is exam techniques and time management and he doesn’t have that and that is a huge issue particularly as I said for the humanities and languages

As you've already been told, most colleges require or expect a student to have passed 8 GCSEs, out of sitting the standard 10.

My DD had a rough year 9 and 10, low mock results from grades 4-5, but was still expected to sit all 10 exams (she passed them all with good grades in all but 1). She was intelligent, just hadn't done any work.

This decision by your school must be based on something surely?

"He knew the answers but didn't write them down."

I find myself sticking on this point. He ran out of time.... There is something there that needs focus.

His English teacher said he didn't have confidence.

Your opposition to this seems to be based on Stigma from the other children rather then how this could help him get what he needs for the next step to college.

Work with the school to understand, not against them.

Is his school an academy or part of a multiple academy trust?

If he scored low in all of his assessments because he missed questions because he ran out of time he could have an SEN called Slow Processing. It isn't a measure of intelligence, it just means the brain works more slowly. I'm pretty sure I have it although when I was at school even things like ADHD & dyslexia weren't recognised.

I scored in the top 2% at uni but always bombed in exams (I tried to only pick coursework modules to avoid this!) because I just can't work under pressure.

I would get him to a private educational psychologist FAST and have him assessed. IF he has any kind of SEN, he could be awarded extra time in exams which would get around the problem of his not being able to finish assessments. 25% extra time is the usual amount, but it can go up to 45% (I THINK, I haven't looked this up, just doing it from memory). It can also encompass rest breaks if this is needed as an individual.

I think the extra maths and English are good, because it's essential he gets a grade 5 or above in those for A Levels & uni. But equally, he will have to get minimum 5s at GCSE for A Level and at times, schools will ask for grade 7 and above at GCSE for A Level entrance. Which currently, it looks as if your son isn't in line to achieve if he is among the lowest scoring in the year group.

Talk to his tutor and HOY

but for what it is worth, I think it is not all bad news

my son did no languages and nu humanities at all, and got extra help in English

he did

• English Language
• literature
• maths
• triple science (phys, Chem, Bio)
• music
• computing
• food tech

The school managed to help him get a 6 and a 7 in his English subjects (a miracle)

he then did A levels and Uni

the lack of languages and humanities has never been a barrier to anything

he was not ostracised or bullied for his different subjects to most kids

we always think the school did well to modify standard GCSEs to his ability (and to get him to pass English with those grades in the bottom set)

just to give a different perspective

If he’s not finishing his assessments then school should be testing him to see if he qualifies for extra time in exams - usually 25%.

@Arizona29 the school should have provided an indication of the minimum grade they expected for your son from Y7 onwards. It’s usually on the reports you receive at Parents Evening. Did you ever receive this?