GCSE reduced subjects advice needed

It will change if you display enough middle class outage and entitlement when dealing with the school.

I do wonder what your plan would be should you be successful and get him reinstated on the mainstream track? Are you going to get him a lot of private tuition? Because if you're not, then you're just making his future harder. His teachers have made a list of kids most likely to fail. Your kid is on it. Getting him reinstated doesn't change his abilities.

I agree with this. Passing English and Maths is key or it will be a roadblock to everything else. I would be arguing for him doing a reduced number of subjects but that he likes. And don't pick art. Massive time suck and if you are not fast with doing coursework it will be really stressful to try and put enough in.

Contact head, head of year,whoever you can get hold of and ask for a meeting this week.

Surely you cannot have got to y9 without knowing if his academic performance is good/average/below average.
Right the way through primary school and secondary you will have had at least an annual (if not more frequent) report stating whether he’s well above / above / meeting / below expectations (or similar grading) in various subjects.
If he’s always been meeting or better, then you need to ask for an explanation of why he’s been put on this pathway given that his performance has always been adequate enough. If he’s generally not been performing well, then I’m surprised you’re surprised.

Given that the problem seems to have been not finishing his exams, it sounds at least possible that he has something like a processing problem, or an executive functioning problem. If so, there are steps the school could and should be taking to help him, and in addition it is possible that they might be able to apply for extra time for him in exams.

I think you need to write to the form head, SENCo, head of year and school head to ask (1) why this wasn't raised long ago; (2) why they haven't either arranged an assessment or asked you to do so; and (3) that he be put back on the pathway he expected but with urgent arrangements being made for assessment, support and, if appropriate, exam concessions. Say that, under the circumstances, it is not acceptable to give you such a short deadline to respond to the form but that your wish is that he should do the subjects he chooses and not have to waste his time on practical subjects he has no interest in doing. Give them a list of his choices.

I eas also going to mention processing speed. It is impacted by dyslexia, but also dyscalculia - which came to mind due to the lower maths grouping.

I would also try very hard to get your son a formal assessment by an educational psychologist. I did this for my DC and it was very eye-opening.

Schools set these kinds of deadlines but if there is an ongoing discussion about what GCSEs your DS is going to do then the final decision will have to be pushed forward.

This sounds very stressful OP.

When you say “science” is that single science, or double award, or all three sciences? I ask because the number of GCSEs your son gets will affect his options going forward.

It is bizarre that they are forcing him to do 2 creative options when a) you need to have an interest/talent in them to get much out of them and b) they are among the most time-consuming of subjects!

Having said all this it sounds like they have valid concerns about your son’s likelihood to pass his English and Maths GCSEs, both of which are crucial for whatever he wants to do next.

I fully understand your assessment of your son as being bright and intelligent. He may well be, but if he’s in the bottom set for maths,
for example, he is definitely not getting something and will need lots of extra help in order to achieve the magic grade 4.

At the very least it sounds as if there’s been a huge breakdown in communication here and I really hope you manage to speak to the head of year pronto.

Of course it can be changed after that if school have messed up
Or you could move school if needed.
Nothing is final at this stage
Even when people say things are final they rarely are

Ah I took too long to reply.

@Arizona29 you or he must have been aware that he was not finishing tests and was thus getting low marks. Whatever, I think some investigation of why would be helpful.

I wouldn;t worry about the school's deadline – it’s arbitrary and I am sure that if you are continuing to discuss, changes can be made.

Is the major issue the two creative subjects which he is not interested in?

YY what subjects does he want to take that he cannot? Are they A level choices? as in he would want to take French and geog (for example) for A level?

The intervention would be a good thing if he is going to struggle to pass maths and English. Without those he probably can't do A levels and deffo not go to uni.

So I would focus less on "my child has no SEN" and more on "look, he doesn't want to do these creative subjects – he would happily do fewer than the norm but can he not do geog instead of food tech" or whatever he actually wants to do. I know it’s tough but sometimes it’s best to be pragmatic.

OP, the biggest risk to your DS not being able to do A-levels and degree would be him failing maths and English.

I also echo PPs, ignore the arbitrary gcse options deadline.

Be fair! She is being made to feel like time's up and rushed by the (lack of) comms from the school. Better get down from your high horse before you strain yourself.

From the fact you acted like 27 Feb is some kind of cliff edge when quite clearly it won't be

Hey OP I was on your other thread.

A lot of questions from you (understandably) but firstly be assured that maths, 2 x Eng, 2 x science, history or geog or French plus (say) DT and food tech will not stop him from taking A levels and a degree. Obviously if there is a specific subject he may want to take at A level (geog, history, MFL) he should pick that; but he could also take science or maths or English A levels or subjects like psych, sociology, economics, class civ, business without the GCSE. He would need to get the grades ofc.

But for sure i can see that you and he don't want that. I agree it does seem very narrow and perhaps overly focused on creative subjects which you say he is not interested in – often the advice is not to take more than one of those anyway bc of CW. So I would want to raise that with the Senco. I agree you need to have a meeting with them to discuss. I agree I would raise it with the head. It seems odd if he is one of only 16 out of the year group (of 200+?) to be on this pathway with no indication of an issue.

It does sound as though he needs some work on exam technique and maybe some investigation of why he is not finishing exams; a friend's DC had this issue all through GCSEs and only later discovered there were issues that could be supported. That is maybe where I would be focusing – bc when he gets to GCSE it won't be any good if he knew the answers but didn't write them down. I also wondered about dyslexia as it sounds like a processing isseu maybe?

Re assessments – the teachers will have been doing assessments through the year; he may only have done one tranche of exams but there is more to assessment than that. I'm also thinking was anything not raised in reports over the last 2.5 years?

Re your question about can he just do the exams anyway – well no. The school is the exam centre and will enter him. He can't just rock up to the history GCSE and obvs if not studied it would be impossible.

In practice, there will be more time than that. You don't need to accept their excuse of running out of time or this arbitrary deadline for choosing GCSE options. What if a new child joined the school over the summer? They would have to fit them in and timetable their GCSEs later than Feb. There will be a way around this. The main thing to do is to escalate this as high as you can, call the school, ask for a meeting with his form teacher and head of year - and preferably the head teacher too. Query the SenCo involvement and tell them about the poor communication that has landed your son into this stressful unexpected situation. At the least I would expect her to have sat down with you and your son and explained why the school thinks this is the best option for him.

I would also add that practical subjects like DT, art and cooking can be very intense and can require a lot of coursework. Not to mention natural talent for eg sketching out ideas. If he prefers languages then he might well actually do better with being able to choose his options fully. Very odd of the school, wonder if they are pushing this because they want their results to look perfect so would rather not enter an uncertain student. Be aware too of the difference between foundation GCSEs and regular ones. If their plan is to only enter him for eg fpundation maths it is not possible to get higher than a grade 4 equivalent I believe, they just don't teach or examine the harder material but spend more time focusing on the basics.

They offered me the same for my son .. offered, not told me it was happening. We were so confused as to why it was offered, he was bright, middle to top sets for maths, English, science. School explained it was because he was an anxious quiet boy who gets stressed easily - very true at the time. We declined, ds did great in his exams. He found his confidence and ‘place’ in friendship groups etc which in turn helped with his anxiety and stress levels. You know your child best, do what you both feel is right.

Surely you've had reports and feedback during his time at school? Test results?
Has he never talked to you about how he is doing?surely you knew what sets he was in and how his grades were looking?

It's not all down to school. It's great when schools are great but we are the ultimate safety net

Have you never read any of his work ?

It's bizarre to have so little idea how your own could is doing

@Arizona29 He might be bright, in terms of savvy, but he’s not when it comes to school work. I’m amazed you had no idea this was coming. What have all his school reports said? What were his sats results at primary? Meeting expectations or not? Has he actually been working? Parents always think dc are bright but that’s not the same as being academic. I’d ask for an explanation though. With two practical subjects, he will be busy. I’d try and negotiate to drop one of these for a humanity. But - if his writing is poor, then that might be a struggle. Not finishing usually means dc don’t process the questions/answers quickly enough.

I agree with @SundayMondayMyDay

One of my daughters has dyslexia. Her school recommended we have her tested in year 11, when she failed to do herself justice in her mocks. They said her results were out of line with the quality of her homework and with her contribution in class.

The assessment found that she was struggling with phonological processing and working memory and it recommended that she be given extra time, which she was.

I’d start with the head of year. There is time to sort this out before September.