GCSE reduced subjects advice needed

Ring the school, don’t email. Go to the head of year. They may have made a mistake, mixed him up with someone else with the same surname or something similar. Get some facts, and then go from there.

I agree with this too

Well things can still be changed after that

You sound very defeatist

Get an email sent to the head teacher and chair of.governors now

Look for a private SEN assessment even if you have to use credit to pay for it

I think some people just aren't particularly academic but also don't have any SEN. If he's bottom set it's likely doing the streemed programme is the only way he'll get any decent marks.

Sounds harsh but put your ego aside and support him to come to terms with the change. Or plow on and get him on the other path and face consequences of him having bad/no GCSES and what that means for further education /employment

Haa he has a SEN assessment?

My daughter has several dyslexia but was bright enough to work out how to get by. I paid for a private assessment and it has made so much difference to her. I am paying for private tuition too

It's very passive to just expect school to do everything

Does he have any idea what he may want to study at A-Level as yet? Which subjects is he going to lose that he really wants to do by changing onto this reduced pathway?

tbh, if this new pathway means he will receive significant additional support in English and maths and therefore push him up a grade or 2, I’d take that over him getting a GCSE in French.

Sorry cross-posted with you, it's got to be some sort of processing issue or something like that. I'd still want a proper meeting with head (or head of year or whatever) and write down all the questions you have.

But they will have done smaller in-class assessments and they'll be able to tell what sort of level he's on by looking at his class work. Does he mess around a lot? Has he spent much time out of the classroom for whatever reason?

1. I know you said it’s not a mistake, but it also sounds like you haven’t been able to speak to someone in person. Are you sure there’s not another child with a similar/the same name? It seems weird this is SenCo advised when your son has never had SenCo involvement?
2. You absolutely need a meeting with head, year head, form tutor and SenCo.
3. Was there any discussion when he was moved down maths sets?

I think you can argue for him to do the regular pathway. Make clear that doing the subjects he is not interested in will demotivate him, make clear his high aspirations, ask to see the year 9 assessments. If he has 100% of the marks he answered, you and the school need to look at speeding him up. However, I am wondering about being in the bottom maths set? Usually this is a pretty strong indicator that a child needs greater support. Is there something specific about maths?

If he is in the bottom maths set and he will get extra tuition time for English and maths, he should achieve his potential in these core subjects. He is studying science and a humanity/MFL. No doors are closing. Pupils have different pathways to success. It may be he needs to secure the most essential subjects first and do an extra year-in the school or at a further education college-before progressing to ‘A’ levels- to study other GCSEs. As he’s in a low set for Maths, has been given advice to improve in English and didn’t score highly in his year 9 exams, this seems a sound approach to get him the best results possible. Students achieve at different rates. I have seen this over decades of teaching years 10 to 13.

If you can, try to approach the matter with an open mind. Ask the school why they feel that is the right pathway for your son and try to listen to their reasons. I don't know your son but perhaps his prior attainment is indicative of needing a more vocational route. If you still feel it is wrong, absolutely fair to make that clear but ideally you'll have some good concrete evidence to back you up such as SATs/ CATs scores, prior attainment in previous years etc.
It is also not unreasonable to explain the impact this decision has had on your son and to suggest they reflect on their communications and take a more sensitive approach in the future.

@Arizona29
Is he articulate, and when you talk to him about the subjects can he answer?

If he was running out of time that sounds like a processing speed issue. (Processing speed and working memory are the two facets affected by dyslexia). Do you have the resources / funds available to get him a private dyslexia assessment ASAP? I mentioned in the other thread that my dc’s had always been underestimated (even through secondary school), and they have dyslexia - which isn’t always massively obvious, the student may be reading and writing okay, but much slower than their peers. They may struggle to produce much written work, and can be conversely very articulate about it when you speak to them.

Why didn’t he finish the exam papers? Was it poor exam technique or something else. Does he usually need extra time to complete class work in school. That seems to be the important question to answer first.

Maths, English, Science a humanity/language + 2 practical subjects won’t stop him going on to do A levels or a degree if he has good results in them. Getting lower results in GCSEs will.

This is really bad, how stressful.

Straight to head of year. Then head if needed. Doing this with no comms is ridiculous. One good thing is it is February and he is not starting any pathway until September? If you can pin down which subjects they are concerned about and help him improve.

I’m sure you can fight this.

Ok.

so more generally:

you should have had reports from his school all through his time at school. At primary these will have said whether he was meeting age related expectations or not.

i’ve been out of teaching for a few years now - did his year group do sats or were they cancelled due to covid? Again, sats should have given you some ideas of his ability.

re the gcse options, most schools now do this process of recommending pathway. Usually this is open to discussion with parents and the student but it also prevents situations where students want to choose GCSEs that bluntly they clearly do not have a hope in hell of ever even grading on. I’ve been in on conversations with parents where they wanted their child to do the additional maths gcse and their child was actually on track to fail the main maths GCSE unless they did a shedload of work.

so some GCSEs a school will generally be very firm about - triple science, additional maths, that sort of thing.

the pathway they are offering to me says that they think this child is on track to fail his basic GCSEs (English, maths) unless they put in a shedload of intervention.

it’s not the case that all students who need intervention have a diagnosable SEN - certainly at this age and at secondary school a fair number of them simply do not work, either in class or at home and so the school has to make them.

in some cases this is by compulsory lunchtime classes or compulsory after school classes, some schools take kids out of PE for extra maths and English, tutor time is also used.

to me this says not that your child has learning need but that he doesn’t work in lessons and so they are going to put him in a small group to make him work.

it’s not a Senco issue. It’s a behaviour issue.

First of all I’d grab the extra sessions offered and be very grateful for them - that they’re willing to give extra time & effort to make sure your dc does the best they can that’s great!! Re choices - what does your dc actually want to do? Figure that out & go from there. You can fight that battle separately IF it’s necessary!

If he wants to do A levels, he will get better GCSE results if he does the streamlined option they’re offering. But agree lack of communication was bad.

I assume they'll have done assessments throughout year 9, even if it's just the fact he's really bad in exams that's probably reason enough to restrict the timetable so he's not put under unnecessary stress.