GCSE reduced subjects advice needed

I agree with this. Perhaps school havent been informing you but I cant believe you had no idea of the pathways its on every school website generally. Or you had no idea throughout his sats exams of results, you suspect dyslexia but have never thought about assessment? It all seems like you expect the school to have done everything. Being in the pathway isnt always school informing you of issues because they may well be assuming should be aware of this.

Yeh not asking you to justify, the opposite if anything. Science is two GCSEs is all I am saying.

Health & social and business can be taken as GCSE or Btec but if the latter, they are still L2 quals, so just as valid.

@clarynot that I should justify but she got History, French, Science, health and social care, business studies and RE. She failed maths and English language and English Literature. If we’re going into technicalities, health and social care and business weren’t even GCSEs they were Btecs I believe.

If she took combined science triology and got a grade like 6-6 or 5-6 along with five other GCSE grades of 4+, then yes, she got seven GCSE L2 passes. Absolutely. Nothing about this is "technically" (which kind of implies "not really").

You can take A-levels with 5s and 6s at GCSE, depending on the school/college's entry requirements for year 12 (it's obviously a good idea to know what those are).

@OhDear1116 GCSEs is pretty decent for our area. I was pleased she got 6 really good grades and it was clear she put the effort into the subjects she loved. Technically science is a double subject so you could say she got 7. I don’t know the OPs son. I’m not sure if he’s capable at A-levels or not, my advice was to listen to the school and if he is wanting to do traditional a-levels then his focus may need to shift to maths and English.
And to add my daughter’s school has failed its last two OFSTED inspections. I still have another daughter there in year 9 who is (by all accounts) thriving. She’s always been more academic than her sibling. But given what happened to her sister, I’ll be keeping a closer eye on things.

@Isthisit22 I’ve asked that repeatedly. Of course he might not have taken them.

@thinkofsomethingdifferent Yes, your discussion with school was very late but she still only got 6 GCSEs. Your school was clearly pants at assessment! Clearly this is a discussion for y9. They must know who their lower group are! Plus what were her sats? Why do you think the OPs DS is capable of A levels? Your DD probably could not have managed them, so why can this DS? 5/6 grades are no use for A levies.

The system seems so broken that they decide part way through year 9 what choices are going to be open to a child over the next few years! children change so much at that age.

@Carycach4it is indeed a cautionary tale. My daughter did really well in her other subjects, but these are the two that follow you around. But it’s also worked out in the sense that she’s at college full time, so not sat about (she works on a Saturday. She does 3 days hairdressing, 2 days doing maths and English. A lot of the things she didn’t “get” in maths she now can and I’m confident in a pass this time. English she was just unlucky by one mark, and it’s clear from her second attempt she just couldn’t be arsed. But she’s now got a tutor and he reckons she can easily get a 7 in English if she applies herself, so that’s all I can hope for.

@OhDear111im not sure dictate is the right word, but DD was given options in Y9 which she chose and started to study for - and enjoy. She was then being told she had to drop 2 of them (history and french, business she could keep), in favour of additional maths and English. I pushed back given that a lot of work had already been done in the option subjects and that identifying problems in 30% of the students in maths and English so late in the day wasn’t great. For my daughter I believe it was the right decision to go against the school, given she passed 6 GCSEs with good grades. But that was knowing she was going to take a vocational course at college. I wouldn’t advise it for a student who is wanting to take the traditional a-level route.

What were his SAT results?
I find it strange that you have no knowledge of years of his actual marks in school.
His school will 100% have info on options pathways if you look on their website.

@thinkofsomethingdifferent Rhats an interesting point. Can parents dictate to a school what subjects dc do? Not sure they can. They should be informed (and y10 is late) but I’m not sure parents can demand dc are taught optional subjects and how many they are taught. Is it written in law about parental rights? If this DS is doing 8, I cannot see how that is wrong.

Well thete you go op, this is a cautionary tale for you! Your dc really really doesn't want ti be failing maths and/or English. Even if they are kst through onto the next level, They will be made to resit and that's a massive diversion from their A levels or whatever they do next.

@Arizona29yes I received a letter in the post second week in March. She had been studying her option subjects since year 9, so was well invested into her subjects and it seemed a shame to ditch them so close to Y11. I think a lot will depend on what he wants to do at college. My DD is doing hairdressing so although maths and English was desirable, they let her enter at level 2 (rather than 1) due to her high grades in her other subjects. Had she wanted to study more academic subjects like history (original plan), she wouldn’t have got in.

Bottom set for maths could mean he’ll he getting extra lessons to get him up to required standard, make an appointment with the head to see what’s going on.

Just a bit of hope. DS struggled with GCSEs - the sheer volume of subjects was tricky. He was diagnosed with dyslexia and finally ADHD in Yr10.

In the end he passed 8 with good marks in many of them - highest in English. He is now doing very well in A-levels as he feels supported and is focusing on subjects that he is interested in (rather than subjects like maths where he struggles). We did also look at B-tecs. There are many options.

The school seem utterly crap though so I’m glad you are on them and advocating for him. Good luck.

You can say no OP. I had the same thing with my daughter and only when I said no in writing did it generate a meeting. I’d had no warning either, previous parents evenings all good and she was middle ground in terms of assessments, always achieving a grade 4. The history teacher kind of implied that they were over full and that may be why this was happening. He was also cautious and didn’t want my DD to fail maths and English in favour of history.

At the meeting the head actually implied that I would be a bad parent not to allow this to happen. I hit back by saying I knew my child and that her mental health would be impacted if she removed her from the subjects she loved - French and history. I argued to remove her from PE (one day per week) but this was denied. I could hear her point - we were risking not hitting the grade 4 in maths and English. But again, why inform me so bloody late?!

In the end, we stuck to what we had. She gained a grade 7 in history and a 6 in French but a word of caution OP - my dd failed maths and English. Englis by one mark so it was remarked and again a fail. Due to her college course it didn’t cause a problem, but she resat in November and failed. The pressure is now on to pass in May as this is something that may follow her around for a long time.

So my advice would be to go to the meeting and listen. Although my dd failed the core exams, I still stand by the decision to keep her on the current path as it would have singled her out at school and also taken away the subjects she actually enjoyed. BUT, I remain frustrated that this option was put to us in the middle of year 10. Action should have been taken before and had I been informed, perhaps I could have supported my dd more. She now has a tutor and he’s confident that she will gain that pass in May.

This is so true. My daughter got high gcse results but she is still finding A levels hard. The leap is tremendous and the work load huge!

Older two at univeristy now - doing well on courses they love - eldest final year and middle one first.

A-level were hard for different reasons - and with eldest do think we should have explored BTEC or mix of A-level and BTECs more for her but she got the grades to do course she wanted so worked out in end just extremely stressful for us all.

Hopefully your school is doing something behind the scenes to organise information about why they think this is best for your DS and/or put in some extra support and your next meeting is more useful.

Your approach sounds very sensible to me - find out why they've decided this and why this hadsn't been communicated and what tests they've done.

I too wonder if this may come down to a Subject access request - there a link below that may help if that does become necessary.

https://sendiass4bcp.org/support/parent-carer-resources/right-to-access-information/

We've not had much luck with SENCOs over the years - fought like hell for screen tests to be told all fine then blanked - taken for my kids to get to university to get near testing - just like me and then yep there were problems just like we all knew.

To me it suggests that he is not entirely sure what the reasoning behind the decision-making process was, and is fudging around the issue a bit to be diplomatic. ‘Nuanced’ also suggests not particularly compelling reasons…
Good luck, @Arizona29 Do let us know how you (and dc) get on - we are rooting for you both!

"Nuanced" suggests to me that he was party to information that hasn't been shared with you.