Just got back from DCs year 11 parents' evening and i felt a slight air of panic amongst the teachers .....

Ok, Russians, I apologise for that rudeness, but I guess I was feeling aggrieved that you can't see the difference between one child being forced to downgrade their Uni choices, and another having no way of feeding themselves or being fed.

I just feel that while yes, it will be a shame for the first set of students, it's a tragedy for the second set.

In social housing. No local connection to be able to get housed in any other area. Prohibited Steps order keeping me in this town also, for one of my younger DC's. No legal Aid to go back to court to try to get the PSO lifted, and it was refused last time I tried to self represent. Chances are it would still not be lifted. So another 7 years minimum tied to this town.

No, moving isn't an option.

Could she do horticulture perhaps?

If I were in the position where my child was being failed so badly by her school, and would have no opportunities in the area after school, then I would move. However, I appreciate that if you're disabled you may not have a choice of housing, or the freedom to do that.

Is it possible to look into that? Particularly if you have 2 more children who may find themselves in a similar situation.

...not that I'm saying being screwed out of your university choice by Gove is fine, btw.

Couthy has posted in desperation many times before about her DD's education and her DD has been appallingly let down by her school who have not offered a suitable education pathway for her, while also being screwed over by Gove's scrapping of modules.

From what I understand from her previous posts, if her DD doesn't get on the catering course, there aren't any other options and her DD may end up at home with no college course, no job prospects and no money, and a mother who can't afford to keep her.

That must be an exceptionally worrying prospect, and I agree that it is 'worse' than someone having to downgrade their university choice, while still having options open to them.

Also, just a little puzzled on the financial front:

• If your DD is in FT education, you will receive CTC and CB, and will have to buy her food and clothes and ?pay her transport to college.

• If she is in an apprenticeship, she would be paid (albeit not a lot for the first year, though it would rise). You do not want her to follow this path because her food, clothes and transport would cost too much.

I apologise, I do not have all the figures to hand and obviously it will depend on your individual circumstances. Is the gap between the two in financial terms large? Is it so large as to make apprenticeship as a Plan B completely impossible, even if the alternative is her not doing anything and staying at home?

Apologies, x-posted.

Couthy, if it has been a child's lifetime dream to follow a particular career path, and it is stymied by the change in grades (because it is not always the case that children CAN just go to a different university with lower grades - many popular qualifications are offered with very similar grades by all possible institutions, and a child may have been just within striking distance of that but then miss out), and as a result they have to follow a completely different career path, less satisfying, probably less financially rewarding, and certainly not as emotionally fulfilling as the one they wanted to folklow, it DOES make a significant difference to their life outcomes.

There are obviously particular issues in your own family circumstances - your own disability, your DD's SN, the financial situation of your family as a whole - that mean that in you case a dropped grade and a significant re-think about career direction [though as a PP has said, it may not have been a viable career choice anyway] cause particular issues. But there will be many, many other hard cases at many other grade boundaries, and to claim that your case is uniquely bad, and in particular to claim that all cases with a vague resemblance to yours are all significantly worse than any others is extrapolating too far from your data....

Couthy, could I suggest, therefore, that you book a meeting with your DD's SENCo within the first couple of days of next term?

You may also need to involve the teachers for the 3 relevant subjects, to identify exactly what the barriers are to her getting a C in each subject. It may also be helpful to identify whether it is 'current grade border uncertainty' or 'CM's daughter finding the grade requirements harder than originally expected' that has caused the prediction to drop - have you been informed which, or is it just your assumption that it is the current uncertainty around grades?

You then need to work out a joint plan of action, with the school, to give her the best chance of exceeding her current prediction AS WELL AS a fall back plan (e.g. sources of funding to enable someone to accompany her to the more distant college, specialist residential colleges for those with particular SN - I know that our local v highly regarded FE college for those with some specific SNs has a catering arm and has supported residential accommodation, or particular charities or helplines for her SN that may be able to provide advice or partial funding etc).

I posted about this in Feb 2012, it's definitely Gove's doing - he said exam results would fall as a result of his meddling.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/1412636-Are-you-prepared-for-exam-results-to-fall

couthy Sadly for you the evidence remains on this very thread. Yesterday at 11:44:17 you posted I don't give a crap that less pupils will get an A*

I await your apology for implying that I'm a liar.

Not once have I posted 'I don't give a crap', please stop putting words in my mouth that aren't there.

I have said I sympathise with those that will get an A rather than an A*, but also that that is quite a different situation to what will happen to some DC's in some areas where there are no college courses for those who get D/E/F.

And that those who were expected to get a C, and are now thrown in that position ARE going to be worse off than those who drop to an A.

That's not being unsympathetic, it's pointing out the differences in life outcomes between those who get an A and those who get a D, especially in areas like mine.

And they are different, significantly so.

Trying to say that it is just as bad for every child to drop a grade, when it clearly isn't, is disingenuous.

Teacher Thank you for your informed and empathetic comments.

It's really sad to come into a thread where everyone is worried about the same thing and trying to be mutually supportive and for one person to say 'so what if someone can't be a doctor', 'so what if someone can't go to the uni they want' and 'I don't give a crap'. It's ride, it's aggressive and it's mean.

And if DD can't earn enough to cover her food and clothes, then she MUST be in FT education.

It's also financial considerations in situations like mine - on a day release course or apprenticeship, she wouldn't be earning enough to cover her food, clothes and travel, yet her CTC and ChB would stop because it isn't FT education.

It's not as simple as all that for everyone, and not everyone has the ability to survive without that.

My earlier post was X-posted

She is getting 25% extension time, and a scribe for CA's and exams. Not in class though.

The school is offering nothing extra to usual.

I am spending hours doing revision with DD, and helping her practice for her CA in Catering.

I'm organising appointments with her SenCo, ringing the LA, trying to find other avenues for courses.

I can't tell how the work experience is going to go, but the local college won't DO the day release, as that course isn't offered in that way.

So, Couthy, what are you doing about it? (Just looked up the school I mentioned. Their Easter School, with personalised timetable for every Year 11, starts on Tuesday - they broke up yesterday. Does your school do something similar?)

I would dispute the 'far worse' comment. For every child whose previously mapped-out future looks to be in doubt it is a potential disaster.

I didn't claim it was 'irrelevant' for any other child except my own - I said it would be unfortunate for all children affected, but far worse for those now getting 'D's instead of 'C's, or lower grades than that, especially in areas where those who are in the 'in between' courses aren't available.

That's NOT just my child, as pointed out upthread, it's lots of children.

I never expected DD to get A*'s. what WAS expected was that she would scrape 3 'C's, and get into college.

Those expected previously to get A stars, but will now get A's, will still have plenty of opportunities for post 16 education. At least they will still HAVE opportunities.

If 199 18yo's with A grades at GCSE and A grades at A level went for a retail job and one 16yo with D grades at GCSE and not even a college course after, who do you suppose is least likely to get the job?

Yes, it will be a shame for those who lose out on an A*. But to see it as exactly the same as those who may be left with no FT college course, no CTC or ChB, possibly parents that are unable to financially support them at this point, and no recourse to benefits as legally they are meant to still be in education, is just blinkered.

It really ISN'T the same situation at all.

(Oh, and would the shop she has worked in for work experience sponsor her through something like an apprenticeship with day release study etc? Possibly another avenue into the same type of industry, as there is not a requirement to be 'in school' until the new 'leaving' age, just to be in a position that receives training or education.)

Couthy,

The point is, these 'D's are PREDICTIONS. She doesn't have those grades yet.

So what are you, the school, and your DD doing, by working together, to strain every possible sinew to turn those predicted Ds to Cs on the day? I know of a school which has been open every day of half term, and will be open every day over Easter, with a variety of drop-in sessions, booster lessons, exam revision classes, 'meet the teacher about your practical project', 'how to boost your controlled asessment scores' - anything to get their pupils the grades that they need, and this is a school just below the Government floor targets, in a very, very deprived area so it seems likely that other schools in better areas would be doing even more. Or does the college provide any access / booster courses that could help to bridge the gap?

Rather and sit there with a 'we're all doomed' approach, what are you, your daughter and her school doing about it? I appreciate that she has SN - has she accessed, and has the school asked for, every possible support, extension and special consideration? Does she have specific support in school, and are they working with her daily and in a determinedly targeted way on the things that are bringing her prediction down?

The current situation and uncertainty are dreadful to everyone, wherever they sit on the grade continuum - not forgetting those teachers and heads whose jobs depend on getting a certain percentage of certain grades.

fourarms yes, year 11. She's always found physics more difficult than other subjects, but she's predicted a* in everything else, so it seems to me there's no reason for physics to be the anomaly, if that makes sense.

They had a difficult year 10 with different teachers for various unavoidable reasons, but I'm disappointed her prediction and expectations have just been dropped like this.

I think you're wrong about the medical school thing, but I have not looked into the subject closely since none of my DCs is interested in or could be medical doctors. I continue to be about your complete refusal to accept that any child who is disadvantaged by the changes we hear, and fear, are going to happen (we don't know, after all) which means practically every single child taking the exams this time round, is being treated really poorly. DD1 is 2E and she is completely screwed by the system. But I'm used to that, there's no point moaning about it, there's no point crying about the fact that, as an ed psych told us two weeks ago, government policy is that people with dyspraxia, dysoexia etc should not be getting As because As aren't for 'people like them'. yep, someone in the DoE apparently told the ed psych this recently. But what can you do, it is what it is (and what it is is crap). But this arbitrary manipulation of grade boundaries that we are told is going to happen this year - this is something else entirely. And for you to claim it's irrelevant for everyone except your own child is just rude.

I suspect the aim will be to go back to the Normal distribution.
Makes it harder to preach about "improving schools"
but means that the grades will return to meaning something.

I almost feel most sorry for kids who got their GCSEs in 2011 as they are the year that had it too easy .... and will be remembered as such.

On the other hand, once the next stage of education is under one's belt, grades should be removed from the CV anyway.

She (albeit slower than most) cooks really well. Ok, her knife skills aren't the best, because she's slow, but there really isn't anything else she CAN do.

We haven't found her 'special skill' yet.

Tbh, I get your reservations. I really do, but WTF else is there for a DC with dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia etc?

She's not good with people, so people facing jobs are out (no retail or childcare), she's dyspraxic which rules out hairdressing (and probably the catering she has her heart set on), she isn't good with her hands to do a practical subject, she isn't any good at art, she is functioning at a 9/10yo's level in maths at 15, she really HASN'T got any other skills.

She eventually wants to do cakes, not main meals, so there will be far less knife work involved. She has got herself work experience in a local cake shop (best in town actually), and that's HER dream.

If she doesn't get the three 'C's, she can't do the course at college that she needs.

If an A* student gets an A, there ARE still medical schools they can go to.

It is hard on the A star / A pupils, but it WILL hit C/D pupils MORE especially in towns like mine.

Maybe not in every town, but in this town, if you miss out in a 'C', you're screwed.

talk about Don't know where atlas bout cam from. Presume autocorrect. Or rubbish typing skills.

couthy you have no idea what you a talking about when you atlas bout my DD. you also have no idea about education if you genuinely think that predictions are nailed on grades. Nobody is 'meant' to get any grade. None of us know what grades our kids are going to get (you certainly have no idea what grades your current Y6 child will get when he does his GCSEs ). All we know currently is that teachers in this thread are saying that grade boundaries at all levels are going thugh the roof and that is something to be concerned about.

You say so what if a young person can't be a doctor or do the course they want at a uni they want - how would you feel is someone said so what if your DC can't do catering? Which nobody is saying, incidentally, despite your aggressiveness and nastiness. As an aside - I have sever dyspraxia. DD1 has severe dyspraxia. There is no way either of us could ever ever do catering. I a million years. Last time I tried to do proper cooking in the kitchen I set myself on fire (as I've mentioned on MN before). And not for the first time either . I'm more than surprised you think catering is a possible option for someone with dyspraxia. I'm