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

(My other DC that is likely to get A's instead of A's wants to do medicine. There ARE plenty of Uni medical courses that will take students that got A instead of A at GCSE - they just happen to be less prestigious than the ones that will still only take A star students. Still not as much of an issue as my DD's 'D' grades instead of 'C' grades will be...)

There ARE no courses for the 'in between' Students in our town. The LA expect the 'in between' students to travel 40 miles on a bus from their home to the train station, a train to another town, and then another bus to the college to do the 'in between' courses.

They say they have ensured enough places on these 'in between' courses at THAT college to cope with the DC from our town too.

Ignoring the fact that lots of those on the new C/D boundary will have SN's that render them unable to do this.

By 'in between' courses, I mean the courses that are higher than 'life skills' courses, but below the local courses with a requirement to have at least 3 'C's at GCSE.

As far as the LA are concerned, they have discharged their duty to provide enough college places by providing more in another town.

Not going to help DC's like my DD though. And she is far from alone here.

Russian - I will have another DC that will be affected by the grade boundary changes in future. I have no worries about how to feed him, he will maybe get A's instead of A*'s.

He will get into Uni, maybe not the one he wants, but he will get into Uni no matter what.

However - that is a far cry from having no way of feeding a child because they've missed out on College because of the changes to the C/D boundary.

I can understand the frustration of students who may not get exactly the grades they want, to study in exactly the Uni they want, but that in no way compares to having no way of feeding your child because you can't get them into FT education post 16.

Even DD's school is currently drawing a blank, as the LA is saying that she will have to travel by bus, train and bus to a College 40 miles away in order to get onto a suitable course - whilst ignoring the fact that at 15, my DD is unable to even manage going to town on ONE bus without an adult and get home, due to her SN's.

So it's all a massive fuck up, and I can't help but think of Gove as some sort of odious snake for putting families of DC's like my DD in that position.

It's just not the same to have to pick a less prestigious Uni because of getting A's instead of A*'s.

That's a minor thing in the scheme of it. Sorry, but if you can't see that going to a less prestigious Uni is far less of a problem than having no income for food, then there's something wrong there.

I can't work because a) I am disabled myself, and b) 3/4 of my DC's are also disabled.

How do you propose I support her and feed her for two years with no income?

Childcare - would you want someone with Autism that has violent meltdowns looking after YOUR DC?

Hairdressing - would you want someone with dyspraxia who cuts their toe while trying to cut their toenails cutting YOUR hair?

Catering is the ONLY skill she has.

And she can't use it because the course is so oversubscribed and they won't relax their course requirements.

The 'C' grades don't have to be in English or Maths (which is good, as DD is working her bloody socks off to try to achieve a 'G' in Maths, as she wants to get something other than a 'U'), but DD would have scraped a C in English, a 'C' in science, and a 'C' in Catering and Textiles.

These have ALL now been downgraded to a 'D'.

Iclaudius - they WILL fill the places, that's the problem.

Howishouldbehave - that would mean being ABLE to get her into a college course to be IN FT education though...

Yes, at YOUR local college. None of our schools have a sixth form (well, apart from the Grammar and one right across town). The college here can take it's pick of students. Therefore as their courses are always full, they can pick and choose.

And my DD wants to do Catering. After speaking to the college, they will not relax their requirements of 3 'C' grades at GCSE at all.

DD was meant to get three 'C' grades - in particular in Catering GCSE. That's now been downgraded to a D. She will not get in. Her practicals are 'A' and 'B' grades, but due to her SN's, her written work is dragging that down to a 'D' now.

Not every area's college has the sane requirements.

And a 16yo with SN's is not going to cope with living away from home to get onto a college course.

There are loads of courses at our local FE college which don't need GCSE passes at Grade C. They ask for grade D or above, or even Grade E for some courses.

Subjects include Art & Design, IT and Computing, Business Studies, Health & Beauty, Hairdressing, Carpentry, Floristry, Electronics, Health & Social Care, Childcare, Music, Plumbing, Travel & Tourism, Public Services, Sport..........

www.citybathcoll.ac.uk/full-time-courses

Yes they do seem to do a lot more work than I did, partly useful work, but also they have to do their HW or get in trouble. A lot of my teachers were pretty laid back and my school at no formal did discipline system. Certainly no permanent record of forgetting a piece of German the teacher didn't give out clearly. DD2 is not impressed. 1/2 the class got formal detention. We'd have told him to get stuffed. My top set were bright, but we were far far stroppier than DCs seem to be today.

Get CB or work hard?

couthy- of course you'll still get CB for her- she has to stay in education!
The entitlement is up to 19yo.

What I don't understand is how all we hear is how much easier exams are now yet I am astonished, genuinely astonished at how hard Y10 and Y11 pupils have to work- I mean continuously working hard, after school, weekends etc. I did GCSE, and honestly I did no work other than attend lessons during school hours. How can they be easier if children spend hours and hours each week for 2 whole years working for them?

TheOriginalSteamingNit
I'm worried even without the grade boundaries changing! Dd has been generally predicted A/A* for Physics - then she got Bs in the January exams, and wasn't put in for a resit - which would be fine, but the teacher said 'as you got Bs in both, we've just changed your predicted grade to B'
That's not how predicting things works, surely?

Is your DD in Y11? At this point in time if I was her teacher & could see she'd achieved 2 Bs, I'd assume probably the same for the final exam too. Her target may still differ, but my prediction should reflect what she will see on results day.

Surely medicine will take the same number of DCs, so if they make A* to hard they will have to take some As.

I'm assuming likewise, sixth forms will have to take C's for English if B becomes very difficult to get.

It's the C/D boundary that causes the problem, collages can't take DS because low Ds English probably isn't good enough to cope with many courses.

couthy you can disagree with me all you want but that doesn't make you any the less wrong. And SHOUTING at people just makes you look silly it doesn't convince them you are right. Nobody here has said it's not terrible for the C/D boundary kids. It's terrible for all the kids. You are the only person saying it's terrible for your kid but so what you couldn't give a stuff about other kids.

I thought you could claim child benefit until your child was 19, Couthy, if they're in f/t education?

This is why it would have been better to stick to the system where the grades were based on where in your cohort you came, so top 5% A, next 10% B, whatever makes sense in terms of what you want the grades to mean. It would be an unlikely world in which one year's children were madly more intelligent or otherwise than the next/previous year over such a large sample.

Couthy aren't there ANY college courses near you that have lower requirements? I'm not talking about A levels; they tend to have a very strict C grade (or even B grade in some subjects) or no place policy, but other more vocational courses.

I currently teach a year 11 class where there are very few of them who are likely to achieve the C in both English and Maths, not through lack of effort or teaching, but because they find it incredibly difficult. Every single one of them has something lined up to do next year, whether it is a course at college that 'only' requires Ds and has the space for young people to resit Maths and English GCSE as many times as they need, or apprenticeships. Is it very different in your area? Our colleges seem to cater very well for young people without Cs at GCSE, offering childcare, construction, hair and beauty, agriculture, etc.

I wish they'd stop messing about with English, DD1 is dyslexic, she's better at lit. than language, so I really didn't want to hear they are messing that about too.

She'll get a C disasters apart, but some sixth forms want a B and at present that looks like her having to do her least fav. language CAs again.

Core science she should get her A, stupid course work report things allowing (I can't remember what they are called)
Sorry, when she gets 99% on one exam paper, dropping a grade because of extended writing, waffly course work annoys me.
I'm a firm believer in nice simple old style end of two year exams. Spreading the stress and pain over two years seems utterly cruel.