Daughter not allowed to do separate Science GCSEs

Your DD has comfortably passed the papers she has sat so far .There is noreason why she shouldn't pass the other modules too.
You are paying for this! Kick up a stink!

"friday16 well obviously I was wrong about the Ofsted aspect
so is the suggestion that private schools are immune to their grade stats?"

To an extent, yes. For example, although I think the reasons for switching to the iGCSE were rather spurious, more than a few private schools were willing to drop their "5AC-EM" measure, which is the key metric for secondary schools, to zero by switching to the iGCSE maths and/or English before they were accredited. They thought the iGCSE was better (which is, at least, arguable) and were willing to take the hit on their league tables.

But in any event, none of this really matters to outsiders. Private schools are private companies. Parents who pay the bills are customers. So long as the teaching fulfils the compulsory education requirements of the 1944 Act and the safeguarding is OK, anything else they do is a matter between the school and the parents.

friday16 well obviously I was wrong about the Ofsted aspect
so is the suggestion that private schools are immune to their grade stats?

Yes, it applies to both. The schools can be inflexible and they are always right! The problem is that you do not always know what your DC will be good at before you join the school. This definitely can apply to languages and taking single sciences is a similar problem. Double is fine unless you are a really needing to push on with the sciences and do the extra work. Offering languages up to GCSE only and belatedly finding they are no longer available at A level is another problem.

"Clearly MissionImpossible3 is not experiencing that admirable view in her daughters school wrt science"

Except your claim was they're all worried about their Ofsted rating. MI3's daughter is at a private school. So what relevance does Ofsted (or, indeed, any DfE accountability measure) have?

I think Cricketballs is sincere, I think of his view in his school
(I meant no disrespect to his view)
It was an admirable view but I don't think that that is the view taken by a lot of schools

Clearly MissionImpossible3 is not experiencing that admirable view in her daughters school wrt science

If 1 points off an A in Chemistry, 5 points off an A in Biology is not good enough, is this the school caring about the student and her grades or the school worried about their Ofsted ranking

Porcupine, what an odd post!
Cricket balls is saying that students are treated as individuals, and are encouraged to take subjects that interest them, even where their grades might be be fairly average, ie a grade C.
I read her point regarding bright students as being that these students will be discouraged from taking "easier" exams.
Not sure how you read this as students being treated as numbers, and teachers only caring about grades?

Also, I think her post relates to students studying History, not science.

This doesn't surprise me at all
I was surprised when I saw cricketballs' (a teacher ) comment on another thread :-
"Every school I have worked in have never stopped a child choosing an option because they are not likely to achieve higher than a C. (It's usually the other way round, i.e. high ability students 'talked out' of a subject/qualification).
I have groups every yearwith targets ranging from A* - E......it's hard work to ensure that work is differentiated but that's what we have been trained to do"

I think schools now are just machines that are driven by their Ofsted ranking
students are just numbers and their parents are viewed as pains and dealt with as individuals

I wonder whether this approach applies to both private and state schools

I know Harrow used to offer single sciences and boys could do two. So Biology and Chemistry for example with no Physics at all. DD1 did triple science but question papers in biology were bizarre in that she got a D in one paper, retook it, and got an A. She got A s overall so D result was odd. At this school top set were offered 3 separate sciences as the potential A level students were in this set and they were xpected to get an A* or A to continue. Are retakes allowed now? Double science has advantage of less work but a bad result in one can bring the overall result down. Best prep for A level is separate sciences.

Op - good luck tomorrow. DD1 has just finished her gcses. She did triple science but as an option, so extra timetabled lessons are given above double science. She has very much enjoyed it. Everyone told her that the extra units were difficult, but that was not the case in her experience. She said unit 3 built on previous work and actually made all the previous work make sense! Also the content of unit 3 was surprisingly less than the previous units - so if necessary (if doing double) your DD could cover this content herself prior to going on to AS level.

Kata - it depends whether your school are doing 3 seperate subject as in Biology, chemistry and Physics or whether they are going down the core, additional and further science route. If it is the latter, then they will probably do core at the end of year 10 and the rest at the end of year 11. If it is the former then all exams will be at the end of year 11 (unless they take all 3 units for 1 subject in year10 which would be unlikely). You need to ask your school. HTH

Could anyone explain how AQA exams will be done in June. DD expected to sit units 1 of the triple sciences in January, but now that this is off, will she sit 2 or 3 exams per science subject in June? The school didn't communicate anything about the change of plans.

If she is doing Edexcel, she can do Core, Additional and Further Science (3 awards). This is less risky than doing Biology, Chemistry and Physics. It's exactly the same amount of work and the same exam modules.

She has a good case for doing separate sciences given that her performance in each subject is different. A-grades are currency, so if she achieved ABC rather than BB, she would possibly have more opportunities.

My DS2 school has a similar system but he was in the part of the year that got an A* in his core science. The time tabling for science in Y11 was the same whether you were a dual award or all separate sciences candidate so the triple award students had to cover twice as much material in the same time. It was an awful lot of material to cover and in fact the school failed to do this in the timetabled slots so had the students in in the holidays, after school etc. They literally finished as study leave started so no revision sessions run by the teachers or anything. If your school is going to try delivering the 2 and 3 papers to their able students in insufficient time doing dual award might be a blessing.

It is mostly possible to do science A levels without triple science but you would be playing catch up a bit presumably as wouldn't have covered the module 3 material. DS1 has a friend who did dual award, went on to do 3 sciences and maths A level and is going to read chemistry at Oxford. He did get AA in dual award and worked very hard in sixth form.

Why didn't she understand how important it was??

That seems harsh. At my DC's school the requirement for triple science is to get a minimum of 6C at the end of year 9. They have 50 places for triple science and they take the top 50 children who got a 6C.

I took double science at school because my school didn't offer triple science. I went on to do A levels in Science and Maths, and went to a Russell group university to study Chemistry. I am now about to start a job as a Chemistry teacher in an independent school, teaching Chemistry up to A level.

Taking two science GCSEs rather than three is not an obstacle to A levels and a career in Science.

My ds1 did double because he wants to do more humanities.Will she be short of a subject if she does double rather than triple. To be honest he managed an A * and an A without finding it too difficult and he hasn't a scientific bone in his body but he did say that he thought he would struggle with part 3 of the physics and chem , so I think he made the right decision. And 5 years on he is at a RG and its irrelevant , if she did only manage a B then maybe it's for the best.

The issue of double vs triple mainly comes down to how many GCSE points the school will get for their league tables. Your daughter will still sit a chemistry paper and get a grade for it. If she gets an A in the Chem paper, most Sixth Forms will let her take a Chem AS level. My husband teaches Science and he says it is not always clear cut. For example, most schools start Triple Science in Year 9 with one of the disciplines, Year 10 the next, etc. this means he often has AS students with A in his subject but as they have not studied it since Year 9, really struggle. He says he would prefer a more recent gade as and more realistic indicator. The school are doing the right thing by your DD and I truly believe you should not worry. Focus on the lessons to be learnt so your DD does not over stretch herself but instead gains higher grades, not more grades.

Hello OP, my DD did the Edexcel triple science for GCSE last year. If they do the core and the additional papers they end up with double science, whereas if they add on the extension papers then they get triple science.

If your DD is considering Chemistry A level then I would say the triple science would provide a better and more thorough background. My DD does Chemistry A level and it is very difficult.

I agree, all the scores count towards the final score.

If I were you, I would ask for a meeting with the school and explain that you want her to do the triple science as a preparation for A level. Do you mind me asking - does the school have a secondary department and if so, do you intend to keep her there? The reason I ask is that my DD went to a private junior school and many of the decisions they took were based on the fact that they intended the children to stay, but that didn't apply to us as I always intended my DD to move.

Hope that helps - I know how worrying it is.

Tbh, with those grades for the P1 B1 C1 - the easiest papers - I think the school are making the right decision. They are going for quality not quantity - which is in your dd's interests IMO (if they just wanted as many points out of her as possible, she would be doing triple).

She should check with the school, or any school she wishes to move to, whether A level chemistry is possible without triple, but I think most say it is fine (not all schools offer triple to everyone who might want to do science A levels). She may have to achieve a certain grade to do A level at her school or elsewhere.

Yes, all the scores count so she will be looking at retakes if she wants an A or A* I would think.