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Original poster

Can DD retake German GCSE next year to improve grade if need be?

32 replies

Sobek · 12/03/2015 21:16

Just back from parents' evening and year 10 Dd's teacher said she probably won't hit her target grade of an A (she's double option, so does German in Year 10 and French in Year 11). I said that DD doesn't want to do French next year and would like to carry on with German with the hope of improving her grade to an A*. He said that it's no longer possible to improve your grade this way and that she will be stuck with whatever grade she gets for German this year regardless of any improvement if she takes the exam again next year. Is that correct?

OP posts:
Original poster
Sobek · 13/03/2015 19:04

Thanks to you all for your responses. Dd has a target of A but is currently predicted to get a B at best. She is disappointed as she really likes German and would like to do well in it. The teacher led her to believe that she had achieved A grades for her speaking and writing controlled assessments, which are worth 60% of the marks. He told me last night that she has in fact got Bs and that it is too late to retake any of the controlled assessments now. Dd is upset as she feels that the teacher lied to her about her marks so that she would not ask to do the controlled assessments again to try and improve her grade (any retakes would have been different questions of course). He also told me that a grade B is all she would have been expected to get anyway given the 'government statistics that the school was given about her primary school results'. She got all level 5s at primary school and was the highest achiever in the year for maths, so I'm a bit surprised at that comment. Also, why give her an A target if they only ever thought she'd get a B?

Double option students go on to take French GCSE in Year 11. They will not have studied any French for more than a year when they start the GCSE French course in June this year. The French department is rumoured to be very bad at the school and Dd doesn't rate her chances of getting a good result, hence her desire to carry on with German next year. Her teacher said that she should take French as 'two Cs are better than one A'.

It seems to me that a lot of parents complain about the MFL departments in their schools....or is it just in my county (Sussex)?

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 13/03/2015 16:20

She's certainly not stuck with the first grade! What an odd thing to say. I teach GCSE resit kids for maths and their grade will certainly count if they finally get a C. She will be issued with a certificate for a resit exam just as if it was the first time around, they don't have 'resit' stamped on them. She could bin the first certificate and no one would ever know about it.

However, resits don't count in the school league tables, so an improved grade wouldn't help the school.

tiggytape · 13/03/2015 09:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IreneA78 · 13/03/2015 09:44

Op
I don't think the school are acting in your DDs best interests at all.
I would be insisting that she does not do German this year and tries for it next year.I think one language at A* is much better than 2 at B or C

ThisFenceIsComfy · 12/03/2015 22:03

What grade is she likely to achieve now then?

Original poster
Sobek · 12/03/2015 21:58

Thanks for your reply. At Dd's school, those taking both German and French spend one year on each, so she takes German in Year 10 and French in Year 11. Those only taking one language do it over a period of two years. So she thought that if she didn't do well in her German this year, she could join the pupils taking it over two years for their final year and try and get a better grade. Her teacher said it's pointless as she's stuck with the first grade regardless. He didn't say anything about the spec changing.

OP posts:
Mostlyjustaluker · 12/03/2015 21:20

No. The first grade will be the only grade that counts for the school statics. However many exam specs and assessment criteria are changing for next year and German maybe one of them so she may have to cover new material and be assessed in a new way. Also if only your daughter is doing German it won't be possible for the school to teach one student.