Further maths GCSE

I was taken aback when pg with DD, due 2 weeks after 9/11. All of us then pg talked a lot about it.

My DS is in Y11 and they have been doing the Good Friday Agreement in GCSE History which was happening as they were being born.

9/11 is talked about in schools. Y8s weren't born when it happened.

since history is the recent past (apparently), I wonder if they'll do 9/11 for the current year 8s?

When I was at school in the 1970 and early 1980ss, they did talk about the second world war in history. By your logic that was wrong, as it was only 36 years from VE day to my O Level history exam. The last helicopter lifted off the roof of the US embassy in Saigon forty years ago (not a very good terminus ad quem, but it'll do).

DD was studying fall of Berlin Wall in history. 1989, anyone?
I thought it was great, I could tell her how people felt about it.

var if you want to know what the further maths papers are like, they are here: www.mrbartonmaths.com/gcsefm.htm

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club/1567205-When-does-current-affairs-become-history-Or-am-I-now-utterly-past-it

Unfortunately, it didn't attract many responses. But from those it did, it seems that lots of things within my lifetime are now counted as history. Also that it's been like that for some time already.

And yes, in schools for O and A level, the curriculum was based on world history not just British (one paper on each, for my A level)

I am a little surprised by the implication that international history is taught ahead of British history.

for example, in English, everyone gets the same paper but you choose which questions you want to answer and you tailor the answers to the books you 've studied.

It is possible to write questions which can be answered with reference to both the Angevin kings of medieval England and the activities of the Viet Cong on the Ho Chi Minh trail circa 1967, because it's a feat managed for the essay question on the HAT. But overall, actually asking questions which make reference to dates and places does seem quite a useful thing for a history exam. Are you saying that History in Scotland features a paper containing only questions which can be answered without concern for the period that has been studed?

Yes, ds is at dance school. She got a place at the other school but chose not to go. However she thinks she may like to go there for a levels then apply for an MT degree aged 18 rather than a diploma at 16 like lots of her classmates.

The private school do 9 or 10 gcses with the option of an extra curricular one in subjects like drama or astronomy.

Both schools don't choose options until year 9 to start in year 10.

Pissed off at the shambles I mean.

Ah - I thought it was unusually frank for a state school!

Is dd's a performing arts school?

DS (state grammar) has chosen options early (in year 8) & they have reduced from 11 to 10 to allow for the linear exams. They did say at options evening that they didn't actually have the curriculum for a lot of the subjects . He wants to go into performing arts so doesn't need the super star top grades he might need if he was aiming for something very academically competitive - I'd be bloody pissed off if he was!

No, it's a private school.

Dds school on the other hand doesn't offer either further maths or triple science & most pupils will not go on to a level but vicationsl training which makes me think that she needs to do some self study to extend herself.

That was my thought, put the exam board down so they can more quickly verify it's genuine.

Since UCAS applications require a student to put the exam board on the application, it must be used by some unis.

It's so that, in the event of dispute, we can check that the applicant is telling the truth by contacting the board. I have never heard anyone doing admissions looking at the board for any other reason, and aside from prejudice and rumour, there is no basis for making such assessments anyway.

Balletgirlmum - that's a great letter - is it from a state school?

wouldn't it make so much sense to adopt the Scottish single exam board system? I.e. an A in History (say) is an A in History. You get to university and everyone has followed the same syllabus and taken the same exam.

So you'd remove all options from the syllabus and teach just one period? There are currently about thirty optional modules in A Level History, ranging from the Angevins to Vietnam, and schools offer a subset based in the interests and experience of the staff. How do you propose to select that period? How do you propose to staff it with qualified teachers?

The truth is that even teachers don't know what the new gcses will be like.

A letter from ds's soon to be school sums it up.

"Dear Parent

Some of you may have noticed that the government’s Department for Education (DfE) recently decided that they would not recognise International GCSEs (IGCSEs) in their exam performance tables any more. Interestingly, this is an exact reversal of a decision made by the DfE a few years ago when the former education secretary Michael Gove was keen to persuade maintained schools to take the international alternative, following the independent sector which had turned to it in a big way. IGCSEs were, in general, felt to be more appropriate to more able candidates, more traditionally content-heavy than the GCSE, and assessed by a single terminal examination.
However, we now have a new education secretary and a new policy. The DfE has removed IGCSE examinations from the performance tables although schools are still at liberty to enter their pupils for IGCSEs if they choose. Undoubtedly this is being done to try to ensure that schools take up the new reformed GCSEs, which start being taught this September. This has led to the publication of clearly absurd performance tables in January 2015, with a large numbers of schools, including Eton and our school achieving 0% of pupils passing 5 or more subjects at GCSE, including English and Maths.

But is IGCSE now easier than the new GCSE? And is that a turnaround from the position where independent schools first, and then many maintained schools, chose it precisely because it was a bit more challenging?
The simple answer is that we don’t know yet as no pupil will sit these examinations until May 2017. We are looking carefully at it however and we will continue to allow each subject department to analyse what is on offer and then make up its own mind as to what course best suits our pupils and, where relevant, gives the most appropriate and useful preparation for A level. It may be that, as the new schemes of work appear, some departments will say that they prefer the new GCSE specification for their subject: if they do, they will be free to choose it.
Ultimately it’s not about allegedly "easier" or "more difficult" exams. Our teaching staff are looking for courses that will give their pupils a good grasp of the content and grammar of the subject, provide appropriate ranges of stretch and challenge, furnish a strong basis for further study at A level, and be reliably assessed and efficiently marked. Therefore the decision depends partly on our impression of the efficiency or otherwise of the exam board in question.

Dc do triple in same timetable slots as double. The double syllabus is covered y 10 then y11 is revision or triple.