starting KS4 in year 9 - pros and cons?

Doing the course over 3 years doesn't give poorer results, what gives worse results is schools that start GCSEs in Y9, then sit some at the end of Y9/10 instead of Y11. They may pick up new subjects in Y10 and schools then bang on about how many extra GCSEs are studied, ignoring the lower grades.

Dd has just started year 7 and I have started getting her in a gentle way to start thinking about this. She thinks that she will be making her choices at the end of year 9. She's in a private school so this may change as it has recently been bought out by a consortium who are definitely exam led. I actually think it's a good idea as dc have a chance of learning something in depth without the rush to the finish line iyswim. I was however unaware that doing the course over three years yields worse results. Which has made me pause for thought. Has anyone got a link to the data which shows this

That's true, WildStallions - I guess it's good for children who dislike certain subjects, but less good for those who eg enjoy art and textiles / food tech / drama / history / geography / french but can only choose one or at most two out of them to continue to GCSE.

I wonder if it's a more common thing in grammar schools because the pupils study more GCSEs, hence have a larger number of option blocks? In DD's school they have two options and that's it. So if you want to take a language and a humanity, that's it - no space for a creative subject (it may increase from dd's yr onwards to three if triple science is taught in the same time as double).

It means you get to drop subjects you don't like a year early. So for children who really hate certain subjects it's a good thing.

But it also means everyone else gets to drop subjects they don't like a year early - which solves some behaviour problems.

In reality you don't have many choices for GCSEs. So choosing them a year early isn't hard.

They also don't necessarily start the syllabus a year early. They might still be studying KS3 history or whatever. But because they're only studying GCSE subjects they have more hours per week.

DS2 is in a year group where they are doing this for the first time.

Big con for the current Y9: in many subjects, the GCSE curriculum for examination in 2018 has not yet been finalised, so the teachers don't yet know what to teach.

The early options thing would be a disadvantage for me. Not just that making decisions in year 8 seems very early/young, but also that they're narrowing their education down by dropping subjects even sooner than necessary.

This is common at grammar schools. They don't do the GCSEs early though. They extend what they study and spend an extra year on it.

Our schools do this & I don't find it a net bad thing (have read threads on MN for many yrs why folk think it's bad, and am not at all swayed

However the data is undeniable. Children who are entered early for GCSE do worse than if they were entered at the appropriate time.

Our schools do this & I don't find it a net bad thing (have read threads on MN for many yrs why folk think it's bad, and am not at all swayed). I like the way it eases DC into the exam mindset with some real exams as early as end of yr9.

My only caveat is I would prefer math especially to be decided end of yr11, I think math is the only special case.

It's more like the education system I grew up with; i profoundly loathe the traditional English system where your entire future came down to the test results in just a few short weeks in yr11.

Just my tuppence.

Do they sit any GCSEs early? (A bad idea).