Triple Science

At my son's school they do 6 lessons a week for science regardless of whether they do double or triple. They don't remove an option for the triple - those who do triple get an extra GCSE.

My son's school have increased the number of lessons a week for each of English, Maths and Science to accommodate the new GCSEs - which means with the other compulsory subjects such as PE etc the students get 3 options and the base is 8 GCSEs, 9 if you do triple science, 10 if you also do additional Maths.

Myvisions For the new linear A level science subjects the schools have to produce evidence from a "Science portfolio" that pupils have carried out all the required practical experiments and this is assessed by the teachers and is also moderated by "examiners". There are also written questions on practical work on the new exam papers. I expect the arrangements for the new 9-1 GCSE to be similar.

Also, I did double science (many years ago!)

Only read your OP and not everything that followed so sorry if this has been repeated - once gets into A-levels it really doesn't matter, i am a biologists and manage teaching labs at a university - no one will look at whether double or triple once accepted onto alevels - hope that reassures you!

It was 13 Jan.
Wish I could see into the future tho!

I believe you are right cats.
At dd's consultation day on 13 Feb, her science tutor confirmed 9 exams all within the Summer 2018 window (DD is Yr10).
The only thing that makes me feel better for poor DD is that she finishes her Fine Art and Graphics GCSEs this term. In theory she could take on a further two GCSEs but will opt to take an accelerated Music GCSE and devote the rest of her time to extra science and maths.
She attends the i-College part of a very large Academy so had a certain amount of flexibility in her sessions. I had very severe misgivings about her working in this way, but actually her cohort are doing quite well with it and are able to arrange extra sessions (as a group) as they need it.

the extract form our school website below says that the practicals will be examined as part of the exams - which I take to mean, you do the practicals during school, then in the written exam your'e asked about them.

I think that although the practicals will be assessed as part of the new 9-1 GCSE course, they will be graded separately and won't count towards the final overall grade.

For the "old" double award Science (core + additional), it works like this:
Core : Physics paper 1 + Chemistry paper 1 + Biology paper 1 + CA.
Where CA is controlled assessment.
This may be taken in Year 10 and will appear on the certificate as one grade. On the results slips (given out on results day, the grades for each paper are available). Each exam paper is worth the same percentage of the total marks (I think the CA is a slightly lower percentage).
Additional Science: Physics Paper 2 + Chemistry 2 + Biology 2 + CA
This is taken at the end of Y11 and is given one grade on the certificate.
My daughter took GCSEs in 2016 with Core science in 2015. She has 2 different grades for each, so they won't necessarily be the same!

If they take Triple Science then all exams are taken at the end of Y11 and the exams are:
Physics: Paper 1 + paper 2 + paper 3 + CA
Chemistry: Paper 1 + paper 2 + paper 3 + CA.
Biology: Paper 1 + paper 2 + paper 3 + CA.

The exam papers for each subject Paper 1 and 2 are exactly the same for both Double Award and triple award candidates.

For the new 9-1 syllabus there will no longer be a controlled assessment (CA). I don't think the number of exams will be changing though.

maybe it's different if you do all the exams in one sitting? I didn't investigate particularly, as it doesn't apply to DD, as she's doing triple, but according to our school website:

"Combined Science

Assessment
Practicals are an essential part of student understanding of scientific theory. Parts of the course content are taught through 16 required practicals; these will be examined in the final examinations.

The qualification has six examination papers at the end of the course - two each for Biology, Chemistry and Physics - all 1¼ hours in length

The papers are equally weighted, each being worth 16.7% of the total mark

Grading - There will be a 17 point grading scale from 9-9, 9-8, 8-8, 8-7 through to 2-1, 1-1"

MyVisions, I don't really understand how that can be, from DS's experience. He did core as a separate GCSE at the end of Y10. He has a grade for that, which obviously isn't going to change. He is then going to take Additional with all other GCSEs this summer - and will get a grade for that.

I know you can't get A*/D in double science, the grades are a bit more averaged out (although the exact mechanism of dong that wasn't explained to us).

lijkk,

Currently, Core and Additional are two separate qualifications, and you can take them at different points (DS has done them a year apart) and get different grades.

I agree, though, that you cannot dissect out of them that e.g. he does well in physics but less well in Biology. However, certainly in the existing double award it isn't necessarily 'the same grade doubled'. I don't know about the new spec - I'll ask at DD's options evening, which is coming up.

"why didn't they call a meeting with all the parents to discuss options instead of just cutting it out!" Coz most schools don't do this with bad news. Most don't want to risk pushback from parents.

Triple Science can't be done effectively in 4 hours week over 3 years. No way. Last year it wasn't even signed off by QCA so they were teaching a bit blind. Y9's don't learn as well as Y11s. Even so 80 hours behind is huge and this is very poor planning.

Two people are to blame: Michael Gove for pissing around with the curriculum in a rush. Whichever deputy head timetabled this. Maybe the head of department, but he/she probably had little choice.

For teachers to deliver core teaching for free is atrocious, schools that pressurise to do this are taking the piss. The school could cheerfully pay for a couple of extra sessions for a few kids who can cope (though most schools are broke and so won't).

Finally, not doing triple is a barrier to A-level. It's easily overcomeable with effort, but it's especially an issue for Chemistry. DS should do some prep after their GCSEs.

@OzzieFem: double science is just a "science" award. But the grade counts twice (which matters for places like 6th forms which might require Xmany GCSEs for entry).

but Triple is one grade in each of 3 subjects, and the grades can be very different, not all the same.

Does that help?

Core and additional....

I think of it as a 3x3 array of 'blocks'. If you do biology, you do all the biology blocks. If you do chemistry, those three etc.

Core is the first block of each of the three subjects, cut the other way across the array.

Additional is the next 3.

Higher (?) would be the third tranche of 3.

So there are actually 2 different ways of doing 3 science GCSEs - Core, Additional and Higher (?), or Biology, Physics, Chemistry. Both have exactly the same content, just 'sorted' in different ways into the qualifications IYSWIM?

This is what I don't understand about the UK double science. You still have to study biology, chem and physics, plus do the corresponding exams but you end up with two GCSE's. So who decides which of the three subjects you get awarded a GCSE in?

O the GCSE to A-level thing:

DC's (otherwise excellent) school only does double science for GCSE.

I compared it to another school not too far away, of a similar type and in a similar area, which does do triple.

Both have pretty much identical A-level science results.

In wider discussions, including with university, it seems to be equally successful to:

• Do double in a school that only does double, then A-level sciences in the same school
• Do triple in a school that does triple, then on to A-level science in the same school

Less successful is double, then A-levels in a school where most or all have done triple, simply because of the likelihood of leaving gaps.

Conversation with a (top) university revealed that they were absolutely happy with both double and triple as backgrounds for their science students, and that even at a very top institution they had a mix of both on their science courses.

As it happens, DS is no scientist (though DD may go down that route), but my initial horror at the lack of triple was much allayed. DD has started doing coursework for double science in Y9, though, so the demands even of that course have clearly ramped up in the new spec.

Just choosing our DDS options for double there are 5×50min lessons and for triple6×50mins which seems a bit of a squeeze to me.We have a school meeting tonight,her teacher is saying she should do the triple so we want to know that if she is finding it too much can she change to double?I wish sciences were taught separately as she rally only wants to do chemistry and physics.

DD has just told me that she had 9 hours of science a week for triple science.

Both mind did triple at their comp
one is now doing a pure science degree
the other is still doing his pure science A levels

you CAN do A levels from double
but its much easier from triple

and the debacle of the new GCSEs is still to resolve itself

• people who did modular GCSEs are pretty unaware of the different beast that the linear exams of the last 3 years have been

Having read this thread I just checked DS timetable as he is doing triple science.

Has 8 hours per week of science lessons for triple. His school does not offer double they all take triple.

How long is a lesson Chinchilla?

That sounds similar to how dd's school does it except it's 3 double lessons for double & 5 double lessons for triple.

I would not advise anybody to take triple Science unless it was an option block. I have felt for a long time that to be taught well, it cannot be done in the time allowed for double Science, and this is exacerbated massively by the demands of the new course.

At my school, we timetable 5 lessons per week for double Science, and 8 lessons per week for triple. Pupils get to choose 4 options subjects, of which triple Science is one, so we only get pupils who are 'actively' choosing it. We also start in Jan of Yr 9.

I would advise you (and as many other parents as you can muster) to speak to the school to see if their decision is final or up for discussion.

My DS wants to do something within aerodynamics for vehicles, we have been told he will need to do A level maths, product design and science, not sure if just one or more sciences though, I will need to look into this

He will definitely need maths and physics, the other two sciences probably aren't really relevant for this, but the subject which might be valuable is further maths, if he's good at maths. Its a long way ahead, but you can usually find course requirements on line easily enough.