German Gcse as an external candidate

Great news OP

I was also going to say even if not 'counted' for uni applications it will still show on her CV for when she joins the real world and an employer generally doesn't ask in which sitting she took it.

Good luck with the rest. Is she about to go into yr 10 or 11?

you haven't been stamping round my school screaming have you!!!

This is representative of the "attitude" I mentioned earlier that we look out for at interview.

very similar, "our children are so so special" etc, and no acceptance that school educated children are special too! And complete blindness to the issues and difficulties that the school may be taking on, quite unable to see the whole picture.

Some home educated children have been very well taught. Some have been brilliantly prepared for further education, adulthood and the world of work. Some have been held back, and handicapped by their parents philosophy. Held back in terms of them having real choices in the world, without something being done to remedy their disadvantages. Which I spend a long time doing......

If you can't see that there are many home educators that leave their children with serious problems that take years to rectify ( never mind the hard work and determination the child needs to show to overcome their poor start).. then you must be walking round with your eyes and your mind completely closed.

Many of these children are on the autistic spectrum, severely dyslexic, dyscalculic, and have previously extremely traumatised by bullying and avisuve attitudes previously at school.

many school children are on the autistic spectrum, severely dyslexic, dyscalculic, and have previously extremely traumatised by bullying and abusuve attitudes previously at home.

I'm not bothered what you think.

interesting... and you call me rude!

user1484226561
"Hundreds" of home educated children applying to your 6th form???
I absolutely do not believe what you are writing now.

user1484226561
Also you say many home educated children are very poor socially, has ever poor learning habits, and are immature.
You are incredibly rude. Many of these children are on the autistic spectrum, severely dyslexic, dyscalculic, and have previously extremely traumatised by bullying and avisuve attitudes previously at school.
Your comments are an example of why so many parents do not trust people like you to be responsible for their children. I would not let anyone with your stinking attitude near by children.
Thankfully my teen who is now at school has encouraging, accepting teachers around him.
Your fucking attitude towards home education is horrific.

I'm not a home education hater, I am a home education pragmatist, who over the years has taken on literally hundreds of hoe educated youngsters in the sixth former, and tried to help them move forward with their education and overcome their issues and problems and barriers.

user1484226561
The young people in our area are NOT "behind".
If the have applied for 6th form they have got into level 3 courses. If college at 16 it's level 3 courses. College at 14-16 provision level 2 or 3 courses.
Every single home educated young person I know who has applied for university has been snapped up for degree courses, some with no firm qualifications. Many universities and companies are incredibly open to people who have not been through the school system.
I am incredibly glad we have the schools, colleges and universities who are accepting of these youngsters who have learnt with a different approach.
We have unschooled. No curriculum.
One of mine has just started school in Year 9. He's top of maths, English, geography, RPE, computer science.
You mare get have had a different experience in your job. But thousands of schooled children "fail" each year.
You seem to be a home education hater. No idea why.

And you cannot at all compare the academic abilities of a home ed teen with that of a schooled teen: they are two different for comparison

but they are in direct competition with each other for educational places and jobs, so of course they are directly compared, every day.

as I said further up the thread, the children with spread out GCSEs are offered something, we don't turn them away with nothing, they can redo GCSEs with us, or take a level 1, or level 2 BTEC, you don't need any qualifications at all to do level 1 ( it is roughly the level of year 8 or year 9) and you can move on from that to do a higher level qualification, then go to university to do a foundation or prefoundation course.

They are not necessarily without academic ability, just have not demonstrated it.

These particular children can sometimes have very poor learning and social habits, not always, but we know what to look out for at interview, and this can lead to failure if put onto a too challenging course, even if they are capable academically.

quite often, they are just immature, and a few years behind, so they are offered a course suitable for their level. They can go on from that and do well.

I know plenty in 6th form and college with either no GCSEs or have taken them preadover 2-3 years

yes of course, taking them over two years is normal, taking them over three years happens, but the first year is disregarded, and we take plenty of students with no GCSEs at all, onto level 1 and level 2 courses, not A levels.

It is the same with uni, anyone can go if they pay, but not onto a degree course, in fact the lower you start, the more profit the institution makes from you. ( remember its £9000 a year, even if you re starting at the equivilant of GCSEs) It is quite possible to spend two or three years working up to being accepted onto a degree, or even a diploma

my sixth form isn't over subscribed, quite the opposite, we re not anyone's first choice, I don't think. We take the difficult students, the ones who have been turned down else where, or asked to leave their current school.

laughing camel, I am talking about national and government policy, applicable to everyone, and all state schools, although of course academies can do as they please, they are still measured by the same yardstick

User - I'd love to know what apparently very oversubscribed 6th form you work for.
Knowing another language is an asset. And having a GCSE in it is a way of demonstrating that you know it ( to a degree). No harm in that, as far as getting a job is concerned. But it is important to keep the language up.
The OP is in the mindset that believes that nothing is worth doing for its own sake - all work must be "cashed in" for a certificate. Sad.

user1484226561
I know many many home educating families. I know of NO youngster who has been turned down for 6th form, college or university.
This might get happen the school you are employed by but it is totally not the norm.
I personally know young people at oxford, Cardiff, Durham and Southampton universities who have NO GCSEs or A levels!
I know plenty in 6th form and college with either no GCSEs or have taken them preadover 2-3 years.
Indeed many schools stagger some GCSEs over 2 different exam sitting years. My friends son has taken 2 aged 14 and will take a further 8 at 16 years: at a state school.
You are absolutely NOT talkIng about the overwhelming number of schools, colleges and universities.
And you cannot at all compare the academic abilities of a home ed teen with that of a schooled teen: they are two different for comparison. A home ed teen who has self-taught to gcse or A level is actually seen as having a huge advantage in terms of higher education. Again, this is from personal experience.
You seem to be very anti home education. It's simply an alternative approach to education.
Sad.

This thread has been an eye opener for me. Fortunately DD has 10 excellent GCSEs - one taken in January and the other nine in May/June so it isn't an issue for us.

I still wonder what the thinking behind the OP's original post was. Perhaps she will rethink the German and allow her child to concentrate on her school subjects only.

home educators taking responsibility for their children's education should make sure they know what they are doing!

No, some are not, as i see at sixth form enrollment every year, when there are always some that simply cannot believe they re hearing "No".

however, most are aware, I think we always have some home educated children apply who have a decent set of GCSEs taken together aged 16, because their parents make sure they do it that way.

And a lot of home educators don't want a further or higher education opportunities for their children anyway, so don't care.

Are home educators aware of this? I have read quite a few HE threads on here where they extol the virtues of home education, one of them being that the children can take their GCSEs staggered through the years.

Why don't early GCSEs count?

because it's not just the grade that counts, but the circumstances in which the grade was acheived.

year 10 and 11 are high pressure, hard working years, compared to other years.

To get an A* in a subject when you are working hard on 9 other subjects as well is lot harder than when it is the only subject you had to worry bout within that 6 month period.

For example, we have had home educated children roll up at 6th form enrollment with 10 A*s and turned them away,

its not unusual for a home educated child to study only one or two subjects at once. Its so easy, to take 10 GCSEs over 5 years, concentrate on one subject at a time for 6 months, get an A* in it, drop it and pick up another, for a further 6 months.

In this way, starting at year 7, 10 As is meaningless. some HE children start even earlier, not only is the A no indication of ability, it is also often many years since they looked at that subject by the time they apply to sixth form.

Very different indeed to a student who studied all their subjects in year 10 and 11, and comes to us with 8 B grades. They would be taken above the 10 A*s over 3-6 years student. The second student has actually demonstrated a much higher level of academic achievement.

we have distraught parents every year, who keep on insisting this isn't fair, but it is fair, its based on what we know the grades indicate about that student, and what they are capable of at the next stage.

and quite apart from that, the early GCSEs do not count in the statistics and ssessments for that child, or for the school.

On parent I will never forget screamed and stamped and sobbed around our school premises for the whole enrollment week. Her daughter had got A* in English literature aged 13, but wasn't accepted onto the English literature A level course, because she had done no English work for over three years by then, and had no recent record of achievement, or even engagement.

I did feel very sorry for her, because I think she had done what she thought best for her child, but the fact was it was useless.

All was not lost though, all uk students are entitled to three years sixth form education, she could have done a one year GCSE resit year or a level 2 BTEC, then moved onto A level, but the mother never agreed to that.

The same for language A levels too btw. Look at prospectuses. They usually won't include language A levels taken in the native language in the offer.

The top universities need to make sure that their students can cope with the intensive nature of their degrees. This is evidenced by a string of top grades ALL TAKEN TOGETHER. Getting three Astar in year 9, another three in year 10 and a final three in year 11 proves the kid can study three subjects at the same time, while everyone else is doing 9 or 10. Pointless.

Why don't early GCSEs count? I don't think many parents know this. The Chinese girl's parents push their children and anything less than an A is not good enough. If they had known that getting an A at age 14 was pointless they probably wouldn't have made their daughter do it.

She could have raised her average GCSE grade significantly, if she had done this at the proper time, such a waste of an opportunity, it won't count as anything at all, and it could have counted a lot.

WHY!!

So DD's Chinese friend who got an A in Chinese (Mandarin I think) wasted her time doing it in year 9?*

cross posted, but yes! Disastrous!

stupid, stupid waste of GCSE points.

That is why, if you are French, Spanish or German speaker, for example, it is utterly stupid to draw attention to this by taking the exam early. Take it with the others, and make out you are NOT a native speaker, just someone who learnt a foreign language ( to a low level) at school, alongside many other subjects, and it will count like any other GCSE that is commonly taught as a modern language at secondary school ( these days that includes Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, etc too)

So DD's Chinese friend who got an A* in Chinese (Mandarin I think) wasted her time doing it in year 9?