Is 12 GCSEs in one sitting madness?

goodbye yes, I'm not expecting them to keep it up. I hope by the time ds gets to do it then it'll be down to a reasonable 10 (or lower).
Unfortunately it's probably going to be too late for dd2.

Dh is a governor and they do look at it, and consult regularly with parents and teachers and it does come out popular. He's been surprised.
And they get better results than the other local secondary schools with similar demographics (in fact their value added is the best)

I would choose to cut it down a lot.

Agree with the previous poster about AS Levels! Nightmare if the schools want to continue with them!

Witchend now that I've managed to get my head round what your DDs' school does, I have to say it looks like an absolute pig's ear of a curriculum offer. I'd be very against it and I bet that as the SLT see what the new GCSE grades are like for the early entries they'll pull then back to Y11 and reduce the number of GCSEs taken. Some more timid schools are hanging on to old habits, probably ill-advisedly. Unfortunately it's the DC who suffer with poor grades hanging around them like a millstone for their UCAS forms. The same sort of schools did this with ASs, insisting that Y12s in 2016 sat them in reformed as well as unreformed subjects while the bolder (better led) schools ditched them as not co-teachable and of little value. The only conceivable benefit of your school's programme is that the DC have a light load in Y11, but that's also a double edged sword.

Schools do it, or did it, purely to ratchet their position up in league tables. Possibly the most scandalous example of cynical manoeuvring by schools to look good while adding nothing to their pupils' education.

The European driving licence thing is an absolute cheat on the part of the school - it's a notorious scam
They only tried it in her year and they're stopping doing it, but I know she came out with a distinction** with very little work, which was why I didn't count it in the 11/12 GCSEs.

Dh was on a very early prototype of it as a student, so he was interested to see what had changed.

The European driving licence thing is an absolute cheat on the part of the school - it's a notorious scam.

Anasnake
The way it works at her school is they take options at the end of year 9.
One is a one year option that they do intensively and take at the end of year 9. She did French, which was quite a struggle as she's not a natural linguist.
Some do non-GCSE qualifications (eg I think lamda is an option), but they all do something. They also all did Citizenship at the end of year 9. Thankfully that has gone (dd2's in year 9) as it seemed to be a waste of space.
All then do (and still do) RE in year 10. She also (top set maths) did Statistics.

They then have two options that are a 3 year course, and do two more as 2 year courses (year 10 and 11).
So they end up doing in year 11: Maths, Eng lang, Eng lit, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computing, as compulsory (unless you're really struggling in science in which case you do dual award) 2x 3 year course, 2x 2 year course.
She also did Ad maths and European computer driving licence (or something like that) which apparently counts as half (or 3/4!) a GCSE.

Personally I think she'd have been better doing 10 and would probably have got close on all top grades (except English, where she got a 8 and a 6 and at best would have been at two 8s)

But that's the way the school works, and most of the parents seem to like it. They have done consultations about it on several occasions and it usually come back with the majority wanting to continue.

@goodbyestranger last year, 2017.

I did 12 but it was ten years ago.

Three I didn't revise for at all (r.e, textiles tech and drama) I got AAB for those.

The other nine I did revise for and got three As two A*s and six Bs.

I think if I'd done less I would have got a/a* across the board.

I only managed it because I am intelligent and was properly interested in my extra subjects (latin and geography) and had lots of support UN place (amazing English teacher who also knew and helped me with my drama texts and taught latin as an after school club. There were just enough of us in the club that the head granted our request to take the gcse in it because we might as well get the piece of paper. It helped a lot with those of us studying other languages too like French and Spanish so was a pretty easy gcse to have. )

Even without studying for three if them though it was bloody hard work, as hard as my a levels (i only did 3 though).

If she really wants to I'd say go for , but perhaps try to get her to take the further maths next year?

I think it depends how bright, how focused she is and other commitments. My DD did 11 GCSEs and got pretty much what was predicted from the start (two went up, two dropped). She also managed violin and piano lessons moving through at least one grade exam in both a year. As she was passionate about music and art, she spend lot of time on these, stayed in every lunchtime and regularly after school, but she knew she'd be doing that from the start and was willing.

The new GCSE's are much more content heavy than the old specs which is why many schools are now doing them over 3 years. This year will be the first cohort to sit them in all subjects. Comparing them to those done in previous years is not like for like.

I did 12 GCSEs but did two a year before so it was less pressure - could this be an option ?

It's up to her - and is best anticipated by her current attitude to hard academic study. Our DD took 2 x GCSE early (15 yrs) and 12 GCSE one sitting the following and achieved 13A/A (6A/7A) & 1B.

She went from St Pauls to Oxford, Faculty of Medicine.

But then (unlike DS) DD was an award winning scholar at SPS
from aged 11.

It should be reasonably obvs from her school report history
if she's a straight A student.

Apologies - do you mean she just wants to take 12 GCSE ...

... to have 12 GCSE notwithstanding the grades ?

In which case, just do them and see - why not ? She'll know what she can manage, surely.

Best

How can they do 2 in Year 9 ? That would mean starting the syllabus in Year 8 at the very latest and many courses are now being done over 3 years ??

And are you sure they still follow that pattern? I ask because the trend is strongly towards a two year KS3 and a three year KS4 with all exams in Y11 and no early entry.

Witchend which year did your DD take her GCSEs?

At dd1's school (standard comp) they all do 3 exams early (2 in year 9, 1 in year 10) then up to 13 in year 11-most do 11.
She did 4 early and 12 in year 11.

I think it is more than idea, but she seemed to take it in her stride.

Sorry, I've just gone back and seen twelve plus. Ignore.

eastlondoner I wondered if you did GCSEs when they were relatively easy as they were in 2009, or years ago when they were hard. Please don't age yourself on my account!

OP my youngest is in Y11 and is also in top set maths doing the additional maths qualification but I don't count that as an extra GCSE. Is your DD doing eleven plus the additional maths or twelve plus the additional maths? Eleven plus that seems fairly standard but maybe on the heavier side but twelve plus that might well tip the boat (I'd probably discourage it with mine anyhow or at least certainly not encourage it).

(hit post button to early)

Just seen the 2018 timetable.

Here is a breakdown of 11 GCSEs, there are no clashes.
Week 1: 4 exams
Week 2: 6 exams
Half Term
Week 3: 7 exams (but 2 are short MFL reading & listening)
Week 4: 6 exams
Week 5: 1 exam

Just seen the 2018 timetable.

Here is a breakdown of 11 GCSEs, there are no clashes.
Week 1: 4 exams

Week 2:
Week 2: Week 2:

Just seen the 2018 timetable.

Here is a breakdown of 11 GCSEs, there are no clashes.
Week 1: 4 exams

Week 2:
Week 2:

It is definitely worth considering the exam timetable, it might mean lots of clashes or some very intensive weeks where she may have 10 or 12 papers in a week back to back. Like pp have said she might well be fine through the course and then the stress of revising for all 12 May be too much. I did a very similar combination (including Latin/Greek) and honestly that wasn’t the problem, I enjoyed them and found them easy! It was just scheduling everything in. I ended up doing 10 in one go plus 1 MfL a year later in a 1 year course. Do look at this year’s timetable and maybe consider 11 or 10.