Double science GCSE for high achiever

Ds1 is in year 11 and as I have mentioned before due to a fuck up with sciences instead of being able to do the triple he has to do the double instead. It is his half of the year group so not just him. We have spoken to the head of science about it.

Ds1 has applied to do A level physics, the sixth form itself told us that lots of schools do not offer the triple award so most students have obtained the double. That is where they teach from.

Also if your son is in year 7, he may well change what he loves.

I did double science and we studied all 3 sciences so we had lessons for biology, chemistry and physics. We didn't just study two subjects. It's just the name of the award. I got BB.

You said the school offers single or double. I'm assuming this is either igcse single or they offer each of the sciences as an option (ie single biology, Chen, phys). If it's the later, just choose all three??

Double isn't bad, btw. It's a pretty solid curriculum and you're more likely to get a higher grade (which is what unis want and might be better preparation for a level for many kids). Eton used to only offer it (haven't bothered to look since the curriculum change) and not triple, for example.

My point of view comes from being a physics teacher for 7 years.

My son who did triple found that, at A level, because lots of children had only one double science, the first term was spent going over some stuff the double science children had missed, so it is't an issue.

My highly selective secondary school only offered double science. Plenty went on to a level and then degree level science.

For those saying it allows you to study an additional subject, this may not always be a positive. I did 3 sciences, 2 mfl and 1 humanities within my 9 subjects. I wouldn't have wanted to choose something else as well.

I did double science, got double A* and went to Cambridge to study engineering. In my A level classes I didn't notice any difference between those who did single subjects or the science double.

Is it an independent school? I teach a pupil at an independent school who is doing a single science GCSE (she struggles with school generally and is doing a reduced load GCSE) - she sits in the double class, but will only do a single exam. I have no idea how this happens, as I'm not involved in teaching her science particularly - but they must have some way. It's independent, though, so might be an iGCSE? It seems to be combined.

I know of another independent school that offered separate sciences but would allow pupils to choose one or two of them, so one girl did only biology. That was also iGCSE.

You don’t tend to get 2/3 of the time underneath. We teach triple in the same time allocation as combined. Every year i teach kids in the sixth form who have come both from our school, and others, that have done combined. If you came into my lessons and observed the y12s I genuinely do not think you could seperate out who has done triple and who combined.
Several of my dc have/do attend a school that only offers combined, they average 10/12 to oxbridge and 30/35 to medicine/denistry/vet med every year out of approx 200. Doesn’t seem to harm them at all.

I did double science at GCSE and it did not prepare me for A level at all....however I'm 43. But thinking about it logically, how can a school prepare a child as well for science A levels in 2/3rds of the time another school doing single subjects (or triple science) could do?

Agree, some confusion about what is meant by the OP.
I have 2 DC at the same school. One of them took 3 science GCSEs last year, physics, chemistry, biology. The other is taking double science - so studying all 3 subjects but resulting in 2 GCSEs.

Your post is confusing OP. You say the school offers single or double.

Single science as a 1GCSE combined science option no longer exists. Single sciences generally means taking 3 separate GCSEsin each of the three sciences.

Double Science is taking a combined science qualification that is the size of 2 GCSEs.

There is no single science option for gcse anymore (unless you are in Northern Ireland) - there are individual science options (gcse Physics, gcse Chemistry or gcse Biology) but it’s unlikely that a state school would allow a student to take less than all 3 (unless taking combined science) because of the impact on league tables. Are you sure about the school’s offer?

I’ve taught mostly combined science (or its previous incarnations) and then A-level, not a problem

Oops, sorry 'DD will do 1 possibly 2 Science A levels. She's doing double science GCSE and is predicted 9s.

I suppose the other point is which students are disadvantaged by the gap.

DD will do at least 1, possibly 2 science GCSEs, possibly in the sixth form of a school where most do triple. However, she's highly able - 8/9 - and tbh will be quite capable of quickly filling any gap.

A child doing double and getting the minimum required to move on to A-levels - so say 6s - may struggle more with that gap.

The OP says the child is highly able, so I wouldn't be all that worried, ESPECIALLY if the school offering double also offers a wide set of options for GCSE, as that breadth of education may end up being of much more value to an able child than triple science but a narrow curriculum.

Cherry,

That depends.

If the sixth form teaches from the point where the GCSE classes left off, then there isn't a gap (especially where the top couple of sets have done the 'tiny bit extra' in each topic that is a little bit above the minimum GCSE requirement, and especially in the new GCSEs).

If the sixth form is not joined to the school and is used to teaching students with triple science, then yes, there's a jump. But for me, a couple of extra topic areas to cover in Y12 (and if you look at the syllabus it's not that major) is a very small price to pay for 5 genuine GCSE options rather than 2 or 3.

I’d want to know what science A level results were like before committing. The jump,from GCSE to A level,is vast without the disadvantage of onlynhaving done a maximum of 2/3 of the syllabus.

DS is Y7 and in his school they all do double award science. If they want to do triple science that is one of their options of which they have only 3. DS will likely want to do IT as one other so that would leave only one left for a humanity. So essentially he would have to choose between eg history and French and could end up doing no humanity subject at all which worries me a bit (although Welsh is compulsory up to yr 11 with an optional GCSE).

We had the same issue, as local (very good) comprehensive only offers double. We also looked into it and would agree very much with what cantkeepaway says. 20% of the year are in 'top' sets for science and they obviously work in a slightly different way to the rest of the year, although following the same syllabus.

Tammy, if the school tyeaches to A-leve, and findas that the double science award is a good basis to do so, they might choose to offer only double science in order to maintain a proper width of curriculum offering at GCSE - rather than e.g. strudying 3 separate sciences but only being able to do 1 language; or 1 humanity; or no practical subject without sacrificing MFL entirely;....

I researched this a while back, as DC's (very good0 comprehensive only offers double.

I even contacted my old Oxbridge college to ask whether it was a disadvantage to have done only double (and got the interesting answer that about half of their current Science students had done double GCSE, either because it was what was offered, or because they wanted to study a wide range of GCSEs).

Looking at the data that I could find for it and similar schools:

• Schools which offer double only have v. similar A-level Science results to schools that do double and triple with a similar intake.
• Moving to a school which has done triple for most of its students to do Science A-levels, from a school which only does double, puts the student at a slight disadvantage.

However, as a general observation, since then:

• The new double has more content than the old double, and the jump up to A-level is smaller
• The new triple is less easy to fit into the same time as the double (which used to be quite a common model for more able students) so schools are either a) moving to double only or b) restricting numbers of options for students doing triple.

So i often hear of schools where students doing triple science only have 2 option subjects at GCSE, whereas DC's school, where all students do double, has 5 option blocks (so 2 humanities, 2 languages, a practical subject for example; or 1 humanity, 2 languages, 2 art / DT subjects). Given the school's excellent A-level Science grades, despite the supposed 'handicap' of double science GCSE, I'm really happy that my DCs have had such a wide-ranging curriculum right up to GCSE.

Why is the school not offering the 3 Sciences individually?