LA is bulling me to put daughter in lower year

It could also be that they school just didn’t have any space in her year, which is why they initially said no.
I understand your daughter feels this very keenly, but they fact is that you really only have 2 choices now:
Homeschool and sit GCSEs in 2020
Start year 10 in new school.

The humiliation will come at the end of Y11 when she opens her results and has failed to get into 6th form like all her peers.

Repeating Y10 at a different school is not a public humiliation it is the best thing for your child's future. You need to be the grown up and explain that to her.

Have you even checked if the new school can offer your daughter the subjects she wants or if she will have to pick new ones?

As I said earlier, ds1 went back a year when we moved to Scotland, and I promise you, @NinaKKjones, he did not feel humiliated, and no-one at his new school gave him a hard time.

In fact, he benefit d from going back - he went over stuff he’d already covered, and was able to learn the new syllabus at the right pace, not trying to catch up work on his own - and the extra time at school positively benefited him - he was more mature when he took his exams, so he did better in them, which is the direct cause of him having such a good career now.

OP you are not listening to the very sound advice here. It would not be in your child's best interests to try to catch up on her GCSE courses and get worse results simply because of her embarrassment.

You are too focused on the local authority guidelines and rules and not on the very important points:

• schools choose different exam boards and texts within the courses they teach. It is very likely your DD will not be able to catch up a whole year on half her courses or more
• she will therefore get worse results which could massively affect her future - the A levels she can take and her future after school.

You should get over your sense of outrage that just because you moved the school would instantly have places available for your child last year. Very few schools do because most parents avoid, as far as possible, disrupting their children's GCSEs. So they just wouldn't have the vacancies.

I'm not saying this to judge you moving. I am sure you had very good reason to do so but you must have known there was no guarantee of school places at that stage of GCSEs and could easily have checked that with the school first. That's not the local authority or schools fault.

And they are not suggesting she start year 10 again to save money - it will cost them more to give her an extra year of education. They are doing it because it's not in her best interests - she will not get good results. That's bad for her and for their league tables.

Secondly, she would not have missed "max 2 weeks" ofrelevantwork, which is what everyone is trying to tell you. She would have missed 2 terms of relevant work for the particular exam boards the new school use.

This is what many of us are trying to point out but it's starting to feel very much like one of these threads where people with relevant experiences and trying to offer the best advice and explanations they can to an OP who isn't interested because they think they're right.

The student had done 2 terms of year 10 (not 3 as the OP suggested) so has missed a whole term of y10 in the new school on new specs.

Not getting a response over the Easter holidays is fairly normal. If the school was at or over PAN in the year (I can't recall it it was or if we've had that information) they aren't obliged to exceed it for a student who has moved house. The only times we've gone over PAN midway through GCSE is when we've been directed to take on LAC students who have changed placements or a child with an EHCP has moved into area and we are the named placement.

As it stands, the OP is demanding her DD is admitted to y11 to study 9 or 10 new GCSE courses and thinks the LA and the school have a duty to teach her child the full 2 year course in less than 2 terms when the exams begin in April 2020.

The OP is point blank refusing to see that there is a very valid educational reason to not put a child through that.

At the end of the day, the OP chose to move their child during the middle of their GCSEs. The school and LA are trying to give the student the best possible chance at doing well. It's up to the OP whether they want to accept that or stick their head in the sand.

What I don’t get is why you’d want her under that pressure to catch up? What if the boards are different and she’s been studying completely different things? What then? I imagine if the LA put her in the correct group and she achieved low grades because she couldn’t catch up you’d complain.

OP. I feel for you and your DD, but I do agree with the other posters. Unless you are lucky and the boards are the same, and the set books are the same, and the syllabus have all been taught in the same order, then your DD will have a mountain to climb.

At the point that, for whatever reason, you moved your DD mid way through y10, you impacted her GCSEs. That wasn't your current LA's fault. They are now offering your DD her best chance of success, by letting her start from the beginning in y10. Your DD will come out with better results this way.

She can either lie about her age, or 'own' it and explain she dropped a year due to moving locations. When she turns 17 in y11 she'll be the really 'cool' one, already learning to drive...

You need to help her frame it in a positive light. That's your job as the adult.

But i have a daughter whos weeks off 16 who feels it actually is a public humiliation
who feels that she always tried hard and worked hard and feels like this is a punishment who is the one that will always be whatever the kids choose to label her as

It is your job as her parent to tell her, as often as necessary, that this isn’t true.

Your posts come across as very anxious, almost panicked/aggressive. If this is how you are communicating with your DD you are feeding into her understandable nerves.

This is far from a disaster. I had a young man in my year 11 class last year contract active TB and spend 3 months in hospital and missed another 3 months of school. Aside from the fact that he nearly died. He is now resitting Year 11 at our school which is solely for young men with social, emotional and mental health difficulties. He will be fine. The Year 10 students are actually looking forward to having someone who has “been there done that” (to a certain extent) to talk to to.

Where I live since the GCSE Curriculum changed a few years ago options have been chosen in y8 and GCSE curriculum is stretched over 9 to 11 to give kids better chance of passing

Why does no one argue the fact that if the only school in the area had accepted her and offered her a place on receipt of my application she would of only missed max 2 weeks work .

Apologies, I missed this. Ignore my last post it isn't relevant

I'd do my not in this instance, no, yanbu

Id advise seeing your local councillors, have a read of their CVs online & see which have educational or child experience in any form & go see them.

I did the ombudsman complaint re our LEA & a dodgy appeal. I won, the Ombudsman instructions to offer a school place in our nearest & chosen were completely ignored. Rare this happens unless you live around here😏 but in reality the Ombudsman has no power.

Our local councillor on the other hand made a few calls & DD had her school place the next day.

You could do both, but it can take months & I suspect your councillor would be quicker.

With out her issues, I've also found the Educational Welfare Officer & local Director of Education to be very useful people to contact.

Good luck

Good luck

We had something similar happen in the sense that after starting school late, due to my having to fight the LA to place her in a more suitable school DD, she missed a lot of school due to ill health & received minimal support when she was off, so was effectively nearly 2 years behind when she returned.

She went back to her old class/year & though very bright like yours & we knew she would catch up & boy did she put her head down to make sure that she did, she was inspirational & she's set to do well in her GCSEs. BUT I know the anxiety & imposter syndrome that went alongside that. It was like starting school again, as many of her classmates didn't even remember she was there for a short while in year 7 & she was really panicked by how behind she felt she was. Despite more than catching up easily in under 6 months, she still felt constantly stressed & like she was behind & not good enough all of the time & it affected her health.

Unless your DD is amongst the very oldest in her year, then a year below won't feel so different to her as many kids will be at the same development level. The embarrassment factor I suspect is of your own making from your attitude here. You need to talk her up to the idea, not throw a wobbly over how wrong it is. It really isn't.

For the sake of my DDs MH & perhaps had she been a few months younger & not already old for her years, with hindsight, I would have snapped the schools hands off for her to drop down a year, it would have been far less stressful for her & trust me, GCSES are stressful enough

Your other alternatice would be for your dd to go into Year 11 (as you want) but for her then to do an extra year in 6th form to re-do her GCSE's. (our local 6th form college offers a 1 year GCSE re-take course for those who have had adverse circumstabnces/moved from abroad etc etc)

Why does no one argue the fact that if the only school in the area had accepted her and offered her a place on receipt of my application she would of only missed max 2 weeks work

Firstly, your OP and subsequent posts were unclear about the timeline.

Secondly, she would not have missed "max 2 weeks" of relevant work, which is what everyone is trying to tell you. She would have missed 2 terms of relevant work for the particular exam boards the new school use.

Not getting a response over the Easter Holidays isn't unreasonable.

Yes, it would seem that perhaps the admissions authority here should have reacted quicker and they should have explained their reasoning more fully to you when they decided she would be better off going into Year 9 than 10 in May. But they have offered that for a reason; they will know what she has missed, what they teach in Year 10, and they will know its too much for her to catch up.

But the situation now is, you have a child who is going to fail their GCSEs if you try to insist on putting them straight into year 11.

Why does no one argue the fact that if the only school in the area had accepted her and offered her a place on receipt of my application she would of only missed max 2 weeks work .

Becasue she still will have missed a year at that school, which will have done different topics in year 10. The above is utterly irrelevant to what is NOW in your child's best interests.

This isn't about blame, or you wanting to show them a thing or two, or make up for the fact that she wasn't offered a place straight away - your number one priority should be to ensure the best set of outcomes educationally for your child. Not allocating blame and protestation of 'it's not fair'.

But hey if you and she want to sulk and scream and shout, you go for it. Long term she will suffer. Not them. and probably not you either.

And it was year ten so I was sixteen halfway through the year

Can I just say. I had to repeat a year at school due to a move. It absolutely was not a public humiliation, no one gave it a second thought and If anything put me at an advantage. Please don't worry

She couldn't have started after Easter for various reasons: her options might not have matched with their timetabling and they may be doing different boards anyway.
You haven't answered this question and I think that's where we find the solution. This is the best for her educationally speaking.

Do your dd was in School A, from September, in year 10.

You moved around April, applied for a year ten place, and were offered a year 9 place?

Now they are offering year 10 for September so one year out of age group?

I think that's odd tbh. I can see why you are confused.

Have you actually looked at the syllabus for each subject, the one that your daughter has studied and the one that the proposed school teaches? How much of an overlap is there. Certainly the school and the LA feels that there is insufficient overlap to enable her to successfully complete the course by next Summer. How could you NOT want her to have the best opportunity to achieve?

So much bold fail. I'll try again.

LA recognises that each case must be considered on an individual basis but believes in the following principles:
• Established good practice within the County and nationwide shows that, apart from in the most exceptional circumstances, schools are able to meet all pupils’ personal, social and educational needs within their appropriate age group, and that this is a reasonable expectation.

Yes, but how does that tally with 'teach my child a whole 2 year course in less than 2 terms'?
There's not a big difference between teaching year 10 and 11 educationally. In fact I'd say you'd struggle to tell if I was teaching y10 or 11 after the first half term of y10
There's a massive difference in terms of how much of the course has been covered.
Decision-makers should be able to demonstrate that other strategies have failed, or are highly unlikely to be successful in meeting the child’s needs.

Highly unlikely to meet the child's needs = we can't teach one child 9 2 year gcse courses in less than 2 terms

In no case should a child be placed in a year group more than one year different from their school-age peers.
She'd be a year below so not a problem
In no case should pupils be retained in a year group solely to avoid/defer other decisions e.g. about transition to a further Key Stage.
That's not relevant
it should always remain clear in which National Curriculum year group pupils are registered at the school It is good practice to record this information on annual reports to parents.
Easily done
The needs of the child must always be considered as the key criteria, rather than, for example, school organisation, curriculum and assessment considerations.
The needs of the child means thechildhas the right to have a good chance at getting a range of qualifications to set them up for life.

So you can't drop a child back who has been with you since y7 because you're bothered they might pull your GCSE results down at the end of y11 so you make them repeat y10 that they've already studied.

Where a child hasn't studied the required guided learning hours for a course then they are within their rights to as to do otherwise hinders the child's educational opportunities.

A typical GCSE is 120 guided learning hours plus homework, revision etc. Your daughter doing 9 courses in 2 terms won't have done that.

I'm still not sure how you think they aren't following the guidance. Copying and pasting it multiple times doesn't change the fact that your daughter has studied 2/3 of Year 10, will have had 6 months out of education by the time she would be due to start y11 and under your proposal you expect a school to get her through a full set of GCSEs from scratch in under 2 terms.

Based on the provisional exam timetable for summer 2020:

April 2020 - MFL speaking exams
November 2019- May 2020 - drama practical
Final exams for the summer begin on 11th May.

And you still think the LA are failing because they are putting your child's educational needs first by enabling her to study the full course properly and perform in a way that will give her the most opportunities post 16 and beyond?

B

LA recognises that each case must be considered on an individual basis but
believes in the following principles:
• Established good practice within the County and nationwide shows that, apart
from in the most exceptional circumstances, schools are able to meet all pupils’ personal, social and educational needs within their appropriate age group, and that this is a reasonable expectation.

Yes, but how does that tally with 'teach my child a whole 2 year course in less than 2 terms'?
There's not a big difference between teaching year 10 and 11 educationally. In fact I'd say you'd struggle to tell if I was teaching y10 or 11 after the first half term of y10
There's a massive difference in terms of how much of the course has been covered.
• Decision-makers should be able to demonstrate that other strategies have failed, or are highly unlikely to be successful in meeting the child’s needs.

Highly unlikely to meet the child's needs = we can't teach one child 9 2 year gcse courses in less than 2 terms

• In no case should a child be placed in a year group more than one year different
from their school-age peers.
She'd be a year below so not a problem
• In no case should pupils be retained in a year group solely to avoid/defer other
decisions e.g. about transition to a further Key Stage.
That's not relevant
• It should always remain clear in which National Curriculum year group pupils are
registered at the school. It is good practice to record this information on annual
reports to parents.
Easily done
• The needs of the child must always be considered as the key criteria, rather
than, for example, school organisation, curriculum and assessment
considerations.
The needs of the child means the child has the right to have a good chance at getting a range of qualifications to set them up for life.

So you can't drop a child back who has been with you since y7 because you're bothered they might pull your GCSE results down at the end of y11 so you make them repeat y10 that they've already studied.

Where a child hasn't studied the required guided learning hours for a course then they are within their rights to as to do otherwise hinders the child's educational opportunities.

A typical GCSE is 120 guided learning hours plus homework, revision etc. Your daughter doing 9 courses in 2 terms won't have done that.

I'm still not sure how you think they aren't following the guidance. Copying and pasting it multiple times doesn't change the fact that your daughter has studied 2/3 of Year 10, will have had 6 months out of education by the time she would be due to start y11 and under your proposal you expect a school to get her through a full set of GCSEs from scratch in under 2 terms.

Based on the provisional exam timetable for summer 2020:

April 2020 - MFL speaking exams
November 2019- May 2020 - drama practical
Final exams for the summer begin on 11th May.

And you still think the LA are failing because they are putting your child's educational needs first by enabling her to study the full course properly and perform in a way that will give her the most opportunities post 16 and beyond?

Even if she had moved at Easter she would have needed to go in the year below to give her a chance at decent GCSE's.

I think most teens would be very quickly accepting of another pupil who had had to move and miss/switch syllabus.

But i have a daughter whos weeks off 16 who feels it actually is a public humiliation
who feels that she always tried hard and worked hard and feels like this is a punishment

All teenagers think anything outside exactly what they want when they want it is public humiliation and punishment. Sometimes we have to "adult up" and tell them how it has to be.

Why does no one argue the fact that if the only school in the area had accepted her and offered her a place on receipt of my application she would of only missed max 2 weeks work .

Because it's a moot point now.

daughter whos weeks off 16 who feels it actually is a public humiliation
who feels that she always tried hard and worked hard and feels like this is a punishment
who is the one that will always be whatever the kids choose to label her as

I understand your dd is anxious. Teenagers are very self-conscious. But no one will know her age, will they? I'm not sure that they would care very much either. Has she been bullied before? There is nothing humiliating about making sure she has all the teaching she needs to do the exams. It would be a lot more humiliating to work hard through year 11, then get her GCSE results and find that she's failed them, can't get into the college she wants, then has to be separated from all the friends she made in year 11 because she never had a fair chance in the first place.