Anyone else child failed their GCSE's??

That’s amazing well done. However, the school is totally wrong to allow him to take those courses early. They need that extra year to get their grades up and your DS will no doubt benefit from the next year of learning. My DS was getting 5/6 in year 10 and 8’s by the end of year 11. I would have been furious if he had been pushed into exams early

Hey - delighted for you both!

Fingers crossed for you 🤞

Oops orangejuggling

You have my complete empathy OP, my very emotionally bright autistic DD 15 absolutely is struggling with studies, just going into Year 11. Trying to get EHCP for the next few years. She has reduced her subjects down to 7 subjects and I'm looking at knocking off one more this year. I hope you find a way forward.

Oramgejuggling I had the same experience with my DD1 she developed an illness in year 11, only got 4 GCSEs and ending up doing fantastically well in a level 3 extended diploma in Music Tech as now feels extremely happy about that. I really think these more vocational diplomas are the way to go with SEN kids and feel outrage that they are made to sit exams that are set up to fail them !!!!

Hi, have been lurking on the boards for a while. Just wanted to say that this time last year, my DD had a dreadful time. Combination of dyslexia and mental health difficulties over the year led to her ploughing her GCSE's and coming out with just one pass. We had such a miserable time.

Anyway - she was offered a place at 6th form college on a one-year Level 2 BTEC in media production (equivalent to doing 4 GCSEs, in terms of workload), and it has been the absolute making of her. After a shaky start, she settled in and worked hard and she has just come out with a starred Distinction. No exams, just a series of assignments to complete and write up. She has been glowing with pride - she starts her proper Level 3 BTECs at 6th form next week. I thought she's be upset at being out of year, but it's been fine - big college, lots of new people.

So there are always options - some of our kids just take the long way round1

My dd in Ni they do y12 a few GCSE and the rest in y12
She failed 2 out of 3
Got a C in maths
D in English
E in health and Social

Branleuse My son is also 18. And this is horrible. He feels he has failed and will never succeed - he did slightly better than previously but still "failed". Why are we making them do this??

Yes and I feel like shit. The grade boundaries are higher because kids worked harder. 33% will always fail - how can that be right? He has mild learning difficulties but the governement will make him resit again and again. who does that benefit except Pearsons ???

And all the media "joy" doesn't help. It's as if my kid is somehow nothing and didn't "work hard" and has no future to choose.

Sorry but these are re-sits. it is a shit system

They do two subjects that they sit in yr 10 (my Ds got two 4s - old C grade) and they take two more subjects intensively in yr 11.

DD’s school used to do this. (This was before the exam reforms). The students did 2 short, fat subjects in year 10, and 2 in year 11. These were always the optional subjects. All the core subjects were taken over 2 years. The top set for maths always sat iGCSE maths in the January of year 11. As DD is a summer born she took her first 2 GCSEs at just 14 years old.

My commiserations to those who had hoped to do better.

So sorry, they should not have put him in for early entry, it's not fair on students unless they are super bright and confident.

supersop60 they need 3 years to do the new GCSE courses for English, Maths and Science. All schools should be starting the curriculum in year 9 for these subjects regardless of when they pick there options. The new curriculum is just to intense to get through in 2 years. I work in science (technician not teacher) and I wouldn't want to work in a school who tried to squeeze it into 2.

A full time level 3 course without retaking GCSEs will be just as full as a level 2 with gcse retakes. A full time course is 540 hours a year. Colleges will timetable that whatever level or retakes as that’s how they get full funding.

To all those people asking why was he entered early - it may be that the school does the same as my DS's school.
They start their GCSEs in year 9 (do options in yr 8), giving 3 years for Maths, Science and English. They do two subjects that they sit in yr 10 (my Ds got two 4s - old C grade) and they take two more subjects intensively in yr 11.
My Ds also did a Btec PE (Merit)

If you're struggling with what I would call academic subjects (English Literature for sure), then why in hell was he studying them? Could he not have take core subjects, (I believe they are maths and English?) and then taken some practical subjects like woodwork, technical drawing, home economics even (covers things like cooking/sewing/understanding how washing machines work etc.). More practical subjects?
My ex failed maths, but he was an encyclopedia on history.

Literature is a very academic subject and not a lot of people are that way inclined. Though I was good at languages, I was crap at expressing what I thought/felt/perceived reading literature (in ye olde fucking bastard English which was difficult to even read, let alone understand). *Looking at you Shakespeare..............

I took 9 GCSEs originally and only passed 4 first time round (including one where the school had told us we only had to answer 4 of the essay questions and it was actually 5 - strangely not many of us passed that particular exam that year...). This early failure hasn't stopped me, in the longer term, getting very good 'A' levels, a decent enough BA Hons, an MA, and a PGCE from 3 well-regarded universities, 2 of which were Russell Group, for what it's worth; nor has it stopped me from acquiring various other assorted pieces of vocational and professional wallpaper; it hasn't stopped me working abroad; it hasn't stopped me working with interesting people in interesting places.

I sincerely wish we had a more sensible exams system, and one where students were made aware there are more routes to success than GCSEs and the rest. They measure "ability" in the sense that they measure the ability to jump through the type of academic hoops so beloved by Gove and his chums. They measure one type of intelligence. They don't measure kindness, the ability to get on with people, or practical skills, with a few exceptions. They certainly don't measure creativity.

OP, good luck to your son - it sounds like you are handling it very well. I'm just trying to offer encouragement that it's not the end of the world, although to my 16 year old self at the time, it felt like it.

Yes, my son failed the lot today. Autism, selective mutism and learning difficulties, EHCP and I asked if he could just do 4 or 5. He had to take 7 plus 2 BTECs.

He did, however, get some level 3s so he can go to college and do a level 2 course whilst retaking maths and English.

To peeve me a bit more, his disabled bus pass came through the post today and it gives him free travel throughout England. Lovely, except we’re nearly in Wales and it only works after 9.30am so is no good for getting to college!

Was he predicted to do much better than the grades he got, OP? Wondering because I have worked with exam classes for many years (not in the UK but still national written exams) and I have known of several autists kids who have failed exams unexpectedly because they were so focused on answering right that they ended up spending the whole exam answering only the first one or two of the questions. Which meant that they failed despite knowing a huge amount and answering what they did answer well. If you think that might be the case, I would try to get hold of his exam paper and see where it went wrong.

What was the school’s thinking in entering him early?

My thoughts exactly. My niece's school did the same with her - for some strange reason they wanted her to take her Maths a year early despite only being predicted a C (a few years ago) and she ended up getting a D. I can understand it for high achievers who are at a level to get a top grade, but not for the middlings.

Mine. He is 18 and been doing resits last couple of years. He is also autistic.
He actually did worse this year in english than last year and needs to resit maths and english again. He got 2s but he has come from a SEN school and hes already done so much more than i could have hoped for when he was little. I am super proud. Unfortunately he feels like a failure.

My friends DD failed all of hers, was expecting to go to 6th form to do BTec courses, went straight to college was told by teacher at college no chance, her mum spoke to head teacher they let her on the course she passed her btecs. All is not lost.

It’s like they’ e treated them as ‘throwaway’ subjects tbh. It’s not standard practice to enter a year early even if you’re excellent at a subject.