3 year GCSE courses

@GreySheep

Crucially not under the new framework though.

Minty it's normal to not do a language after choosing options if you didn't choose a language.

sashh - ds' school does do short courses in first aid, amongst others, in years 9 and 10. No GCSE or BTEC taster courses, though - students have to make their option choices at the end of year 8. This wasn't an issue for my ds' as they already knew exactly what they were interested in (and the school offers plenty or extra curricular music and drama opportunities for those interested in these subjects, but not wanting to do GCSEs in them), but I can see this could be more problematic for others. In all honesty, neither of them was any more mature or ready to make choices at the end of year 9 than year 8, and I remember year 9 being the most depressing, nothing-year of my school career, so don't have any fond memories of the joys of still having to do subjects I disliked to look back on. I think my own children are getting a much more varied and interesting education than the one I got in my 1980s grammar school (and have been able to study more subjects for longer, and have more subjects to choose from, than I ever did).

@mintyneb They say they get some mfl in Y9? Then none in Y10/Y11 unless they choose mfl for gcse, that's normal I think.

Theworldisfullofgs in March of this year so a recent inspection.

I'll vote for you sashh

Teacher here and I hate it.

Not all year 9s have the maturity to deal with GCSE work so you have to repeat it and listen to, "we already did this" or go so slowly the brighter ones are bored.

I was quite naughty in one place, I was teaching year 9 childcare, not my subject (long term supply) and had an almost arts and crafts class. It was all relevant to childcare, in small groups they made puppets/models and then made short films of things like going to hospital or mum bringing home a new baby.

I was going to teach them to knit.

I'm a graduate of O Levels and CSEs and we did start science O Level work it what was they third year.

When I run the world year 9 will continue with core subjects, English, Maths, Science in the usual way but will have a mixture of tasters and short courses, things like first aid, how to use a bank account and also trials of GCSE subjects that are new to them eg computer science, childcare etc so students can actually get an idea of the subject before commiting and the teachers can get a feel for who will do well.

Piggwaspushed - that's just bad teaching. There is absolutely no obligation to do nothing but exam texts and techniques in KS4, although that appears to be what happens with the 2-year GCSE course!

In terms of English teaching , the three year GCSE has definitely had negative impacts. In practice, the whole thing has become constant teaching of 'skills' from about year 7 : this entails lots of reading of extracts (not many whole texts) followed by lots of comprehension style activities and extract analysis and lots of assessments under timed conditions. This is valuable, but it has become dominant in so many ways, that much of the creative responses to reading and writing have been squeezed out. The result is that many students find English repetitive, uninspiring and stressful. There is also the issue of lack of depth and breadth of exposure to texts with a 3 year GCSE where students might study the same Shakespeare, in effect, twice, for example.

When were they inspected?

How strange. DD’s school switched to 3 year GCES. Then got inspected and Ofsted praised them on their changes and how the SLT were doing great. They moved them from RI to good too. Not a mention in the report of 3 year GCSE not being good.

Our school just got an RI because we do three years gcse

I’m surprised that is the reason stated if all else is well.

Starting GCSE content in Maths is normal. You've been doing GCSE since reception.

I don't know enough about English and Science but I would assume the skills you use are taught from at least Y7. I know our Science department do start "gcse content" in year 9 but I get the impression this would be covered in ks3 anyway.

Ofsted are more fussed about limiting pupils to a narrow curriculum too early. They aren't so fussed about the content being covered as long as you can justify why.

Ofsted based their findings on research and that not having a generalised broad education, disadvantaged kids.

There is no research that it's better for kids. Ofsted are asking for a broad and balanced curriculum and are not keen on narrowing the curriculum early.
I'm a gov not a teacher, so they will know more.

My school do a half way house. Options are not choose until the end of year 9, so a broad range of subject studied.
However, some subjects teach to the GCSE during year 9, particularity the core subjects.
I’m happy with this as it seems to get the balance right.

I’m not sure that not liking a subject is a good reason for being allowed to drop it at 13 after only two years in secondary.

Choosing options starting in year 9 worked really well for my DS as he didn't like a lot of the subjects he was studying. So it meant he could chose the ones he liked earlier.
They started off learning general things about the subjects first, rather than jumping straight into the gcse content.
A parent from a different school commented that it seemed like. cheating!

Our school just got an RI because we do three years gcse and another school nearby scraped a good only because they promised to change back to a two year gcse. The argument being there is no way near enough time to cover all of the national curriculum for ks3 in 2 years so students don’t get a broad offer.

Research shows nothing of the sort. Stuff and nonsense.

It's the early narrowing of the curriculum they are looking at. Some schools have strict rules and a tiny range of options which narrows down pupils exposure to different subjects at age 13/14. Other schools let students do 10 options which doesn't narrow pupils so much and so early.

Yes it seems like it's not as simple as everyone must do 2 yr GCSEs.

Ofsted does not intend to dictate the length of key stages in schools. If a school has shortened key stage 3, inspectors will look to see that the school has made provision to ensure that pupils still have the opportunity to study a broad range of subjects in Years 7 to 9.
School leaders and teachers should not make decisions about the curriculum based on a sense of what Ofsted wants to see.

Is what Ofsted are looking for just about the number of subjects? What might be being cut out or covered in less depth in the ks3 curriculum to condense it into 2 years is probably worth looking at.

No, but very recently - recently enough that the new framework was already known and inspectors clearly had an eye towards it, given the specific references to the strength of the curriculum, cross curricular work, preparing pupils for the future, in the written report.

@walkaround have they said that since September 2019?