Year 9 and Year 10 GCSE students - unfairly treated by Ofqual?

Ours do 8 plus GCSEs in year 11 as well, just do, they are trying to persuade DD to take 12 subjects in all and I suspect it is about getting as many passes in their results as possible. I've told them its too many and all they reply is she will pass them all and they seem to want quantity of passes whereas the child is better off with higher grades in 9 or 10 subjects.

It's GCSE English Language and 0.5 RE in year 10 plus DD has been told she can do French in year 10 - not as much as OP's school but our school does do this. I'm not keen unless a child is a clear 9 taking it early but vast majority aren't.

Doing short course RE in year 10 and everything else in year 11 isn’t the same as what the OP’s school are doing though. I suspect lots of schools do that with RE. It doesn’t really affect the curriculum offer, isn’t done for the purpose of gaming the league tables and probably still leaves pupils sitting 8 GCSEs in one sitting.

The OP’s school has done something completely different.

Our school makes all children sit 0.5 RE in year 10 if not taking full course and English Language GCSE in year 10, it's something I don't like and must be quite a few children fail English Language in year 10 who would have passed in year 11. The 0.5 RE I don't see point in.

I think it's fair enough to make younger children sit it later, it's not essential they sit it now and get estimates rather than what they would have got. For year 11s it is essential. I'm hoping it means our school will shift to year 11 in all.

The OP thinks that it is unfair that her Y10 kid isn’t being given a teacher assessed grade like Y11 and the opportunity to resit as soon as schools go back.

Meanwhile there are Y11 kids who are incredibly worried about the teacher assessment process, are thinking they’ll have to resit exams in September and are wishing they had the opportunity to sit exams as normal.

Someone in Y10 who is thinking it is unfair that they are not in the position of a Y11 currently should be careful what they wish for. The option to postpone the exam and sit next year and knowing now that this is what will happen so plenty of preparation time is actually a gift.

If the school is outstanding then those standard intervals are not very regular. Has it been inspected in the last couple of years?

Our school does the RE/Ethics GCSE in Year 10, and the rest in Year 11 to give them all an idea of what they'll have to do ... reality check as you say. And it's an Excellent school acc to OFSTED. Has been for the past countless years, and were fully OFSTED-ed again a couple of months ago. Still Outstanding.

Wow, I think people are being unnecessarily harsh here. There are several state schools near me that do this, and while this may be the ‘schools fault’ the children did not have any say in this matter! They are going to be disadvantaged in this arrangement through no fault of their own, a little empathy wouldn’t go amiss!

And no, my DCs school isn’t one of them.

You are deluding yourself and remaining disingenuous-your child doesn’t only have only a year to study because you have said yourself that they have always been having lessons in English, maths and the three sciences; so that is equivalent to three years study eventually. And an extra year for the subjects they were going to take this year —to play the system—. but unfortunately, they are now in a similar boat to everyone else taking multiple exams (albeit they have already taken three last year, so still have it a bit easier).

Look, no matter what you think your school is cheating. The new Ofsted framework came into force in September. They cannot have been visited since then because they would have been downgraded to Requires Improvement straight away.

You school may believe they have been cunning in setting things up this way but it is the students who will pay. This is no longer common practise. Our sixth form would be looking warily at any student who’s exams occur over multiple years. They wouldn’t be the first choice of candidate because their knowledge would be old in some subjects.

The school are also robbing the students of broader curriculum experiences. I actually completely agree with Ofsted on that.

My dd is in year 10 doing 11 subjects. Three are languages. She was due to sit one language GCSE this summer and carry on with the remaining 10 subjects next year. If she doesn’t get a grade for the language this year she will not have a qualification in it as she will not manage 11GCSEs Including three languages in year 11. My ds took 10 Gcses and had about 25 exams which was more than enough.

OP Surely your school's solution would be to:
a) Park the current set of GCSE subjects immediately
b) Start on the 'new' subjects immediately (coping as everyone else is having to with the remote teaching)
c) Get through the 'new' subjects as fast as possible, eg in 2.5 terms by Feb half term.
d) After Feb half term put in a sensible timetable to get all subjects up to speed.
It might be a timetabling nightmare for them, but needs must.

It seems to me you school's method is a way to get high results, but not a way to learn to manage workload properly, or to allow late bloomers to mature, or as good prep for A level.

BTW, no, my DC's school(s) (none of the four state secondary schools that they have attended between them) don't teach to.this bizarre pattern. I've only come across it / something remarkably similar once in my dealings with secondary schools and that was at a school in Harlow, so I was curious as to whether that was where your DC was.

It used to be perfectly normal to sit 10, 11, 12 GCSEs in one sitting.

How will that work if the school has paid for the exam entry?

They were finalized in January/February

Will they refund?

What difference will it make which year they are in?

Also, the year 10’s here start there GSCE in year 9 from May onwards as the year 11’s leave, so an early start, they will have missed 3 months at least of the year plus more disruption on returning as and when they do.

They will be a lot worse off.

What a bizarre way to teach. Hopefully this will make the school think about their organisation and maybe try to plan more like other schools in future.

I teach A level History and yes..to a certain extent the curriculum is the same in that we do Weimar and Nazi Germany at both GCSE and A level. So 40% of their exam is on a Unit they did at GCSE. This was planned deliberately because it is the Depth study and therefore the previous two years work gives them a good grounding. I don't care if a pupil got a Grade 9 in Y9...I would be reluctant to take them for A level I'd they hadn't done any History for the past two years. I'm sure @noblegiraffe would feel the same for Maths. Skills grow rusty if you don't use them. Can you imagine not touching the piano for almost 2 1\2 years - because that's effectively how long it would be - and then wanting to take Music A level?

And I think you will find that many “outstanding” schools are not checked that regularly at all-one local high school to me was last done in 2007 but is still classed as outstanding...

Yup courses like medicine look at gcse results but will only accept ones at the end of year 11

Surely it’s much harder to sit 8-10 subjects in one go than it is to spread them over 3 sittings.

Also I thought some colleges/universities only look at exams sat in one sitting.

What a fucking stupid thing for the school
to do, and I believe some universities really don't like it when it comes to admissions too. Sorry OP not ofquals fault. The school are doing what they've been told not to

Is your school fee paying op? Otherwise I think Ofsted would be very critical of your curriculum choices.

The school is checked at standard intervals, this is what I have meant regularly.

If the school is outstanding then those standard intervals are not very regular. Has it been inspected in the last couple of years?