Triple Science vs Combined Science

Part of a MAT, I thought it was fairly small but about 8 secondary schools, 3 special and 15 primaries. Much bigger than I thought! It is strictly run- you definitely need to buy into the ethos when you send your DC there- but very well organised. We have the full list of areas DS will cover in the science sessions and their plan to help with the maths.

DS’s school is currently continuing with triple for those who started triple in yr10. Intervention sessions start next week to cover the curriculum in the required depth.

e were rather relying on the 3 gcses to offset one which he is likely to do poorly in (the reason for having to do it was out of our control).

Can I ask op what this subject is; language or art based?

To be honest at GCSE level if a student is capable of high grades in maths, English & science then they are capable of high grades in almost everything else other than the above areas

Our school has been very clear that double is suitable for A levels. My DS isn’t a scientist and took double despite being offered triple. He got 88 and he’s really no genius. I would go with the school who feels they can do justice to double and if he gets 8/9 he’ll be at no disadvantage for A level

Teen from the point of view of someone who has had a DC take triple and now has a DC taking combined. I'd say combined seems roughly 2/3 of triple in terms of content, so guess it will be approx 50% extra to move from combined to triple. The "extra stuff" is just more stuff - it's across the range of easy to hard material iyswim.

see here: for AQA comparison. filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/science/AQA-8464-8461-CO-TEACH.PDF

This is slightly off topic, but while you're all here:

If my y11 DD were to drop combined and do just Biology on its own, is it really 50% more biology, and is the extra stuff harder or just different? Would only be Foundation level if that makes any difference.

(Yes I know it would be highly unusual, but we are having to think massively outside the box for her.)

Ours are keeping the three separate sciences for those who have chosen them. I do not know the difference between how the tests are done.

I suspect that @RubixCubix is quoting the exam paper structure for iGCSE which is slightly different to that for GCSE.
For the Combined Science GCSEs for all exam boards there are 2 papers for each subject i.e. 2 for Chemistry. 2 for Physics and 2 for Biology. The 2 grades are awarded by averaging the grades across all 6 papers.
There is a higher tier (grades 4 to 9) and a Foundation tier (grades 1 to 5). All papers sat must be the same tier. The Combined Science papers are slightly shorter than the triple Science. The Combined Science papers are sat at the same day and time as the "Triple" Science papers.
It is more straightforward to move from GCSE Combined Science to A level as all the topics will have been covered, it's just that some will have been done in a bit less depth. The topics are divided up so that the Higher Combined Science ones are at the same level of difficulty as the Higher Triple ones. So the issue is slightly less content rather than Combined Science being easier.
I hope that's helpful.

@TheShoesa I can tell you this from the perspective of a parent who has been through this.

Ds1 now in year 13 was meant to do the triple science but we found out at the end of year 10 that the class hadn't been pushed as much as it should have in year 9 and they couldn't catch it up in year 10, they tried. Therefor there was no choice but to do the combined. We were pissed off as was Ds.

It did mean that when he sat the combined he got 9, 9, he feared he would have achieved a slightly lower 8 or 7 for biology if he had done the triple as he didn't love it and he went on to do A level physics. He has not struggled at all in A level because his understanding is there to build on. Sixth form only wanted a 6 in a science to continue it.

Ds2 has just started year 10. We were told back in year 9 that triple science really should be an option due to the time it takes to teach it so any child chosen to do the triple would have to do the work in their own time. I told the head of science flat out that he would do the combined, I would rather he get 9,9 and concentrate any free time to his other subjects.

If they take triple as an option there shouldn't be an issue, because they'll have the extra timetable time. It's the schools where they squeeze it in to the ordinary science time that will struggle.
(They don't need eight GCSEs for university, but the school will need them to have done eight for the league tables.)

@walksen DS took Triple as an option. He's only doing 8 GCSE's, I'm assuming he'll need 8 for College & University so they don't have the option to transfer to Combined.

Dd still doing triple but her school ploughed on with the curriculum over lockdown and they are ready to jump back online as needed. In some subjects the teachers say they are ahead because there were no school trips in the summer term when lesson time might have been lost.

Suspending the curriculum for GCSE / A Levels was one of the more bonkers decisions. Fair enough for the first few weeks when there were massive queue in shops etc. and schools needed to get themselves together but it should have been reinstated nationally after Easter. Any yr10/12 child without Internet could be given a place in school to watch the lessons either live or on screens. Fewer secondary school children took up key worker spaces around here so there should have been ample classrooms.

A couple of dds friends are doing science subjects at sixth form although they only did combined at GCSE, ( the higher papers not foundation)

I’m not sure what is better in this situation, but in the long run I don’t think he will be disadvantaged. I did combined science which was all that was offered at my school. Moved to a 6th form for a levels where most had done triple but they covered everything anyway. Went on to be a professional scientist. The main point of GCSEs is to get into a levels, no-one cares much after that.

I wouldn't be happy. DS1 did triple science two years ago and DS2 is Year 11 also doing it now. There is a load of work, but head of science was on the ball over lockdown and ploughed on through the curriculum with daily lessons using zoom (the only subject this happened though!). He was quite clear this subject material would not be covered again in school.
DS2 wants to do A level sciences with a view to dentistry. I'd be gutted tbh for him to get less GCSE's than he's capable of.

When teaching A level physics, I’d rather have a student who has properly studied and understood combined science than one who rushed through the separate science GCSE.

I’d trust the school - if they say they don’t have time to do it properly, they don’t have time.

The advantage of taking combined is less content to cover over all. The disadvantage would be if the student was weaker in one science it would drag down the combined grade. So a potential 8/8/5 could become 7/6.

This is why we decided against combined for my (home ed) DD as she is weaker in physics due to the maths content (dyscalclia). Instead she is just taking 2 single sciences- biology this year (Yr10) and chemistry in year 11. That way she has to learn less content and only for 1 subject at a time (also an issue due to her LDs) but will still get 2 science GCSES with hopefully better grades than she would taking the Combined Award.

For Edexcel (Pearson) Sciences the Combined Award is based on about 80% of the content for the separate sciences.
Students taking combined or triple sciences all take the first 3 exam papers (biology 1, physics 1, chemistry 1) testing them on the 80% syllabus. The combined award is graded on the results of those 3 papers and is worth 2 GCSES
Anyone taking triple then sits 3 further papers biology 2, physics 2, chemistry 2) testing them on the full 100% syllabus. Their grades for each science is based on the results from the 2papers for that science e.g biology 1+biology2= biology grade.

I would consider the fact that there will be catching up to do across all subjects and also factor in the possibility of some disruption to schools this winter.

"When we read through the content there is an extra topic for Physics (Space)"

The electromagnetism topic is far bigger for triple also. Triple is usually better for people considering a level as there is a bit more depth which helps with the transition a bit but it doesn't limit your options particularly so it is probably sensible to focus on the best grades you can get in combined.
It is also likely that grade boundaries will be lower next year than previous years but since schools will teach the content in different sequences how this impacts on individual schools will vary so it makes sense to focus on combined where it is more plausible to catch up.

I think they're already too far behind in the curriculum (from what I can gather from someone who knows...). If school ends up closing they just won't be able to finish teaching everything in time.

Unfortunately they've had real problems with science teachers the last few years which probably hasn't helped. Yr 10-11 dd didn't even have proper science teachers for all lessons because too many left and weren't replaced.