Unwanted School Imposition

Well, you clearly have no intention of budging on your position, OP, but personally, I would not be charging down the complaints/legal advice route. There are other, much less belligerent ways of engaging with the school that would have a much better chance of getting you the outcome that you want.

However, I don't really understand why you are so attached to that outcome, when your ds - who you have said is engaged and intelligent - doesn't seem to care. The "mother knows best" approach is fine when they're tiny, but he is, what, 15? At that age, he is old enough to decide for himself what is important to him, and if he is as intelligent as you say he is, he should be more than capable of making a sensible, informed decision. If he was determined to do triple science and you were helping to fight his corner, then I would say all power to you. Instead, he isn't bothered and you come across as a pushy parent who is overly invested in a particular view of her child's ability that may or may not be reflected in reality.

You seem to have some weird perceptions about combined science. I do a lot of recruitment and rarely see people's GCSE results. Even if they're listed, I don't bother looking at the subjects as they simply aren't relevant. I would make no judgement whatsoever on triple vs combined science. And I say that as someone whose dd did triple and is currently doing science A-levels. Lots of her classmates did combined and they are doing just fine.

But that's all by the by, as you have clearly made up your mind that triple science is the only valid option for someone with your ds's level of intelligence, or at least, what you perceive his level of intelligence to be. Nothing is going to change your mind about that and you clearly believe that the school is doing him a disservice in order to make themselves look good, rather than using their considerable expertise and professional judgement to recommend the most suitable option for your ds on the basis of what they know about him.

The only thing I would caution is that this battle could so easily become a source of extra stress and pressure for your ds in a year when he needs it least. You obviously believe that you are doing the right thing for his future, but you could end up inadvertently causing a lot of damage instead. Please think carefully about how you proceed. Ultimately, even if you're right that he could still excel in triple science, is being right really the most important thing in this situation?

There are many Y11 children out there that go to “a bog standard comp” and engaged in online learning and have managed to do the required amount of work needed to get decent grades at GCSE in the three sciences so I think you are being a bit over the top wanting a judicial review because your son didn’t do the amount of work required. As people have said combined science is fine. What does he even want to do in the future?

You dont have to withdraw your son from School to sit a GCSE privately. I would honestly put my money and efforts on preparing him to sit the exams privately if that is what you want.

Although he will need to do IGCSE Excedel or Cambridge as a private candidate and so you should First compare the syllabus with his current exam board.

We are home educators and DS has sat IGCSEs as a private candidate.

I don’t know where you are based but Tutors and Exams are a Specialist Company with exam centers around the UK for private candidates.

The summer timetables will be out soon.
You can cross check and see if there would be a clash of dates on exams or not. Historically Cambridge IGCSEs start earlier (late April) so this could be a good option for you.

PRH regularly advocates for parents (& children) when schools have not followed the correct procedure. They really know what they are talking about.

You have mentioned judicial review. Judicial review can only intervene in three specific circumstances:

• the decision is illegal, i.e. the school did not have the legal power to make this decision. A challenge on those grounds will fail as the school clearly do have the legal power.

• procedural unfairness, i.e. the school did not follow the correct process in making the decision or the decision maker was biased. Even if a challenge on this basis succeeded, it would be open to the school to make the same decision again provided they followed the correct process.

• unreasonableness. The bar for this is very high - you would have to show that the school's decision was irrational. The school's decision sounds to me like it is well within the range of reasonable actions, so I would expect a challenge on these grounds to fail.

I don't see that judicial review against the LA will achieve anything. This is the school's decision, not the LA's. And, as indicated above, I don't see that there is a case for judicial review against the school. Even if there was, as others have pointed out, by the time any decision was made it would be far too late. Also bear in mind that, if you went to judicial review and lost, you would have to pay the school's legal costs (and the LA's if you took action against them) as well as your own.

I'm sure you will be able to find a lawyer willing to take this on for you if you are determined to go down the legal route, but I would expect them to advise that your chances of success are minimal.

You suggest in one of your posts that judicial review would be a "cudgel in the background". I really wouldn't go down that path. The school will know that judicial review is highly unlikely to succeed. All you will achieve by threatening it is to mark yourself out as "that" parent.

There is a difference in the two otherwise they wouldn't be offered - there are some sixth forms who ask for higher grades for combined science than for the separate sciences to study at A level. There are also some teachers who make the assumption that all students have studied the single awards and that impacts upon confidence very early on. There will be gaps in learning moving to A level and for some students that gap means they start at a disadvantage which can make an impact.

I've read this whole thread and think there's potentially one other point worth making.
Apologies if you've stated already but what grade is the school saying your child achieved in recent tests.
I know of ^some^ schools (luckily not many) where the position in some League table of their own construction (most 9s for example) trumps all other considerations. And the difference between 8s and 9s is irrelevant. So if it's one of those schools that is terrified of a student getting 8, 8, 7 for example instead of 9, 9 then I don't think it's unreasonable to question the motivations. If, on the other hand, we're looking at 7/6 type grades then that might impact on future university choices etc.
I do agree with everyone that combined science is not a big deal at all. At my DP's school students could pick combined science as 2 options or triple as 3 - many students chose combined and the 5 Oxbridge students this year all did combined. At my dc's school everyone does triple with the exception of one set which does combined but with the same teaching time (so end up with one fewer GCSE). So I guess the attitude towards combined/triple can vary from school to school but shouldn't impact on a student's future.
I don't think it's unreasonable for a school to have its eye on the results - sadly that's the yardstick by which they are measured. But at the same time that should be sensible and measured not a kneejerk response.

Gaps are largely a historic issue - mostly gone with new syllabi.

@Comefromaway that makes sense. Hope the Op is able to have a useful constructive dialogue before booking the High Court!

However what is probably more likely is that the normal tests were end of topic tests differentiated according to ability (so foundation students would be given easier questions than higher students). End of topic tests are generally a lot easier and a high mark would generally be expected.

The school then more than likely gave a test more akin to a mock. Some exam boards publish tests that can be used or you can use past papers. These test students understanding a retention of information across the entire syllabus. A lower percentage mark would be expected.

So in a way it's like comparing apples with pears.

The OP has no way of knowing which approach has been taken unless she/he approaches the school and asks about the content of the tests and how they were marked.

Combined Science can be an issue - some colleges and school sixth forms expect students to have single science background and although they might say its fine the teachers expect that prior knowledge therefore there is a gap in learning. I think that is a fault of those colleges and sixth forms but some teachers make the assumption. I would challenge this action by the school as this was not what your son signed up for - the school should have a back up plan to support students who struggled with the pandemic not seek a seemingly easy way out

You keep insulting posters, OP. You don't like to be advised, it would appear. You're that parent, aren't you? . Selective school you say? It's not that much of a biggie ( going to a selective).

The reason I asked about the differential in performance was to get a sense from the school's point of view as to chance of recovery/understanding what has gone awry.

If "normal" performance is at 80% and this summer's test has dropped him to say 70% the school may agree - yes he had an off day, or having looked at the paper in more detail he misread a question etc - so opportunity for recovering ground in triple is reasonable

If "normal" is 80% and this summer's test has dropped him to 50% - the school may be looking at the paper and seeing significant errors, misunderstandings across many more questions and then would reasonably take a different view as to chances of recovery.

Combined sciences at gcse will still give a "broad enough" view for an all rounder who doesn't choose to go on to do A level sciences but is still sufficiently broad to allow him to do A level too. The A levels will be the basis of which he will move on to uni. And if he goes to Oxbridge even then the gcses are looked at in the context of the school at which they are taken. So better to get a good grade in combined rather than less good in separate or triple.

There may be other battles worthy of taking up against the school later such as whether certain A level combinations or predicted grades aren't as he would hope. I would say like anything it is a case of pick your battles and this may be one that can be opted out of.

Without knowing the difficulty of the tests it's impossible to correlate that to an actual mark. 80% could be a Grade 8 or it could be a Grade 5. Which is why schools usually use previous full exam papers as marks where the grade boundaries have been moderated and published.

Equally better to get 9 GCSEs all at 9s/8s than 10 with a couple of 7s

So unless you are convinced that your DS will get 3 GCSEs at the same grades as he would get for double (so 999 or 998 vs 99) then it is better for highly selective universities to do double and get the highest grades.