AQA v Edexcel for GCSE

Have you got a plan for doing the practical requirements for the science GCSEs? My understanding is that this has to be offered by the centre where the student sits the exams, even if the student doesn't actually do all the activities.

This could make it tricky to change centres down the line.

If beautiful typesetting is important then I would recommend giving AQA a swerve - all their textbooks are written in comic sans

That sounds like a good service, especially if you or your child are not confident about the technicalities of marking.

I will put a word in for tutors tho and say that any decent tutor who is actually tutoring KS4 should have plenty of experience marking (I mean marking students' papers rather than as a paid AQA marker) and assessing GCSE papers. Otherwise how can they teach it?

Re: marking practice papers, you don't necessarily need a tutor for that. For example, you can submit a practice paper to Markmypapers, who will mark it and give suggestions on where additional points might be picked up easily.

My home educated child, who was self-studying English Language, used that service to see whether they were on track to get the grade they wanted, since neither of us felt confident about applying the mark scheme in that subject. I thought it was great value for money. I imagine it might be more informative than feedback from a tutor, unless the tutor also has plenty of experience marking GCSE papers.

What subject? The sciences, for example, don’t have practicals that need signing off for the Edexcel IGCSE. Instead the practical knowledge is examined in the exam papers. So the student doesn’t necessarily need to have physically done the practicals and the exam centre doesn’t need to sign to say they have been done/send anything to the exam board to say they have been done. Cambridge international has an additional paper that can be taken instead of practicals.

Rather than just approaching tutors you need to speak to the exam centre you plan to use because it is pointless finding a tutor who can do the practicals etc. if the exam centre doesn’t have a relationship with them/wont accept that. T&E has information about their partners on their website.

You also need to consider access arrangements. Some exam centres book up more than a year in advance for more resource intensive access arrangements e.g. home invigilation, separate room, scribe, reader. Even the need for a word processor can book up quickly.

The wait for appeals is long so you should be concerned about the delay. For those out of school the hearing can be expedited, but the wait is still long. You will potentially have to appeal twice before you have a comprehensive EOTAS package. In the current climate, most do have to appeal at least the content to get a comprehensive package, and even if you only have to appeal once you need all the time you can get if the intention is for DS to sit exams in Y11.

Also, DC whose parents know the system, can advocate and enforce their rights get better support. If the LA sees they can get away with acting unlawfully they will continue to do so and take more and more liberties.

If week 6 was before Christmas you need to chase the LA (you can use one of IPSEA’s model letters) because you should have a draft by now and next week is week 20 when they should be finalising.

Has advice and information been sought from anyone else e.g. SALT, OT?

It takes research and planning but DC who have EOTAS or are EHE can sit GCSEs/IGCSEs.

Where are you in the EHCP process? Do you have the draft yet? Is the LA sticking to the timescales?

As well as the problem I posted about above with GCSE geography, there is a similar problem for GCSE chemistry and physics when EHE. It is sometimes possible for students to sit GCSE sciences as an external candidate (e.g. via T&E if you use one of their associated distance learning providers) but many find it easier to sit IGCSE sciences.

Although you can choose to sit GCSE English Language via T&E, many choose to sit IGCSE English language to avoid the need for the spoken component.

You would need another exam centre for Edexcel GCSE Computer Science because neither T&E or the screenshots you posted offer it.

What is possible with EOTAS will depend on what is detailed, specified and quantified in F. The word of the caseworker is irrelevant if it isn’t in F. LAs are renowned for saying one thing and doing another, and if it isn’t in F it cannot be enforced. Many have to appeal in order to secure the necessary provision. You say the LA is looking at EOTAS, do you currently have the right of appeal?

It also depends on how the package is set up. Parents can’t be compelled to organise provision, but some do take that role on to the point they arrange the exams similar to how parents who EHE do.

my sons had to speak about social injustice and climate change.

@blue345 that's on the spec for all boards of GCSE now as far as I am aware (and I know most of them pretty well).

You still have your hobbies and what you hope to do in the future on there as well, but the spec is aiming to widen the scope.

@WhenIsTheGeneralElection I agree @Imamunt that you need to be wary when self-marking, even with MFL, unless your command of the language is very strong (is it?) as what is and is not acceptable as an answer is sometimes hard to judge unless you are an experienced examiner or teacher. Obviously some questions are very clear, but for example the writing questions wouldn't be easy to mark IMO unless as I say your language was excellent.

If you go onto the websites for the exam boards you can find the full specification and often past or sample papers and marking schemes.

You don't have to stick to the same board for every exam

My son did a combination of AQA GCSEs, Edexcel IGCSEs and a couple of CIE ones.

In terms of the textbooks and revision books I've seen, Edexcel and AQA are similar but slimmer pickings for CIE. Mine just used the CGP revision books which I think come in AQA and Edexcel for most subjects.

FWIW I thought the Edexcel iGCSE French was very difficult. Mine was more about train times and ham baguettes. my sons had to speak about social injustice and climate change.

I teach in a secondary school, but tutor part time home schooled kids who have failed English GCSE because teaching the requirements of the reading questions is not just something that can be done well unless you know what you’re doing. There is a very big difference between the AQA and English language questions.