School suggested DS might benefit from repeating Y10 on a different pathway.

Hello! Just remembered I completely forgot to update - time and life has got in the way with half term, Y10 mock exams (thankfully only in English, Maths, Science and Geography!) and making arrangements for the next school year.

Yes, in a nutshell, DS IS going to be doing the outdoors pathway next year.

He loved the taster day. He went on one the Wednesday before half term. He enjoyed it, he seemed very happy, but wasn't quite so sure. A tiny bit of gentle persuasion and we organised him a second taster day, well taster few days, at the end of last week from Wednesday to Friday. We didn't have a single behavioural issue on those days. I have never seen him come home from school so happy and talkative. He was talking about what they did on each of the days most of the evenings and into the weekend - gardening, looking at biodiversity in a forest, they did some geology and looked at rocks and minerals and how they are used in daily life, they did some soil testing and plant biology and some PE. I asked his whether he had done any English or Maths and he said "Yeah, but it wasn't like proper English and Maths, it was ok" From the sound of it, it was 'proper' English and Maths but it was applied to what they had been doing that day, so on one day it sounds like they were writing an article on minerals and (his words) "we just check each others spelling and if we had used other stuff from a list and use a highlighter if it's there or write something in if it isn't" (which after my later enquiry turned out to be a list saying 'noun', 'adjective' etc). He even admitted himself that he felt like he had learned something at school for the first time ever. He decided that was what he wants to do next year and said that if he did that pathway he can maybe do one of the courses or training schemes he has found.

Therefore, school and us have come up with an arrangement. He is going to have a transition period into the outdoors pathway. He will be doing 2 days in the outdoors pathway (with the current Y10 on that pathway) and for the other 3 days he will be following his normal timetable with a few tweaks. German has gone completely from his timetable due the the 2 days on the outdoors pathway and the one lesson left on his timetable has been replaced with a small group learning support session for literacy and English (which is part of looking into and potential SEND). This is all subject to further 'tweaking' but we shall see how it goes.

In all of this I have found only two downsides. One being that the school would like him to sit the GCSE mocks next week with the rest of his current year group so they can gauge where he is, although they have said there is no pressure and he is just to go and try them (doesn't stop the stress at home though unfortunately).

The other downside is that I need to buy him more uniform! The outdoors group have a slightly different uniform - work type trousers, polo-shirts (the standard PE ones, so nothing too fancy) and fleeces/sweatshirts, plus some walking boots, safety shoes and some decent waterproofs. He also needs to make sure he takes a change of clothes and a towel to school each day (my poor washing machine....) Oh and he still needs to have a set of 'normal' uniform (blazer, tie, PE kit...) for certain things. But never mind, he is going to be happier which makes me a lot happier.

I've gone on a bit there, but that you everyone for helping us get to this point. I can't express how extremely happy I am to see DS happy, motivated and wanting to learn with minimal behavioural issues. THANK YOU!!!!

Just a very quick update, but DS, completely out of the blue earlier today, said he wants to try a taster day
on the outdoors pathway. He’s also given some thought about the other questions I gave him to have a think about.

Friends - Close friends don’t seem to have reacted negatively and have been quite encouraging. It’s been noted that he doesn’t even have any lessons with them any more because of options and moving sets (with the exception of geography).

Dropping subjects - He wants to drop everything except geography, food tech and the biology part of science so likely this isn’t going to be a helpful solution (perhaps I should have been a bit more careful with what I asked him….) He also seems to be against the idea of tutoring because he told me “complete waste of time and your money, I won’t do any good and I’ll be bored with even more work to do for stuff I don’t like”, so looks like tutoring is out the window.

Out of school things to keep friendships going - There’s a few things and we’ve discussed signing him up for one of them (explorers).

Career - Something with geography or maybe gardening or something with conservation.

Based on his responses, I’ve pointed out that the outdoors pathway is probably the way forward for him (and I didn’t get any argument about this, which is a sign that he agrees but doesn’t want to admit it at this moment in time). I also mentioned some things about head start in careers and he would have to make these decisions next year anyways. He seems to be happy enough. I’ll get in touch with school on Monday and arrange for him to have a taster day. I will update once he’s been on it.

@EndlesslyDecluttering such a positive outcome. Thank you for sharing and well done to your DS. What an achievement!

I plan on perusing the SEN as school have set the ball rolling and it can only be a good think to get him any support that he might need.

Thank you. I’ve had quick look and there are so many options there that even I didn’t know existed. I’ll get DS to take a look himself and also point him in the direction of some other agricultural colleges. (A quick google found me a few).

@RedToothBrush I love that perspective. That’s really put a whole new light on everything and it is so positive (and true). Yes, I need to highlight this to him. It definitely is a good thing to take this step rather than struggle through and be stuck in 12 months time. Like you say, tortoise and the hare and all that. Also re maturity levels - good point.