Dropping a GCSE subject in year 11?

[TattiePants]

Are any secondary teachers or parents who have gone through this able to advise?

DS will be sitting his GCSEs in the summer and we’d like him to to drop German. He has dyspraxia and his slow processing combined with poor memory recall means he is really struggling. Having read around the subject, MFL does seem to be tricky for some kids with dyslexia, dyspraxia etc. In addition to his SEN, he is struggling with his mental health and having regular panic attacks at school and at home. The SENCO managed to get him a CAMHS referral within 2 months and he has his appointments in school so they are aware of how difficult he finds things at the minute.

In his November mocks he got grades 1-3 and he’s in the middle of his final mocks and is likely to get similar grades. We could spend hours doing extra work (we’ve done no German revision for either sets of mocks) but that would mean taking revision time from either core subjects like English or subjects that he wants to do for A Level.

Can anyone offer some advise?

I work with year 11s who struggle at school
For many reasons and one first thing I usually suggest is making a post 16 plan and seeing what they need to get into that course and then drop a subject. But… my school is on board and put on extra English/maths lessons in these times or supervised library revision sessions. Sell it to the school it’s better for them not to enter your son that disclose a 1/U for that subject.

How many other subjects is your son doing?

Funnily enough, my dd wants to drop german. She is autistic and struggles with the speaking part, she had a complete meltdown during her oral mock.
I am happy for her to drop it but her school are dead against it.

@OnceuponaRainbow18 he’s doing 9 GCSEs (inc German) plus a sport qualification and creative iMedia which everyone does - from memory they are gcse equivalents. I’d love extra English language lessons as he struggles with that but I’d happily set him work to take to the library / learning resource centre.

@NiceTwin sorry your DD is finding it hard too and the school aren’t being supportive. Trying to avoid panic attacks and meltdowns are our number one priority at the minute.

My DS dropped French. Best thing he did. At best he would have got a 3. He struggles academically but now has more time to concentrate on his sciences.

@Evasmissingletter what does he do during the timetabled French lessons?

A few years back my DD1 was allowed to drop subject (history) after mocks. She was bombing out in that and English Language and had a recent dyspraxia diagnosis. My DD2 was also permitted to drop a subject in y10 but then the pandemic hit and it ll went to pot anyway.

You need to have 'plan' to how he will be occupied in the free lessons

• where will he go (e.g. library, internal exclusion unit, learning support)
• what work will he do (homework, revision)
• how to not encourage others asking too (he doesn't broadcast it)

@TattiePants I have a meeting with them Monday about it.
It is a grammar school, so results are everything. Sadly, their understanding of autism is severely lacking and I have been fighting her corner since she was diagnosed in yr9.

I hope you work something out for your ds.
It is hard to see them stressed

@TeenPlusCat glad it worked out for your DCs and they’re great tips for us to think about. It’s a big school with a well staffed learning support centre so going there may be an option. We’d happily supply english, maths & science work for him. He has a card that he shows to the teacher if he needs to leave a lesson and go to the support centre so they know him well but also know that he doesn’t mess around and would stick to the rules.

My son has ADHD and was allowed to drop Spanish in year 10.
He takes medication at school only, so this works really well as he’s able to do all of his homework at school whilst medicated, during the free periods dropping Spanish has created.
His grades in all of his other subjects have gone up at least 1 point since they allowed him to do this, he sits his exams this summer.

Good luck for your meeting and hopefully you can get some tips from this thread. We’ve been really lucky with DS’s school and they’ve given DS everything he needs so fingers crossed they are supportive with this. It’s hard enough having a Dc with additional needs without having to fight the system too.

@TickleMyPickle that sounds like it works really well for him and how brilliant that his other subjects have benefited.

In my DS school creative imedia counts as a GCSE equivalent (ie. You can do it instead of triple science, music etc). I would definitely drop the language. No one is going to say, oh wow you got a 2 in German that's so worthwhile. My DS is also Y11 and they've hardly got any time left in school.. He's doing Spanish but I'm focusing on him getting the Maths and physics he wants for A level even though I'm personally quite passionate about languages. My DS she very similar to yours and gets 25% extra time. I hope your school got that for your DS. It makes a big difference.

We give an almost blanket no to this where I work. We have nowhere for students to go and once you let one student drop a subject it opens the floodgates. I'd recommend that you don't get your hopes up too much (sorry).

If the school does have a resource centre, it may be possible to supervise him there. However be prepared for the school to not be keen. It could always start off as an informal arrangement where he goes to the centre every German lesson and eventually doesn't get entered for the exam.

If the school have somewhere to supervise then they may be absolutely fine about it. Ask the question and take it from there.

Dc1 dropped language (medical health causing reduced time in school, autism and dyslexia) it was my belief time spent boosting other subject grades to get 4+ was better than spending time revising something at best they'd get a 3 in.
Turns out they already had a large group of dc who had done the same /taken one less gcse and they were taught English /maths revision plus some small group /1:1 revision when needed for science.
Dc1 went on to pass all gcses grade 4-6 which was better than predicted. Is in final year at college and it has not held them back at all.
I think dropping any gcse needs to be thought about in terms of will it be needed for next stage of life, is it compulsory and if reducing gcses how are they going to best use the time to benefit their other gcses? Dc1 was given a half term of 1:1 science 1 hour a week as missed a lot due to ill health and between mock and final exam went up 2 grades.

@MerryMarigold he’s got quite a few exam concessions. His Ed Psych report recommended extra time plus the school also put him in a quiet room for all exams so he doesn’t get distracted and he uses a laptop where ever possible.

His school actually did creative imedia in year 10 so we know he has one ‘GCSE’ pass already.

@Hercisback they do have a well staffed support centre and he has a mentor so fingers crossed they can do something. There was talk of him having 121 English lessons but it depends whether the timetables line up.

@Clockbookbeast that’s my thoughts too, he needs to focus on getting a pass in English and getting the highest marks possible in his future A Level subjects rather then spending lots of time on a subject that he will probably get a 3 at best in.

He is in a cohort of 210 kids so hopefully there are a few others like him and a plan I’d already in place. Glad it’s worked well for your DC.

If you can afford tutoring maybe pick one subject after the latest mock results, either the English pass or any of the A levels which are looking dicey. My DS wants to do Maths and physics. He got a 5 in the mock and needs a 7 to do Maths and even Physics! So we got him a maths tutor (and also several college options which require a 5 or less in Maths). At this stage it's short term so not like forking out for months and months.

I’m trying to find a computer science tutor at the minute. He finds one paper really easy but the second one really hard. They’re like hens teeth in my area and I’m not sure online tutoring will work for him. If we can find one then I might look for an English tutor instead.

At my DSs school taking a language was compulsory. They actually let 6 students (out of 240) drop the language and they instead had extra Maths, English and science during those periods. The school didn’t promote it when choosing options so it want widely known about. Your school may already be accommodating students who have dropped language lessons.

@Sockpile hopefully our school do something similar but as you say, don't publicise it.

Is the plan post 16 for A levels then? School or sixth form college? Whether German is dropped or not, it’s important to decide what the next stage is ( depending on results, of course).

What subjects would he want to do at A level. There’s a big difference between GCSE and A level and if he needs a tutor for several subject, it will be a big workload.

There was no way DS was going to pass GCSE French and he needed to spend time on other subjects (ADHD made everything a struggle) so I told him to stop doing any work outside of school on it. He still had to sit it, got a 3, but did much better than predicted in all other subjects.