To be tired of teachers exaggerating

[onarailwaytrain]

Dd and DS (twins) in year 11 at the moment and all we have heard is how they have to get their GCSEs, their lives will be ruined if they don't, they will never get to college and never get a good job. Etc.

Dd in particular is unlikely to get many cs or above. AIBU in thinking the teachers should back off a bit?

I didn't do well in my GCSE's but later on I wanted to learn again and went on an ACCESS course. You are in small classes and taught English, science and maths slowly and clearly. The teacher on the course found out most of us had dyslexia and needed extra support.
The environment was so different to school and we really flourished (age range from early twenties to fifties). I ended up going to Uni after as the course is recognised by Uni's. I floundered there and only got a 2:2, but still I made it.
This isn't the end for your kids. Even if they don't decide to go back and re-do education. There are many things they can do without an education - become chefs, builders, own businesses. The MD of the first company I worked at had no formal education, but a great head for marketing.

I wish them luck.

Jenni, but that is what I said earlier. It's all very well saying "The MD of the firm I worked for..." etc but the world has sadly changed and you will find that "even" bricklayers and careworkers are expected to study and get NVQs. Chefs certainly are. And speaking as a small business owner myself I know full well that if I did not have a decent level of writing, reading and maths my business would not have made it.

Yes and no, I agree that they terrify them but they need to understand that it matters and the all need a rocket for anything to get past the hormones.

My ds is younger and they are terrifying them already.

Ideally they want to get the c into good habits so they are self motivating and organised for the exam only world they now approach.....

They have to be serious if they want to do well and they are now competing against children from all over the world who want to live in the UK and will have better qualifications. It is hard but true, are kids can't compete unless they work hard.

It could be argued that we have become educationally soft in the last 20 years and have not adequately assessed how our education system meets the nation's workforce needs.

Sorry ! 'Our' kids not 'are' kids

bakeofcakes it's the new pay progression for teachers from this academic year. Every school makes up their own pay policy and teachers work towards it through appraisals.

As for OP as a primary teacher would never push children to try for a level they have no chance of achieving but could be different in secondary I guess?

Hester, I apologise for the missing words in my post! Trying to bf my 6 week old while typing and a bit sleep deprived

It is not exaggerating! No GCSE's....you might as well sign straight on and give up, because unless you are very very lucky, you aren't going to get much of a job.
You can't just say oh well my children aren't academic, because GCSE's are not very academic at all, they are the very basic level of qualification and frankly anyone (without actual additional educational needs) should be able to get a couple of them with enough effort.

You want the teachers to lie to them and tell them everything will be fine if they haven't any qualifications at all? How would that help them?

I'm aware my post sounds harsh, but then so is the jobs market. Jobs that needed minimum qualifications a decade ago now ask for honours degrees, and so on up the ladder. To work in a care home you are going to need a level 5 qualification, to get on that you will need english and maths gcse's etc etc.
It's the reality. It might not be fair but its the way it is.

"It is not exaggerating! No GCSE's....you might as well sign straight on and give up, because unless you are very very lucky, you aren't going to get much of a job. "

If you get no GCSEs then you are going to have to do some kind of course at college. By law every child is going to be expected to continue education so there has been something.

Surely the worst senario is that a child does a transition/ life skills course like kids from special schools do. Courses like bricklaying or being a chef or a nursery nurse are still open as future options, but kids without GCSEs are going to take that bit longer.

How will the course to be a nursery nurse be any different to the gcses? If they can do the former why not the latter?
I find it odd that OP says she's been telling the children their whole lives that it doesn't matter that they aren't very academic/not very good at school....what about the pygmalion effect....the self-fulfilling prophecy?

"How will the course to be a nursery nurse be any different to the gcses? If they can do the former why not the latter?"

Some kids need a little longer to grow up. Sometimes children are not enthused when they are at school. Sometimes kids in the bottom set get the worst teachers and struggle with impossible classmates. A vocational course has periods of work placement which helps teens see the point of learning. People learn in different ways and vocational courses assess different types of learning/ learners.

A teen who wants to train to be a nursery nurse but lacks GCSE would have to spend an extra year at college. Looking at the website of my local college there is a level one diploma that requires 2 GCSEs at grade G or above. There is even a course for kids who don't get that

www.westherts.ac.uk/level-1-diploma-in-caring-for-children/

Teens then go on to the level 2 that requires 3 GCSEs at grades A to D or a level 1 diploma and then subsequently a level 3 course. They can resit maths and english alongside their vocational courses.

It is stupid to tell kids that GCSEs are everything, but that doesn't mean that GCSEs don't help. If kids get GCSEs the first time then they can get to their goals quicker.

Gcse's make life easier and open up more options but they can also study level 1,2,3 quals in maths and English to give them an equivalent qualification while at college. Progression on Btecs or nvqs is dependant on English levels especially but also maths so they may well be limited initially or later on

I second the call for good quality independant careers advice which they should get if either has a statement or ehcp

There options open to them but they need decent information and guidance

Grocklebox , my ds has quite severe SENs , GCSE in the sense that they rely heavily on linear exams do not suit him , but I absolutely refuse to accept that as a consequence he might as well just give up and sign on

I have already decided that I will be home schooling my daughter as I actually don't think schools push you enough. I got sick of hearing people tell me to aim for a c grade when I knew I could do better. I pushed myself to excel at the last minute, after spending most of high school wasting time and messing around and truanting, and achieved a grades and b grades. If teachers actually tried to support students in a broader way, e.g by telling the kids about different options and trying to explain that as long as you try hard etc. Instead of touting the grade c line then they would probably end up with more a stars and a grades as kids would try harder. I want my daughter to Have a thirst for knowledge and to push herself to succeed like I always have. I didn't go to uni after btw I went and did NVQ courses after gcse and now run a business.

And most NVQ now have additional lessons for basic math and English available for those who don't get the gcses so I am sure your kids will be fine.

Care homes certainly don't require GCSEs. Where do you lot get this stuff from? Dd has a job in KFC - they didn't require GCSEs, as she has not got any yet. DS is a dishwasher in a hotel.

This is exactly what we are up against, misinformed nonsense. My children certainly will not be signing on at the job centre. They might not be rich but does that bother you?

tobeabat - I think you're missing the point somewhat. Of course different jobs need different skills. The issue is that the qualifications needed for pretty much any job are tested in similar ways. I say this as a teacher who is angry about the changes in the BTEC syllabi - Level 2 BTEC used to be a great alternative to GCSE in some subjects for a range of reasons - one of which was the fact that they had no written exams. Government has demanded and edexcel has responded and now all L2 BTECs have an element of external examination. No one in government is thinking about the way that different children learn or that they need opportunities to show their skills and knowledge in different ways.

Can you honestly not comprehend that the skills, temperament, techniques and aptitude needed to work well with children might differ from those needed to do trigonometry?

Can you honestly comprehend that the skills needed to pass a NVQ in Childcare: writing, assessments, etc etc are really very similar to the skills needed for, say, an English GCSE?

not

It may not be right that many very basic jobs call for qualifications these days, but unfortunately that's the way it is ... it's hardly helpful for teachers to pretend otherwise. Granted these can be passed later at college, but those who've been reluctant to apply themselves at school can sometimes fail to take advantage of this too

I do understand the "self esteem" thing, but honestly feel this can sometimes be taken too far; learning, like life, can be hard work and the sooner young people accept this the better they tend to get on

All that said, I also believe there should be more vocational opportunities for those who've genuinely done their very best but really don't have academic potential, rather than for those who've simply not bothered

My children certainly will not be signing on at the job centre

You sound quite sure about that, which is odd. You know there are people with masters degrees on the dole too, don't you? What makes you think your children will find continuous full employment, whether or not they have a GCSE or anything else?

Grockle, for their English GCSEs my children have had to read a number of texts as well. They've had to do a spoken language analysis that they found extremely difficult. DS just didn't understand what he was supposed to do at all. I think he got 3 out of 20 for that. They've done past papers and they are pretty steep. Obviously they aren't if you have those sound skills, but both mine struggle. DS in particular isn't very good with understanding what he's actually being asked to do.

I appreciate if you're intelligent yourself it might be difficult to understand why some people struggle, but it is very hard for them both.

But as I've said, that doesn't mean they're illiterate!

Can you honestly comprehend that the skills needed to pass a NVQ in Childcare: writing, assessments, etc etc are really very similar to the skills needed for, say, an English GCSE?

They're similar in that both involve some writing, but pretty different otherwise, I'd say!