School removed GCSE for yr 11 student?

[LolaLouise]

Posting here for traffic as i really need advice.

My daughter is in year 11, she is very strong in maths and science so picked the triple award science in her year 9 options as this would give her 3 strong GCSE grades. Today she has gone into school and we have been informed the school have withdrawn triple science as an option, and all year 11 students will be entered in to the double award instead. This means my daughter is now doing 1 less subject at GCSE than her peers, and now potentially cant get on to the college course she wanted as she was counting on the 3 sciences for the 5 grades 5+ she needs to be accepted.

Is there anything we can do? where do we stand? How can a school take away a GCSE from students 6 months before they finish?

But she will still do more than 5 GCSE's so can still get the grades for college

Why have school made this decision?

Lack of teachers? Budget constraints?

If you can find out what they won’t cover on the triple science curriculum, could you get a private tutor and enter her as a private candidate at school or at a different centre (I have no idea how viable this is!)?

How many other GCSEs is she sitting? You only need 5 passes to get into college usually

It's terrible they have given no notice. I changed schools do I could do three science o levels. That was years ago but I was very glad I made the choice.
I wonder if they haven't been teaching it thoroughly though and will get a better mark with the combined? I wouldn't be surprised if it is easier to do well.

That’s really bad. I’m sorry OP - that’s really, really poor of the school.

Is it a cost thing? The exam entrance fees maybe? Or a teacher left? I'd enquire whether you can enter her privately, either at school or another location, or if there are other options. At this time of year most of the learning had happened so it's just revision mostly. So if you can find a private tutor to support for the remainder of the year it could be an option. Ultimately you need the reason the school have withdrawn the option and go from there.

SHes unlikely to get the 5+ she needs in her other GCSEs. Currently she is hitting the 5 in her maths, the 3 sciences and geography. I have her in extra english tutoring to try and get that grade up, however, she is dyslexic and really struggling with english lit and lang. Her two other options were french where she is getting a 4, and art, the art teacher however left the school they just have substitutes and at the minute we dont even have a predicted grade for her and their course work projects are all over the place. So we were banking on the maths and science to get her into college on the course she wants.

How frustrating and disappointing for your DD.

What reason have the school given? I think that's the first thing you need to find out.

My DS"s school have had to abandon a GCSE subject after the single teacher able to teach it left, and they were unable to recruit a replacement (they did try, very hard, but there is a huge shortage of teachers).

They have said that the current GCSE students can continue to with the course on a self study basis if they wish, and that the school will enter them for the exam.

If they've had to make the decision due to staffing, I'd be trying to find out if that is an option.

Top universities and medical schools require the highest grades in a broad range of subjects. There is no preference to the GCSE subjects, specifically no requirement to study triple science. Most other schools in the trust have not offered Separate Science for some time now and have demonstrated improvement of results, as well as students moving on to excel at both A level and degree level Science related subjects.

For this reason, as a department and as a School, after careful consideration of all the information and research we have done, as well as analysis of the most recent examinations we have concluded that we will be entering all year 11 students for combined Science. This will provide your son/daughter with the best opportunity at receiving two strong grades in Science at GCSE.

This is their reasoning.

What’s she getting in Maths & English ?

Am I right in thinking she’ll still be taking 9 GCSEs (dropping from 10) but might not get 5 of them at grade 5+ without science counting as 3 subjects not 2? Or is she dropping to 8.
I presume the school can do it (although I don’t have real idea) as lots of schools only double science from the beginning but it does sound a real shame. Would a tutor and private entry for separate sciences be a possibility? Or a tutor for one of the other subjects that she doesn’t think she’ll get a 5 in?

Would it be worth contacting the college course she wants and asking if they would consider an exception for her in the circumstances.

7 in maths, 3/4 in English

In fairness to the school it's common teachers to decide who gets to do double or triple science and children predicted 5s to be offered double science.

Jesus, that is awful. Sorry, op, I'd be wild. All that specific work, with specific papers practiced for a specific exam board, all thrown up in the air only six months before exams? Shit.

But shes been doing triple science for all of year 10 and now year 11. Thats understandable teachers deciding who can do the triple, making the change for children in years 10 and below is understandable, but they have changed them in year 11 which seems massively unfair on the kids that have been doing it for the past year and a half!

In your shoes I'd contact the college she wants to go to and get ahead of the game.
Our local FE college requires 5 grade 5s to do A levels but have been pretty flexible in practice, especially where a student has a good grade for a specific subject eg got a 7 in History and wanted to do A level history.

Oh how frustrating at such a late stage! Whilst their general point probably makes sense - i.e. better to get 2 good grades than 3 average ones - it's rotten luck for your DD in her particular circumstances. I would be tempted to throw everything you can at getting one of her other subjects up to a 5. Could that be English Lang with some serious tutoring?? Or French? Or even Art if she works really hard on her portfolio? Then take the pressure off everything else except the English Lang to get her above the retake zone...

Shes dropping to 8 GCSEs and has to get 5+ in 5 to get on to her college course, which without the triple science is going to be hard for her to do

She is in saturday morning tutoring for English, but realistically thats only going to get her a solid 4 we think, she really struggles with English.

I have a Year 11 DC doing tripple science. If they sent that message now, I'd be booking in to see the head. This is outrageous.

Fine to do this for the current year 9s, so they don't get the choice when they go into yeat 10 but you don't muck around with students 6 months away from their exams.

Try and stay cool, explain that their decision will have serious implications for your DC, where these subjects are her strongest, and you want to discuss how the school will help her to make up the GCSE she will now be missing. Complain to the governors if the head doesn't see the madness in this decision for those students who excel in science.

I've heard of kids being asked to move to combined post mocks... In order for them to get a secure grade. However, to withdraw triple to all students in year 11 at this stage seems unfair.

Hmm, reading the school statement I’d say the mock results were shit in triple, and are thinking that their results will be impacted by this so have lowered the bar so results look better. * It’s shit for the kids predicted and on track for the grades (happened to my son many years ago). If you can afford it, I’d go for the private tutor angle, it should at this point be revising and consolidation as they SHOULD have covered everything on the papers by now. And enter as a private candidate.
*Also any chance there are vacancies in science that mean the staff are stretched? Or the specialist isn’t there? (Bet it’s physics) As people have said there are massive shortages especially in the sciences. My job was recruiting long term cover and trying to find A, a qualified teacher of any kind and B one in the sciences and C one capable of teaching higher was always difficult, now it’s impossible.

Also, I’d be worried about the Art. It’s difficult to get a decent grade in it, but without a teacher guiding them on what is looked for by the moderators (the support work especially gets forgotten about) it’s almost impossible. the class is being failed massively by the school.

Is it because they are so behind in the syllabus that they have run out of time and want to use that time to recap and revise?

This. In my school it is only the real high flyers that get to do Triple- they are specifically invited. There is no way someone struggling in half their subjects would be allowed to sit the Triple exam, they'd be back in combined science.
It sounds as if the school is under pressure from their Trust to improve their science results. They will do better in combined. And as others have said, you're better trying to improve her English grade as she'll have to resit if she doesn't get it in Year 11. 2 Science grades, Maths, English and Geography are her 5 subjects for a 5, you need to try and get these.

They should decide before pupils start year 10 not in year 11.