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 Today she has gone into school and we have been informed the school have withdrawn triple science as an option, and all year 11 students will be entered in to the double award instead.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?

I understand how frustrated you might be, but I do slightly understand where school are coming from. If they are struggling for teachers, there is a logic to this if it it helps a majority of pupils to get higher grades. It's really unfortunate that it could affect your daughter.

Are you able to discuss with the college she wants to go to? I'm wondering if she was predicted good grades for triple and has now been disadvantaged, if they would take this into consideration?

You need to be aware that many colleges don't accept a triple award as 3 seperate GCSEs to qualify for STEM A Levels if the student isn't otherwise performing well (ie has 5 other GCSEs). So if the college you're after will accept her then it's worth paying privately to sit the triple award exam.

i would contact the other parents to see who else is upset
i'm very confused as presumably the booked her triple science exams already

She isnt applying for A levels and the conditional offer was based on 5 subjects at 5+ with 4+ in both maths and english. She has had her college interview already and the offer was based on the 3 sciences.

@LolaLouise my apologies I misread.

Get her lightup hub for English, my DD is extremely dyslexic, has an ehcp and a stint in a specialist school and it's been godsent. Triple science is so so content heavy so I think this is actually better tbh. What I'd suggest is bringing the art grade up. Have a look at the exam board she's doing, find exemplar sketchbooks for it, make sure annotation is great and help her with that if you need to. Tons of resources. That course ends first so she'll have more time to revise the others.

What college course is she wanting to do?
For A level it's usually that you need a 5/6 in that subject at GCSEs. Talk to the college about options. She could still do 3 science A levels with top grades in double science and maths.
If it's not A levels then they might have options like an access course for a year, or consider her anyway without the 5+ in 5 subjects but with very strong maths & science results. So 4 at 6+ for example.
Also other colleges might have different requirements for a similar course

Absolutely and I am not condoning it either. But remember that state schools are exam factories who are under pressure to get good results. Poor results = poor ofsted = kiss of death for school and many people's careers. It's an awful system in a lot of ways but it is reality.

Im going to contact the college next week. I have emailed the head of science for clarity. But for the record - they arent short of science teachers. She has no art teacher, but the sciences are all staffed with the same teachers that taught my two older children triple science.

What has changed is the school is under a new trust as of September. A massive country wide trust with 20+ schools. So far i am struggling to see any benefit of them being in this trust as every decision made seems to be negatively impacting students. I am very glad my daughter leaves this time and that she is my last school aged child.

We were told that the situation re physics teachers is so dire that even if every single physics graduate this year were to train to teach there STILL wouldn't be enough physics teachers. But it's all subjects now - my school even struggled to recruit for a PE post. In the past there would gave been 100+ applicants for PE!

There isnt another college. There is one option here for 16-19 year olds, no schools have 6th forms, its just the one college they all feed in to. She wants to do the T level in health with the aims of either nursing or paramedic science at uni, she is still undecided for after college. The T level offers more work placements. If she doesnt get the grades then it would be the health and social care extended diploma, which offers less placements. Both give her the option to do either uni course, but she wants to do the T level and has the conditional offer on that course following her interview.

Top medical schools don't require it simply because so many schools are switching to double, and the universities realise that it would be discrimination. It is not because they really don't like them having three sciences at GCSE. It is no comfort for you OP but my dd did triple science and said it was such an advantage at A level compared to those who had just done double.

Yes, and it can be an advantage at degree level too.

I’m not clear why she’s doing one subject less than her peers now, if the triple Science option has been removed for all students. Surely that must mean that all previously triple award students will do one fewer.

I think the focus should be on what she can now do to get on to the college course she wants and how to achieve that. As difficult and unfair as it is, I doubt the school will change again, although I imagine all the triple award students and their parents will be angry.

I think contacting the college to explain and see what they say is a good idea. Does the course she wants have a qualification with a lower threshold, so she could do that and then move to the course she initially planned for.

If she achieves the 5 or above in Maths, two Sciences and Geography, she has four and the college may accept that under the circumstances.

Talk to them and you then have a plan.

because not all the kids are doing triple science, and the college intake is from all the high schools across the town where the majority of kids are still going to be sitting the 9 GCSE's where as my daughter and the children doing triple are now doing 8...

Doesn't she need a 5 in English for college?

Forcing pupils to change GCSE option in year 11 is completely unacceptable. I'd be asking the school to reconsider their decision. Then I would be making a formal complaint to the governing body. And if that failed I would also be talking to a solicitor to see if there are any options for redress such as applying for a court ruling requiring the school to pay for a tutor and private examination.

No. Her conditional offer is 5 GCSE's at 5+ with 4+ in English and Maths.

At our school you either chose triple or double plus another subject. The third science was one of your options. So in the OPs case, the kids who chose triple will now have one less GCSE than those who chose double.

Exactly. I also cant help but wonder if this will affect future uni applications with her only being able to list 8 subjects not the standard 9.

8 will be fine

I'd echo the others on here and say contact the college before anything else, and forward the correspondence from the school to them. They will respond and you can decide what to do from there. It's massively unfair of the school at this stage but it seems a decision has been made and there is nothing you can do to change that.

I don’t think it will as it’s a whole school decision that can be explained. But that doesn’t make it any more ok when it’s going to potentially impact her conditional college offer. I really would speak to college and see if they will review conditional offer in these specific circumstances.

For nursing or paramedic science she will need 4/5 in maths and English anyway, so if she gets those and does well in her sciences she will be well on her way to 25 points.

Do all her grades count? For the academic 6th forms round here it's typically 44 points from their best 8 exams, but the colleges will accept lower grades across the board.

Here is what I would do.
I would speak to each individual science teacher and ask if there is any reason your daughter would be better off just doing 2 given the circumstance.
I would speak to the college that she has her offer for and explain the circumstance and see what wiggle room they have.

They're may be other students in this boat and parents who can join you in addressing your concerns with the school.

I would go through the syllabus with her and see how much she has covered. It is likely that she has covered the majority leaving next year for practising past papers and revision so it's unlikely they can change the way they're teaching to accommodate her but they may be prepared to enroll her for the 3 science exams.

I know that you said you can't afford to pay for the exams yourself as a private candidate. The cost would be around 200 per exam. If you do find a way to do this I'm happy to explain how it works. Deadlines for registering for these are approaching so it needs to be a quick decision. It is unlikely she's be able to get additional allowances going this route (extra time etc)

I know her college offer was based on passing English. I would speak to them again. Given that around a third of students fail English due to the bell curve there must be some wiggle room especially if she's not choosing essay based courses. There will to be some provision there for resitting English.
From experience, with all these things it usually means finding the right person to ask. If the first person isn't able to listen and really think about it, ask someone else.
If it turned out she could afford to get a lower grade in English you could put the cost of tutoring towards science exams

Another thought is that if she is stronger in one science than another then the weaker subject could pull down her overall grade. It's worth adding that to you discussions with the school.

Good luck. Whatever happens your daughter will know you've got her back, even if you are unable to get the outcome changed