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 Today she has gone into school and we have been informed the school have withdrawn triple science as an option, and all year 11 students will be entered in to the double award instead.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

It’s very common to start dc on triple and drop down to double award after February mocks. Dd1 got 8 for biology, 6 for chemistry but 4 for physics in the February mocks so was moved to double award (along with many others in the year) last year. She went on to get 7, 7 in the double award.

however, we knew that could happen from the start as the school didn’t have extra lessons for triple compared to double award so had to do home learning for a whole module. I remember feeling a bit gutted at the time but it’s been fine and took the pressure off a bit. She ended up surprising us by pulling her maths right up at the end too.

I completely see how confusing it would be but it happens fairly regularly in state schools due to time tabling.

It's very unusual to pull a subject at gcse at this stage in year 11.

As other have mentioned it is usually because it's a relatively unusual subject and the teacher has left and school cannot recruit anyone to do it.

Changing triple to double at this stage is not helpful.

Speak to the school. Exam entries do not need to be in until January and alterations can be made (at a cost to the school) certainly up to Easter.

There will be other parents upset about this. Consider speaking to them and getting together to work out what you want.

At a minimum I'd suggest that she is allowed to enter for triple and revision workbooks etc are provided by the school. They'll still need to staff the lessons so they could I suppose focus on the content which is in the double and the triple.

I would make it clear in my personal statement . "Originally I was to sit science GCSEs as separate subjects and was predicted xyz, however a whole school decision was made late in year 11 to switch to combined science"

Going back to the sixth form offer if she ends up doing combined science would her school teachers be prepared to confirm her predicted separate grades and would the sixth form then consider those. In 2020 GCSEs were awarded on this basis although the school did have to be ready to evidence then.

Given her dyslexia your DD is being compromised to a greater extent than her peers. I would press back with that angle.

While other students that are affected are likely to just be able to put in a little more effort if they need to, for those like your DD who is already pushing the best of her ability, their 11th hour decision to scrap one of the only GCSEs that she excels in, is discriminatory, IMO.

I agree that it's far too late for them to be making this decision. Their exams are what? 5 months away?

What impact does it really have on them to continue to offer it to the Y11 cohort? Don't they still have to sit 3 exams, whether they get two GCSE's at the end or three??

They should have made it optional to those currently in Y11, not making a decision for them.

It doesn't happen in state grammar schools. I'm sure if there was an advantage to pupils they would offer double awards too.

Triple science simply double/combined with extra content and paper in each discipline. You still cover all three in double/combined but get two grades. Most schools take a decision on who takes triple in year 11, which is spent on the extra syllabus or revision accordingly. It does seem late to affect those already in years 10/11 but may be a teaching resource issue. Can you get a tutor to cover the additional content or speak to the college to explain ?

I would have been absolutely furious if my DCs schoolhad done something like this at this stage OP. There's only one term to go before the exams start for heaven's sake. This is the sort of thing that it would be reasonable to tell current year 9 before they start their GCSE courses and, at a push, the year 10s I suppose, but not the year that have got exams just around the corner. Doing double science is perfectly OK but arbitrarily changing the goalposts for whole year group, meaning one less GCSE than expected is not fair, particularly when it is so close to the exams and post 16 plans are already being made.
You won't be the only parent who is angry OP. Get together and make your views known.

This won’t matter, there is no standard number of GCSEs really, 5 is usually the minimum taken (2 English, 1maths and 2 science) and I’ve worked at schools where some students have just taken those 5. 8 is fine. When it comes to uni they usually just check maths and English GCSEs.

I would ask for a meeting with the head. Schools are supposed to only drop subjects if it’s in the best interest of pupils and it clearly isn’t for your daughter. They’re also supposed to consult with parents and students and that doesn’t sound as if it’s been done here, other than the email. Can your DD see if other friends are in similar situations or other parents are annoyed by this and you could go in as a group? May have more of an impact that just once parent.

I would speak to the college and explain the situation, explain she has a tutor for English but has dyslexia. Given this is beyond her control they may make allowances. Also most colleges will allow students to resist maths or English whilst there, they may allow her to resist alongside her course or worst case scenario she could take a year to redo English if needed.

That isnt the case in my daughters school. She picked triple in her year 9 options, which then meant she picked 3 additional GCSE subjects not 4 those who chose double picked. They then have lessons in all 3 consistently, where as the kids doing double did 2 sciences each term, rotating the classes. So the additional science lessons may give her an advantage at higher grades in the double over those who have done it since the start, she has put the work in for the triple all through year 10 and up until now in year 11. It wasnt a "school" decision, it was her decision in year 9.

Ive just been speaking to another parent who is very unhappy too. The school have emailed saying there is a meeting for year 11 parents to discuss this next week (im assuming other parents have been in contact with them too for this to be happening), however its on a day i am working, so i am now trying to get that shift swapped or see if i can finish early to attend.

Are you sure? I went to state grammar and had the choice but triple counted as an option block so most of us did the double to allow us to do another separate subject. People did drop to double if they weren’t getting the grades. Appreciate that might have changed.

we don’t have grammar schools here (but shock horror, many dc still get 7s, 8s and 9s. For dd1, they didn’t really allow enough time as it wasn’t an extra block, they just tried to squeeze the learning of 3 subjects into the time for 2. She still took 9 GCSEs but with triple science it would have been 10.

Yeh, but not a term and a hand before GCSEs!

DC state school every one did double and triple had to be selected as a GCSE option - that was wales but DN English secondary did the same.

If kids then struggled they'd be move done from higher to intermediate or lower papers they wouldn't drop a GCSE to double - not least as that would cause timetable issues when everyone else was doing their option slot.

Different schools will handle the situation differently - but I do think this is a specular poor way to deal with the issue - as Op DD did well in the mocks - so there's not a need to drop down for her and it disadvantages her with her next step.

I’d be writing a letter to the HT and CC’g the governors. I agree with PPs that you cannot suddenly withdraw an option 6m before the exams. The syllabus for the double option will be slightly different too.

I’d fight this, frankly, and maybe argue that it is in fact discriminatory against children such as yours DC who will now have obtaining 5GCSEs put at risk due to their disregard of her educational needs re English/related subjects.

That’s positive then, there may be enough push back from parents that they allow the current year 11s to still sit the exam. If you can make the meeting I would go in with a prepared list of what you want to say. And point out that it’s not just the risk of not getting her college course (take the information so they can see the offer and her current predicted grades) but really stress that this is going to cause her stress and worry about getting into college and could negatively impact her other subject grades making the situation worse. They could allow students to chose if they change to the double award.

Take notes during the meeting (get other parents to as well). If it doesn’t go well then you can ask for the schools complaints procedure to escalate the issue. If they still don’t allow her to sit the exam you can escalate the complaint to the DfE but that’s obviously a longer process and may be too late given the exams in a few months.

My DC went to state grammar schools more recently and there was no choice. Everyone did triple. I don't know if anyone dropped to two single science but there was no double science covering three subjects. They probably get better results at science A-levels because of it.

dd moved to a different school for 6th form as her school only went to 16. They were very clear there’s no connection and no real benefit to taking triple. Dd got 7,7 at gcse and is getting As in biology and chemistry ALevel.

Triple is obviously fine, but it isn’t a big deal if dc do double. It won’t hold them back.

At this point in Y11, and given your DD's profile, I would be following the school's formal complaints process. I would submit a complaint on the basis that your DD is being unreasonably disadvantaged by this decision as her college offer is only realistic if she gains three grades for the three separate sciences. I would ask what measures have been put in place to ensure students with additional needs are not disproportionately disadvantaged by this decision and ask what will be put in place to ensure your DD will be supported to take the three separate sciences as opted for in Y9.

I would also include the information that you are not in a position to fund private tuition or private exam entry as you are already paying for tuition to help improve the likelihood of DD getting a grade 4 in English. Ask how the school is going to ensure students from families that cannot afford private tuition to complete the triple course are not disadvantaged by this decision.

Don't wait until after the meeting, get the complaint in now. It may help the trust to see an impact of this decision they'd not appreciated.

You mean the sixth form school said that or the school without a sixth form? I am sceptical that it makes no difference.

Query. Why is she struggling with English if she is capable in science? They both require reading.

That's just awful for her! I'm so sorry.

Yes definitely go and talk to the school. Explain how much this may affect your daughter's future. They are unlikely to change their decision though. Ask them for a letter for the college explaining her mock grades and how them not enabling her to do triple science may result in her not getting the grades they've asked for but she is very capable of excelling in science and they'd very much support her application.

Then speak to the college - take the schools letter. Explain the situation. They hopefully will be understanding.

A local school has also done this with the exact same justification as well

it is an odd decision though the exams are at the same time and same number just 20/30 mins less each time and around 70% of the curriculum is the same triple covers more topics

which is a disadvantage for a level of those subjects haven’t been covered at all

and you still need teachers for each science component

I'm all in favour of choice. The norm at our school is to do triple, which was absolutely fine for my DC but I do think disadvantages the pupils who are more focused on arts/humanities as it reduces the number of subjects they can take at GCSE that play more to their strengths. Ideally I think that it should be an individual decision but I can see that that potentially creates a real headache with timetabling. Different schools do different things, and overall, for most pupils it probably isn't a huge issue whether they do double or triple.
But that is not the issue here. The argument is not whether double vs triple science is "better." The issue is that the pupils are about to enter their last full term of their GCSE course and are being told that they will not be sitting the exams that they were expecting to sit and have planned for, regardless of their individual needs and abilities. Entering all your pupils for double is OK. Entering all your pupils for triple is OK. Doing a mixture based on ability and interest is probably ideal. But changing policy without consultation when pupils are 80% of the way through the course is shit.

Ots too late in the day and unfair to the students. They wouldn't just suddenly say 4 terms in they were dropping Music or French or History...

Good luck.