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 Today she has gone into school and we have been informed the school have withdrawn triple science as an option, and all year 11 students will be entered in to the double award instead.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

How much of the syllabus is still to teach?
They may have taught all the double content but realised they are too behind on the 'extra' content to get it all done?

Is there an alternate entrance to the T level whereby she does a related level 2 for a year and can progress provided she gets a Merit?

Don't underestimate the writing required for a level 3 vocational course. As she's dyslexic a year at level 2 first may actually be beneficial.

Good point about whether they may be too behind with the syllabus. Last year, for dc they were still covering new content when they broke up for Easter!

It is worth reading JCQ’s access arrangement guidance. Has DD tried a computer reader? Computer readers can be used even in the section of GCSE English Language where a reader isn’t allowed.

Some candidates are allowed to have spell check enabled in exams other than MFL exams. It explains this in JCQ guidance. They forgo the SPaG marks so the benefits need to be weighed up against that, but for some it is still better to use spell check.

Grammarnut you really don't understand dyslexia do you ?

Yes, it would be separate to the dual award as the majority of grammar schools in my area don't offer it. I didn't mean that a lot of students drop a science and only do two. It was assuming that one or two students did as it happens with other subjects too.

They almost certainly haven’t finished covering the content at this stage in Year 11, especially not for triple science. Most schools struggle to cover everything by Easter, let alone Christmas.

I strongly suspect that they’ve realised that there’s no way they are going to be able to finish the course and are making the only decision they feel will result in good grades for the kids. It’s reflective of the terrible state that many schools are in - there aren’t enough teachers and there are even fewer who can teach sciences, especially chemistry and physics at triple science level.

If you didn't mean they only do two sciences then I'm not sure what you mean.
We offer dual award every year, but it only runs if they have one full class that want to do it (and have 3 'free' options). It doesn't happen every year.

This sounds like either poor communication or poor teaching (or both!) from the grammar school.
By which I mean that the grammar school is probably not covering from an appropriate starting point in the A level classes the content that is only included in the triple sciences. Which might be reasonable to do if they let students moving to the school know that is what they were going to do and the topics they needed to do some prep work for.

It doesn't seem like irrefutable proof that triple science students do better than double science students.

I meant that they do not offer the dual award. Therefore if one or two people want to drop a GCSE they would have to do two single sciences. Do students never drop a subject at your school during year 10 or 11?

That's what I thought you said. Students don't get to drop one of the sciences in a state school.
Dropping a GCSE is very very rare in my school and is usually a language if so.

It wasn't rare at DCs grammar school. Admittedly, I do only know students who dropped a language though . I was assuming they could drop other subjects too as happened when I was at school but if that has changed, maybe not. Therefore they all do three sciences.

You can't drop one of the sciences. It's a core subjects. You have to do all three in some form.
It was unheard at my school in the 90s to drop one. And it's not been common in either of the grammars I've worked in.
Occasionally, Greek/Latin has been dropped and very rarely (for pastoral rather than academic reasons) the modern foreign language has been dropped.
In grammars it's more common to do additional ones 'for fun'. In our school Astronomy and Spanish are done this way.

If they have to do extra work for A level compared with those who did triple science, it is evidence that it is not as easy for them to do A level sciences following the dual award. That might not be "proof" but surely it is common sense that it is harder they are likely to do less well. Why else do many grammar school only offer triple science?

I was at school in the 80s and definitely not unheard of to drop an O level in any subject. Few people did three sciences anyway and the dual award rare. The schools my DC went to seemed to encourage some students to drop a subject if they thought they wouldn't get a good mark too. Probably to keep their results looking good.

I'm a year 12 form tutor this year. The jump from GCSE to A Level is larger for people who've done dual award.

My daughter’s private school allows them to do 1, 2 or 3 sciences - they’re no dual award offered and the number they do is their choice. I’ve also never known this in the schools I’ve taught in (but then I’m not a science teacher) but I confess I’m delighted - she’ll only be taking one and doing more Arts based subjects instead.

There’s - stupid autocorrect

You don’t, actually. You only have to take one but it’s extremely unusual. I checked because my daughter’s school allows them to only take one if they want.

@Moglet4 it is a private school isn’t it so wouldn’t have to follow Government rules

combined science was created I think to allow pupils to do all 3 sciences but only use 2 spots and cover equal amounts for all - it was designed to allow those less science minded/focused to get a depth of knowledge of all the sciences

i think it is incredibly useful at doing so and wish it had been available in the 90s when I did mine

it shouldn’t be at the expense though of triple science as taking that away disadvantages those who do want to do science a levels and beyond and those for whom it is their better subjectd

i think it is incredibly useful at doing so and wish it had been available in the 90s when I did mine

I sat GCSE in 90s and did double science award so did DH in another part of midlands. Neither school offered triple so we both went on to science A-levels from double and were told by teachers the jump was probably bigger.

Few years earlier my older brother had had to choose between sciences at GCSE level - couldn't do all 3 at most two so he literally had to choose to do physics, chemistry or biology at 14. So in that respect double was better choice.

The Op problem isn't the double per say it's swapping to it so late and her DD spiky profile favoring the science area.

I know DC exam syllabus it's not here double content and few extra lessons for higher - the higher syllabus is different. Perhaps that why they don't drop the to double award when they don't do so well just reduce level of paper sat here.

A PP suggested asking about more maths qualifications - my DC in top set maths have been last few year given option of additional maths an extra qualification - but they've started this by now so assume you'd know if they were offering anything like that.

How do you read English if not phonetically, it's a phonetic language (it has an alphabet which means it is phonetic, thought the code is complex)?

I am always fascinated by deaf people learning to read. They do but they can't generally hear the sounds represented by the word. So they must be looking at the shape and other associations like lip movements?

Possibly so. Lip movements are likely.