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 Today she has gone into school and we have been informed the school have withdrawn triple science as an option, and all year 11 students will be entered in to the double award instead.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

No, it’s not because it’s a private school, though that is presumably why they figured the option would be uncontroversial. Like I said, I checked because I thought it was odd. All that a school has to offer is science of some sort and whilst the vast majority of the time that is either separate sciences or dual award, it is actually perfectly permissible for a state school to only offer one science. Obviously, it’s better if it’s one option among many

This is pretty shitty at this point in year 11. Basically they don’t think the separate science kids are going to do well enough and they are banking on them doing better if they do double only, with no regard for individual consequences

explain the specific situation to the school and also to the college. Very likely the college will be understanding.

interesting I always thought combined was compulsory for the state system unless there are extenuating circumstances - certainly where I worked it was pared down to combined science maths and English for those who were struggling for whatever reason. Private schools have less rules

it’s moot though as the school decision here is for the school not for the pupils and is a awful decision- they should be offering both options

My DD has a processing disorder; Irlens Syndrome, which means she has a lot of similar struggles to the ones on the list you have provided. We had such a battle getting school to admit there was an issue, because like your DD, she is brilliant at Maths and Science, but not great at things like English and History. We had to pursue a private diagnosis, but school still won't provide any exam arrangements other than printing the exams on blue paper (although in the recent mocks, only 8 out of the 12 papers she sat were printed on blue).

My DD is doing the 3 separate Science GCSEs, and if school were to try to change to the Double Award there would be an outcry, I'm sure. At their school, they choose their options at the end of Year 8 and begin their GCSE subjects at the start of Year 9.

In your shoes I think I would go to this meeting and see what the school have to say. If you're not happy, I would ask if your DD could continue to study for the additional GCSE on her own, and if the school will then still enter her for the 3 separate Science papers. They may ask you to pay for the entry for the additional exam, but it shouldn't be hugely expensive. If your DD is already doing well in Science, it's really a matter of revision at this stage surely, as they should have been taught the whole syllabus by now, I think, so as long as she has the text books at home, and access to all the usual websites with the past papers etc., she should be able to prepare herself, if she's committed.

What a shame the school are causing all this stress for your DD, I hope you are able to organise things for her to her satisfaction.

Some people simply memorise the shapes of entire words and how these match to sound/meaning. (Actually we all do this to some extent, but for some this is their only strategy.) Obviously this requires a lot more mental load to read any given text than if you've learned the rules concerning the alphabet, but for some people the latter can be overwhelmingly challenging.

I have no idea how I read.
I do know that I absolutely couldn't do around 75% of my kids phonics homework (and the dyslexic child was at about 90% failure rate on it).

Utter bollocks!

I teach science upto KS5, and this is utter crap!

We only enter our weakest students into combined science (foundation tier) or those who don't enjoy science so much and want another GCSE option instead.

It's a well known fact for AQA that the combined science higher tier paper is much harder to get the top grades on!

Cost is a factor. Combined science entry is £90.50 per child (AQA) but separate sciences would cost the school 3 x £45.25 (so £135.75). Could this be a cost cutting exercise?

And if they analysed the recent exam results, then they'd enter all pupils for single science. Here you go:

https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-GCSE-STATS-JUN-2024.PDF

Separate science has 12.5% (Biology), 14% (Chemistry) and 13.3% (Physics) grade 9 percentage. For all three sciences, around 63% get a grade 6 or above which would allow them to be able to do A level.

For combined science only 1.1% of pupils get a 9-9!! Only 18.7% get a grade 6-6 or above (so most would not be able to do A Level). (Combined science results are at the bottom of the table).

I would kick up merry hell over this, and insist your child is entered separately.

The whole point of doing separate sciences is that it means giving up another GCSE, so this is massively penalising students.

Are those statistics not because most schools enter their ‘most able’ into triple? So most kids who do triple are predicted at least a 7 and this is reflected in the results?

i agree I think the results are partly because the most able do triple - triple foundation for example doesn’t have many at all

You see the same selection effect in A-levels. By the stats, Further Maths is a really easy exam (40% A*)

Yes, that does reflect that, which is why they are low.

But... we enter lots of bright higher tier students every year for trilogy (combined science) and their results are always lower than the separate science counter parts. We genuinely feel it's harder to get the top grades on the combined higher paper.

Although for the OP the biggest issue is one less GCSE that their DD would have done really well in.

This has happened in my son’s school, even though only six kids were taking triple. And someone I know in another town, the whole 200 kids in the year group were doing triple and have had it taken away.
what’s going on this year?!

You actually can drop all Sciences. It's only English and Maths that are compulsory in terms of exams.

It's extremely rare to drop sciences, but it is possible to drop 1, 2 or all 3. Only happens in very particular circumstances and most people - including teachers - don't know this.

Yes, ours too. Only pupils achieving 7 and above were invited to do triple science.

Dyslexia is so much more than just phonics or reading. That said English is not nearly as phonetic as a language like Italian.

I have a severely dyslexic DD - but she's top set English and considered to be extremely able when it comes to creative writing. She can't spell, punctuation and grammar are very hit and miss, but nothing a good editor can't deal with.

DD struggles massively with reading - every sentence has to be decoded, then re-read as a whole, then assessed for meaning, then read again to understand it within the context of everything else. Where I (hyperlexic) can read a page incredibly fast and understand everything, DD will be there for so long she gets frustrated and has to be extremely motivated to start in the first place.

Luckily you can use audio books, film and theatre to compensate for a lot of great literature, but it's very hard on a day to day level.

Dyslexia and IQ are also not linked in any way. Many people assume that children with severe dyslexia are stupid because it's so much harder for them to access academics, especially at school. Often their cognitive abilities are so far above that it makes the problems even worse.

Then you have to add in things like problems with processing, or with working memory that can all be part of the same package.

Luckily at tertiary level there seems to be a lot more understanding and different ways of being able to work - and a whole load more support.

I do a lot of editing as part of my job, and some of the people I do proof-reading for are incredibly clever and knowledgeable, but could not begin to write a simple letter. They have managed to get to a stage in their careers where they can just send everything to someone like me and I sort it all out for them before anyone else sees it!

I think OP's DD is achieving 7s in Sciences and Maths though. It's not unusual for a student to be very good at Sciences/Maths but not art/humanities or vice versa. It seems quite short-sighted not to let them concentrate on what they are good at.