To think that 4 G.C.S.E's needed to do business studies is ridiculous

[magicalmadmadamim]

My eldest DS is 16 and been at college since September. He has 2 G.C.S.E equivalent certificates in English and Maths.
I'm sure back when I was in college business studies was always a foundation course?
He really wanted to do business studies and they have put him on some really rubbish courses that he is super bored with.
Is it me or is education getting much harder now?
Hardly any of his school friends passed any g.c.s.e's :(

Level 3 apprenticeship s

If he missed the last 2 months of school before GCSE this shouldn't have affected his grades. At my child's school all teaching was finished and from that point they all revised. He should have had all this knowledge to pass his GCSE. The problem is he was messing around throughout high school. He should have achieved far more than two GCSE at grades 1-2 . And using summer born is a complete cop out. I have a summer born and they achieved grades 6-9 in every subject. College won't want him in a higher class as his behaviour will affect the learning of the other students. Completely unfair.

Unfortunately, you can only access Level 3 courses (Alevels and Btecs) with sufficient Level 2 qualifications. He hasn't got that, hence the foundation course which will be the equivalent of GCSEs and allow him to progress to Level 3.

As others have mentioned, the alternative route would be an apprenticeship and these do exist in business but it depends on the college so might not be available where he is currently studying.

Having seen the comments about Minecraft, I wonder if he just spent all his time on Minecraft rather than studying when he needed to.

Thinking that running a Minecraft server is somehow going to be a gateway to a career would be part of the problem. It's no good being great at doing that but not wanting to do he boring financial stuff around the side. And you can't learn that stuff anyway if you are too busy playing Minecraft.

His basic issue seems to be that really hard like to play Minecraft all day and opt out of growing up and taking responsibility that comes with being a grown up and in overly encouraging this you are trapped in a cycle of never giving him the rocket up his arse to tell him that's not how real life works.

As I say attitude and maturity.

Being bored and doing shit you don't want is part of becoming an adult. When are you going to stop enabling him to be a child rather than a young adult?

Yes, but I meant that college may be the way to go, not A Levels. And depending on the college, they may not have the qualification OP's son can do in the field he is interested in. He clearly either went to a college that doesnt have the offer that is suitable for the boy, or maybe what he wants to do education wise is not (yet) suitable for his current level and attitude.
Not to say he wont get there in future, but if he has been expelled from a school months before his GCSEs, and OP banalises it as the school being unfair, this shows a much bigger issue than just the student's ability.

Can affect attitude - took a lot to keep DS on track when his SLT got nasty and we lucky and could prove the lies - he had a fuck it all attutude that took a lot of turning round - two parents and a plan needing grades in place. He did well no issue at college now at uni doing well.

Same with DD2 - two god awful teachers - and meeting them could see the issue- she develped if they can't be arse or don't think me capable why bother - and they'll hate it when I get poor results. Again lots of home support to get back on track and pointing out long term no effect on teacher but huge on her.

It may be long standing issue -- in which case parents should have helped him develop a plan forward and have realistic expectations- or it could be last minute derailment -and kid upset still becuase didn't think long term consquences.

Though whole shcool year having poor results if it's a good school in a good area sounds very unlikely - my DC school did but was in special measure and in a socially deprived neigbourhood - so more expected and more resources put in place to deal with it.

and as a PP says, the 'economics' stuff smells of cryptobro nonsense. Neither of which have any real credibility and their potential for success is minuscule. OP's DS needs a solid plan A, with those as his hobbies.

edited to add - He also needs good, solid parental support to go along with his solid plan A, to keep him on track.

If he likes tech, and is able to cope with the discipline, what about exploring roles in the Royal Navy, RAF or Army?

I was thinking same. Can’t understand how OP has written of the complete failure of his GCSEs as the school’s fault for expelling him when by the point he was expelled teaching would have been finished (or very nearly) and everyone would have been revising. He was allowed back in for the exams. Why weren’t his parents making him sit down and spend the period between expulsion and exams revising his arse off?

Plus there would surely have been coursework etc in the two years prior which would have counted towards his grades - if he had already failed those too then that’s nothing to do with the expulsion.

Re the expulsion itself OP was very vague about what the high jinks that ended up on TikTok actually were…

My daughter picked business studies, it's a difficult course. She got 8 in maths, and a 6 in English and she finds it challenging! And that's with her applying herself and doing a lot of work at home!

I'm not trying to gloat but if he's not that way inclined then maybe this isn't the course for him?

with respect, if he wants to be a cook/chef what on earth does he need business studies for.

he needs to stick this year out so he can access the higher level courses or go back and repeat his gcses.

but I think it really depends on what he wants his career path to look like. An apprenticeship in chosen industry even at an entry level in say business admin would open doors for him witth a good employer.

what were his predicted grades before he was expelled? If they were still gonna be fails then no point repeating.

4 gcses is not too high, this lack of gcses will definitely hinder him with higher level courses/employment in a business environment.

If he had done the whole course and was likely to pass then for no-coursework GCSEs you can just book the exams yourself through an exams centre such as Tutors and Exams and sit the papers as a private candidate - it does cost a few hundred pounds per exam though. You'd need to find out which exam board he has been studying so he sat the right one, as the content differs slightly. If there was something he was great at but can't do at GCSE privately due to coursework (and they wont accept the school's word for the coursework he has already done) then you can sit IGCSE, which is an "international" GCSE aimed at expats such as military families and is exactly the same as GCSE but exam-only. You can buy the IGCSE textbook to check he revises the right stuff.

But he was still allowed to do the GCSEs at school despite being expelled. He just didn’t pass them.

My friend's daughter has just got her mock results. They sit old papers at the end of December. So by the end of December before the year do their actual exams they've already done most of the course and the kids will be getting results based on real papers.

Apparently the kids who have failed to get four passes are being pulled out now for a rocket up the arse and extra support.

So it would have been known that there was a problem by Christmas last year that he wasn't putting in the effort....

.

Ah, I thought he wasn't allowed to do the GCSEs due to expulsion hence having to sit Functional Skills to get Maths and English instead (rather than GCSE).

He was allowed to sit other exams though from what's been said.

What usually happens in these cases is they are only allowed to be on site for each exam and must be delivered and collected promptly before and after.

He will also automatically be put in the infantry, won't he? Much better to get as good GCSE results as possible so he can get into a more interesting corps. Then he can have further training with many leaving the army with degrees in engineering etc. A great career path but would be better if he worked hard now.

In some situations a school will arrange for a pupil to sit Functional Skills as well as GCSE maths & English if they thing the child hasn't a hope in hell of passing the GCSE. This is to ensure they get some kind of qualification.

Many schools would love FS to be an option for their lowest ability students as standard but the current rules don't allow it. I think it's to do with Funding & Progress 8 figures.

To be honest I wish they'd take him NOW rather than waiting until he was 16! If he is choosing to not put any effort into his GCSEs then that's his choice, I can't force him to work, but he has such a negative impact on others. When he isn't in then the dynamic in the class totally changes!

I think he would benefit from working his way from the bottom up. The kid needs to learn discipline and respect.

If someone wants to go on to do an academic course, they need to have previously demonstrated that they have the skills to cope with it - i.e. by passing enough subjects at the previous level. If your child cannot manage to pass 4 GCSEs, I don't think another academic course is for them - because honestly, it really isn't difficult to get 4 GCSEs.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I don't say this to be rude. Just because there's no point wasting time on a course that he's unlikely to cope with. Perhaps an apprenticeship would be a better option? Not because it's second best, but because although anyone can apply for one, it generally offers less academic students a chance to shine that they wouldn't have been able to get.

Please don't view apprenticeships as the back up plan if college doesn't work out.. These days apprenticeships are very desirable and often extremely competitive to secure. It's probably harder to get one than to get onto a college course at level 2.

I think you need a bit of a reality check here. At no point has he demonstrated any ability to do the course, what has changed?

Why do people keep saying to do an apprenticeship?, there is not a cat in hells chance of him getting an apprenticeship.