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 :(

My daughter had issues at school with bullying and ended up out of school at 14 almost 15 with some quite bad mental health issues. The local college did courses for 14+ and she did a level 1 hair and beauty. She was considering doing an apprenticeship but then changed her mind and signed up for level 2 creative media that she started when she had just turned 16 - she had no GCSEs. After a week on the level 2 they put her up to the level 3 course as they realised, despite her lack of qualifications, she was intelligent. She was supposed to do functional skills, and did start them, but asked to do GCSEs in English and Maths and they let her. She wanted GCSEs as she wanted to go to Uni - she got DDD in her BTEC, a first class honours in her undergrad and has not long finished her masters.
A bad couple of years will not dictate your son's future if he is determined and prepared to put the work in. He needs to prove himself to the college to get on the course he wants.

I am not going to address the expulsion so it’s done now. Suffice to say the school has to prove they have grounds for it, particularly in light of his year (11) and the affect it will have long term. It shows on their records. No one does it lightly. Did he go to a PRU or another school?

They must have thought it warranted expulsion. I taught in a PRU up until Christmas and it’s so rare for year 11’s.

He needs to view this course as a second chance. It’s Feb now so not long to go and he will pass? Find out if he can then progress onto level 3? From the colleges perspective he has no track history academically and I assume no reference from the school? Most colleges put students on level 2’s so they can prove them can do the level 3. He needs to knuckle down and accept it.

Can he work alongside it so he has something more? Get work experience? Build a portfolio?

I have taught loads of students that have made mistakes and it doesn’t have to be the defining factor moving forward. Don’t encourage him to have a chip though. His actions got him there and his will dig him out.

Hope it goes well.

There are kids with genuine SEN who struggle to achieve GCSEs and I feel you are minimising their struggle by minimising your son's brattish behaviour.

All parents know their kids sit GCSEs at the end of year 11. You start coaching them when they are very little not to behave like arseholes, and then if by year 9 they struggle academically you support them or get them other support to pass some qualifications.

Two GCSE passes in a kid with no SEN issues is appalling and you as parents have failed him.

I feel quite sorry for your son. It certainly sounds like there’s been a complete lack of parenting and he’s been left to his own devices. It’s hardly surprising that he’s fucked up his education and thinks racist bullying is just a bit of harmless fun. Nobody has taught him otherwise.

Every post you’ve written excuses his behaviour. It’s always someone else’s fault… the school, his mates, the system, him being a summer baby…

How about actually parenting your kid? If my son was expelled from school weeks before his exams, I’d be relocating to the UK and spending all my time getting him back on the straight and narrow. Not minimising it and telling him he’s done nothing wrong. You’re totally enabling his behaviour.

The fact that you have to ask on Mumsnet about the requirements for his course is astounding. Contact the college, seek advice from the teachers, actually get involved rather than passively watching it all go to shit.

It is usual for a BT apprenticeship to get 700 applications ( my friends son went for , and got 1). A young man with poor paper qualifications, an expulsion for racist behaviour and a long history of being an arsehole is never going to get an apprenticeship like that( particularly one that involves going into customers homes). He can forget that.

If he was expelled 8 weeks before his exams, at that point, they’ve covered most of the syllabus and are just revising. If he sat them, having been at school throughout Y10 & 11, only missing the last 8 weeks of revision, and couldn’t scrape a single pass, he really doesn’t sound terribly academic at all.

If he wants to go into ‘business’, he should also know that as well as it being abhorrent, bullying people due to their race and religion is against the law and a fast track to an employment tribunal. He sounds like a complete liability to any business frankly.

To put it incredibly bluntly, your son is uneducated, despite having no diagnosed SEN. Why would anybody want an uneducated, racist little toerag disrupting their college course? 2 GCSEs is utterly diabolical and quite frankly inexcusable; expulsions are only given in the most extreme circumstances so his behaviour must have put other students in danger. Your son is likely to end up in prison if he continues to behave in a similar manner.

Unfortunately, it is evident that his behaviour been enabled by his hapless mother who makes excuse after excuse for him and minimises his behaviour as "horseplay" and his expulsion as "out of order". You need to look at areas where your parenting has fallen short and discipline your son. Maybe find him some menial, minimum work to begin with where he actually has to graft.

Someone who doesn't do A levels is certainly not a write off. Someone who cannot do A levels because he can't pass the very basic qualifications in English and Maths and is a racist, unpleasant prat with zero work ethic and an inflated sense of their own fabulousness/ victimhood is sadly well on the way to being a write off.
Children who are not academic but have drive , manners and guts can achieve a huge amount. Entitled prats of any age, ability ,race, class will rarely achieve much.

Right! Sounds like a top lad. School had absolutely no business expelling him when he's so wonderful and was on track to set the world on fire 🙄👌🏾.

It depends what level the course is but tbh two passes at gcse is a fairly basic requirement. Some PPs have suggestions about other options.

This is the key bit.

No one parenting then.

Neither of you put him first.

I feel for the kid.

Neither Mum nor Dad could be arsed about his education and then all of a sudden you get upset because college expect minimum grades.

He's surrounded himself with a bunch of dickhead mates all of whom seem to have failed. These dickhead mates are one by one going to start getting into trouble with the law. It's inevitable. You are going to have a hard time stopping him from the same trap at this point.

Best thing you could do is move back / make sure he passes this year no matter how much he's 'bored' and then give him a fresh start transferring to a college elsewhere away from dickhead mates.

If drugs aren't a big issue for him already, frankly I'd be amazed.

“Anyway he has never got into serious trouble before this but the thing that got him expelled was that him and a few other friends (not close friends), took the mickey out of their other muslim friend, while he was praying in the prayer room”

I cannot believe how much this behaviour is being minimised on this thread.

@magicalmadmadamim your son’s
behaviour is horrifically disrespectful. Someone was praying.
Does your son respect anything at all?

What have you done to address this? Forget the GCSEs, or rather the huge lack there of, what are you going to do about your son’s character?

So he hasn't the grades for an apprenticeship either.

Stick out the college course, assuming he passes they'll allow him to the next level and so on.

To get on an A Level equivalent he needed better GCSEs at grade 4 or 5 and above.

It's a condition of government funding. If you don't have 4 GCSE you have to do a level 2 foundation course for a year then the 2 year level 3 BTEC. It applies to everyone. He was fortunate to get the fs maths and English so that he's not doing 6 hours of that at college too. Once you factor in fen Easter and may half term he will be done now before he knows it.

Of course he needs GCSEs before he can do a business studies course. That’s the bare minimum. if he can’t even get a qualification at GCSE level how does he expect to cope with at further academic study. Do you think anyone in business wants to employ someone who can’t even get a basic qualification? If he a no good at studying then there are practical courses he can go on.

People arnt reading the OP’s posts properly.

her son isn’t even allowed to do the 1 year level 2 course as he hasn’t even got enough GCSE’s (usually four at Grade 3) so he’s having to do a level 1 first.

He needs to pass this course he’s on to prove he is capable of the Level 2 Btec.

I got 4 GCSE’s and then I did btec business studies and I have run my own business for years. It is doable. Just because you aren’t top scholar does not mean you can’t be successful. Follow your dream.

This kid has got no GCSE's....what is your point?

Are you also a racist arsehole? Thought not. This child also has no qualifications and as many brain cells.

Lots of lovely stories of youngsters knowing what they want to do & applying themselves to get to where they want to be.

seems like having hands on parents & some motivation makes all the difference.

the OP could learn from these stories

I’m just gonna say well done & thats absolutely the right attitude

sorry other posters are having a dig.

The point is that he didn’t get four. Four is the requirement for the course he wants to do, and OP thinks it’s unreasonable.

Generally a handful of passes (5 usually) at GCSE is the requirement for A-levels admission to colleges, or for admission to sixth forms here.

Generally essay subjects require a B in English and the relevant feeder GCSE, if it exists.
Science/ Maths subjects require a GCSE in the relevant science/ maths GCSE (some require an A).

I don't think many places regard functional skills as actually equivalent to a GCSE, especially if taken at 16 (As opposed to older when they've failed an actual GCSE a few times).

He's clearly agreed to do the courses he's on, and tbh it sounds like he needs to just actually knuckle down and do the work on them, in order to put himself into a better position tomorrow.

If he's really interested in Business Studies, he needs to go and speak to the course/subject leader and ask about admissions requirements, what he can do this year to make sure he can get onto the course next year, whether he'd possibly be allowed to sit in a couple of classes to see if it's for him etc. Then he needs to do what they actually say - if it's no exceptions to the 4 GCSEs, he can speak to someone at college about how he could go about getting them, which ones might be doable etc.

I might need to name change as I’ve just done the same thing you did with my username the other day - like I didn’t post this that the OP has quoted 😂

But on my way to find this I saw @ThreeHundredTakeOutCoffees and appreciated the frequency of TS lyric usernames 😂

GCSE Business does cover the topics that would have interested you.

The moral is probably to look at modules carefully before choosing.

Fortunately that's easy these days and you can get the entire specification at the click of a button.