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 :(

Fair enough, "not academic" then. Either he's not cut out for sit-down learning, in which case what's the point of him doing a business course he won't manage OR (more likely), he was dossing about, winding the teachers up and didn't apply himself. That said, most people who are better at different learning styles / more practical subjects, could still manage more than two(!) GCSEs.

He didn't fuck up just once. I taught a girl who got excluded a few weeks before GCSEs. The final two months are revision; we'd completed the course. She couldn't attend the revision classes but she worked at home on everything we'd already done and came out with Grade 4 and 6 (English and English Lit) because she'd been learning for the past five years. She made a massive mistake that led to her exclusion, but she hadn't spent her education turning up late, backchatting and disrupting lessons. So she still came out with qualifications albeit not as high as she could have achieved if she'd stayed in school to the very end.

I say this not to stick the boot into a 16 year old, but to say this is an ongoing and long-term pattern of behaviour and attitude that must be acknowledged and tackled if he's going to move forwards in a more positive way. It wasn't just what he did to his friend at prayer that caused this, it is everything that led up to that point as well and that's what he has to change.

Maybe not but posters can't just decide that level 2 functional skills is not equivalent to GCSE
Sure most people who are doing functional skills rather than GCSE are probably not destined for A levels and Top Universities, but they do open the door to other options, and shouldn't be dismissed.

For now he has his server he made on minecraft and it is doing well so far.

Its quite easy to make pocket money/side hustle cash on this sort of thing - far far harder to turn it into a full time income stream

Posters on this thread aren't on their high horse. Many posted in good faith and gave the benefit of the doubt. Then the penny started to drop about parenting and your none existent low bar for it.

How about raising your bar for the sake of your own son rather than shouting at the world for their 'high horses' and not taking responsibility for the mess you have helped create.

They are literally the lowest level qualification you can get! As evidenced by the fact he took them in one term.

Did you think they were equivalent to a PhD or something?

Well said. I’m baffled by the posters doubling down when they are wrong.

That is so wrong.

They are not literally the lowest qualification you can get. They are level 2.
below level 2 is level 1, and below level 1 are Entry Levels.

He took them in 1 term because there is masses of overlap with the GCSE syllabus (being at the same level!). The format of the papers is more accessible and only the properly 'useful' content is there. So for English you don't have to do comprehension on 100 year old newspaper articles but you still have to understand different formats, opinion v fact etc and write for purpose formally and informally. Plus you have to pass the S&L bit not just do it. For maths you still need to do percentages, ratios etc in real life wordy questions, but you don't need eg trig.

Suggest you don't try to make your incorrect opinions sound like facts. Maybe you should sit FS English to learn the difference?

They are literally not.

@magicalmadmadamim what is technical skills? Has he explained to you? Showed you work?

@Tigerbalmshark Do you even know the meaning of the word literally ?

To be fair if the incident was videoed and put on TikTok it’s unlikely there was much to challenge.

i’m an ex teacher and if there’s video evidence of the student doing something that is a cut and dried permanent exclusion under the rules even if the school wanted to keep him in there’s very little they could do.

we had a kid who brought a knife into school and then made a TikTok showing it on school premises.

they are usually allowed in to do their exams although one kid did them from home -we sent out a teacher to invigilate. He wasn’t allowed on the school site asa condition of I think his remand. Very violent kid.

however this is not the point. A few weeks or even months off school in year 11 don’t make that much difference. A student getting 1s and 2s is working at about eight year old level for literacy and numeracy.

i’m glad he got his functional skills op, but in order to progress at college he needs to show them he can pass his course.

if he can they’ll let him on to level 2. If he can’t they’ll offer him another level 1.

They are equivalent to a grade 4 GCSE which is a level 2 qualification ,and this may blow your mind but there qualifications lower than ,that
Grade 4 maths and English/ Funtional skills can open so many doors, to so many options.

I really doubt the army would have him. He doesn’t sound like he has the kind of character they would look for at all, or the intelligence.

'The racist card'??? Wow. Your son was racist, and it was just the culmination of a long series of bad behaviour. But with parents either not caring or encouraging his sense of being a victim, it's hardly surprising

The racist card?

At this point I'm shocked anyone is bothering to give you advice. No one excluded your kid cos he was late. That didn't happen.

Not sure whether this is comment is directed at me but to clarify, I am not doubling down - I have not once made a comment on the equivalence of qualifications and nor will I.

I am saying, that based on OP’s comments, the GCSE grades are poor, it’s not normal for a cohort to come out with no GCSEs (if that is true) and racist behaviour is definitely not just “horseplay”.

4 (to me) doesnt sound unreasonable tbh.

Well that would depend on the 16 year old. Mumsnet is ridiculous sometimes.

No, not directed at you. There are several posters insisting relentlessly that Functional Skills Level 2 is not the equivalent of a grade 4 pass at GCSE. They are wrong.

“The racist card”

You aren’t painting yourself in a good light either OP.

Sorry OP, I know this is painful but you're still minimising this. Your son has clearly exhibited a pattern of behaviour which showed he was not applying himself and being rude and disrespectful to teachers over some period of time. He then went on to be racially abusive to another child at prayer.

This is very serious stuff and it wasn't a one off: the school had to do something and saying it "played the racist card" demonstrates that you haven't begun to engage with how serious it was.

Its understandable that you feel got at: by school and now by people on here. But you and your son have two choices: you face up to what's happened, you read the riot act and make clear to your son that its now on him to get his head down and apply himself. Then he can maybe turn around his fairly poor academic credentials and demonstrate he has the chops to do well.

Or, you can continue to blame the system and convey to him that he will never succeed because people are out to get him, prompting him to bounce from one failure to the next.

It's not pleasant, but this is an opportunity for growth. If you don't learn from mistakes, how do you expect your son to do so?

My son is y11 this year and wants to study business - he’s had a hard time at school but is now working hard and grades improving, so we have looked at a number of post 16 options. They get three years of post 16 funding, so would suggest @magicalmadmadamimlooks at college as a three year stint and see what could be achieved. My son’s preference is to take A levels for which he needs 5 x 5 at GCSE including English and maths, with grade 6/7 in the subjects he wants to take (so business A level requires a 6 in business GCSE if you took it) The level 3 BTEC business course entry requirement is 5 GCSEs at 4+ including English and maths. They offered a level 2 BTEC in a ‘foundation year’ which I think was 4 GCSEs passes and if you didn’t already have English and maths at grade 4 you could retake them alongside, then progress to the level 3 course. We also looked at level 3 apprenticeships and they all require GCSE English and maths as an absolute minimum plus are super competitive. He’s hardly likely to get a glowing reference from school.

The point is there are various routes to get where he wants to be but he’s at a very low starting point with only 2 FS qualifications. Whether he can succeed will depend on whether he can grow up, knuckle down and accept that he’s made his progression more difficult for himself. It would be worth enquiring if you can privately fund study beyond Y14 as he may not have long enough to get from level 1-level3 in the 3 years the local authority will fund.
Is he ready to knuckle down or does he still think he’s the dog’s bollocks and any employer would be lucky to have him?

The school have probably done the best thing for him and other students 'despite it not being about the racist incident' (it was the racist incident).

Expelling him has meant he has received a punishment and is having to reflect on his own behaviour and other students don't have to put up with him being a dick around them.

And newsflash he would still have flunked out.

He's got a short sharp shock that his behaviour isn't ok. Better now than when he's horsing around in the real world and ends up on a racial harassment or worst charge.

You and him now have the opportunity to reflect on this and change.

It looks like neither of you are. That's your fault and your problem. Not the schools.

He needed a rocket up his arse. You still aren't getting the message that he needs a rocket up his arse.

I's wish you well for the future but it's not your problem as you don't give a shit anyway and it won't affect you because you are busy non parenting from a distance already.

play the racist card ffs. It was 100% racist.