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 :(

you can do GCSEs online, it might be worth him taking two, he could do a business studies gcse and another subject this would make college easier for him to access other courses next year and challenge him now

It sounds like your son is the very definition of FAFO. If he sucks it up until June then can he do the course he wants in September? Does he know if he’s on course to pass?

It sounds like he would have still failed his GCSEs even if he’d stayed at his school since he was still in education at a different school.

Think about it from the college’s pov- on paper level 2 is too difficult for your son so they are doing the ethical thing by offering level 1 courses. If he passes the level 1 courses then he’s proving that he can cope with level 2. Level 2 is GCSE in difficulty and usually a year long course so most people who don’t pass GCSE would find it challenging so the college aren’t unreasonable to make him do level 1 first.

I have a late August born and deferring started the year after he started Reception. I would have definitely deferred him. FWIW he achieved 9 GCSEs at grade 5/6.

Finally I think that you need to do some research on your son’s courses because it’s not clear if he got grade 1/2 in his GCSEs or he’s studying level 1 and level 2 qualifications.

As he’s studying east qualifications, this hopefully means that he’s going to smash all of them. For someone who isn’t confident in the classroom, don’t you think that might be beneficial for him?

getting expelled and grades 1 and 2 at GCSE is not within the parameters of the vast majority

Exactly.

Even those of us with difficult teenagers will have banned them from going out and insisted they revise in their bedrooms. Whether they actually did it or not is a different matter of course. But most of us will also have taken a text book and tested them on some of the subject knowledge they needed. We will have banned / blocked social media / turned off the WiFi to stop the doom scrolling / gaming for at least SOME of the time.

Definitely not being smug here (under achieving child) but expulsion and 1s & 2s is exceptionally bad. What is more usual for an unmotivated teenager is a clutch of near misses (3s & 4s) and the need to resit.

@magicalmadmadamim if you keep excusing him, blaming the school, accepting his bad behaviour, underplaying his lack of achievement, blaming the 'boring' course instead of his laziness, allowing him to hang out with the same deadbeats, having unlimited access to social media/gaming, he is going to continue down this loser route. And the next thing you know, you'll have an unemployable adult living in your house, unable to move on.

If he's going to have a chance in life it is up to you two parents to step up and get on it. Again, not downplaying how hard it is. But literally no one else will help him. It's up to you.

Our local college used to run an Army Preparation course. (It might still be running, I guess.)

It was set at a very low level and those who passed were then allowed into Basic Training.

Lord help us, we had one former pupil who - it turns out - thought that he actually was in the army. (It didn't seem strange to him that he was going home to his mum every night.)

He managed to complete the course somehow, but didn't make it through Basic Training. My understanding is that he was told to leave very early on.

I've just Googled. The last mention that I can find of that course is 2017:

"Army Preparation at xxx College is a full-time course which focuses on Core Skills, fitness and transferable skills. As well as fitness work, you’ll study map reading and land navigation, circuit and resistance training, and a range of sports activities which include climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and orienteering."

I suspect that the army had to inform the college that the course wasn't fit for purpose.

Indeed. All of my children (both sexes) have been through the school system. I have been involved in their lives (and education) from conception to the present day. Both DH & I did the PTA, the Christmas/easter/summer fayres, the sports days, the parent's evenings, the reading, the homework, the revision, the 1-1 meetings, the open days.

You say your son lives FT with his father, @magicalmadmadamim whilst you live overseas. What is your ex doing about all this given that he is the primary parent?

It sounds like he underachieved due to an attitude problem rather than a lack of ability.

Indulging the idea “the system” is wrong or unfair will not help your son. He needs to knuckle down and work hard if he wants to achieve anything and open up options for himself.

Horseplay.

Banter.

High spirits.

We all know what those words mean. Unacceptable behaviour, poor attitude, and someone’s mummy minimising the effect their child has on other people.

Op. It seems to me that there's an element of him needing to just get on with it to the best of his ability to prove to the college he is capable of moving to the next level qualification.
He will need to prove himself in terms of behaviour, ability to stick with something and be able to get a decent pass.

He has only a few month left and then, assuming he achieved this, he will have houses for well and truly in the ladder.

I would guess that from your point of view with the noises he is making, you will be worried that he will drop out.

If he can realise that this course is his ticket to the next stage, he might see more point to sticking with it and giving it his all for the sake of jumping through that hoop.

OP, you stated that alot of his friends had no gsce either, so posters got the impression thus was the norm.
You are minimising your sons behaviour, you need to get him to accept responsibility, change your attitude and stop looking for excuses. I would love to hear the schools side of this.
I have two adult children, one has a masters, and one who was not academic, he did a btec 2 in college and had the basic 4 gcse, this is not a high starting level. He went of the rails for a while, but I did not minimise it, told him he needed to buckle down, and did not make excuses. His was horseplay too.
He went on to do well.

To your original point, it's completely reasonable to have what are very low entry requirements. He needs to grow up and sort himself out and this may be the wake up call he needs.

He doesn't live with me and his dad works long hours. i'm doing what i can from a long distance.

GCSE's are two year courses, so if your son failed them that's due to his own lack of commitment rather than the school for expelling him a few weeks before final exams.

The information has been a bit drip fed through this whole thread, but I think the largest issue is that your son probably lacks the maturity to handle a business studies course currently.
He needs to show commitment to something first, and not just be dismissing the current courses (which are stepping stones to help him achieve what he ultimately wants) as 'rubbish' and 'boring', because he's apparently so deserving of being fast-tracked whilst maintaining a piss poor academic and social record.

You're doing him no favours with any enabling, trying to make excuses & minimising the accountability he should have for his own actions and results.
It's not too late for him to change things up, and we all make mistakes, but he needs to put the time and effort in to show that he's capable of committing to a harder course.
This is his chance to knuckle down and grow up a bit, I'd have a lot of respect for someone that made a mistake, acknowledged it, but then did the work to move on from it.

OP I think you need to have a sit down with dad and get a full and comprehensive picture of what’s been going on - and get a clearer picture of what is actually going on now.

As one of you would have noticed that he was tracking for multiple failed exams before his expulsion…

He seems capable - but he needs to stick out the boring stuff to study what he actually wants.

100%

Well, he couldn’t handle any of his GCSEs and that’s really the lowest challenge in English high schools. So now he needs to do lower levels at college.

This is what happens when kids don’t work in school. And he only had one present parent? Children from single parent households and statistically likely to have some of the lowest attainments. I’m a single parent, and that statistic has always been one of the main motivations for some of my parenting to make sure my kids didn’t fall into that same gap. Did his dad work hard to make sure he was compensating for the fact they were a one parent household when it came to home work and checking work and helping to study etc?

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

"but is very switched on with techy things, he already has a little side hustle online which is doing well.
He is very interested in economics, investing... "

@magicalmadmadamim a few things I'm curious about - how much money can he be making from a Minecraft server? Wouldn't he make more from modding or streaming? It can't be more than a couple of £ a week.

Economics and investing sounds a little like a euphemism for gambling! What interest does he have in investing if he's not actively making investments, where does he get the money for that

Are you aware apprenticeships require a 5 at GCSE in maths and English? He has L1 functional skills. He needs L2.

not really. business studies requires a bit of effort, so there is barrier to entry which is probably equivalent to the amount of effort plus a bit more.

post gcse study is a big jump on self reliance, self study and overall drive. this is why it will have this requirement.

Are you the headteacher? In charge of school policy? It's not up to you to decide what punishment is suitable. You don't seem to be in the slightest bit concerned about your son's behaviour or the impact it has on others.

I think she means crypto. He probably watches a load of YouTube videos from “crypto bros” because he is living in fantasy land.

The reason he can’t do college is that the course isn’t challenging enough… but he couldn’t manage to pass any GCSEs. The OP blamed education from being too hard rather than his study ethic and behaviour. He was expelled but the OP says the school were wrong and he didn’t do anything that bad. It’s not difficult to see why he lives in fantasy land when his own mum does and is teaching him to do the same.

He can do an apprenticeship in tech, apprenticeships aren’t all building, joinery etc. I’d tell him to look up tech apprenticeships and see if there are any with employers that align to his area of interest.

It's at the same level academically/intellectually. Surely it being worth 4 GCSEs is due to amount of work required?

@op you aren't "doing what you can"
You are minimising his shitty behaviour and attitude, you are relying on hearsay and blaming everyone else except for yourself, your son and his father.

Are there any other adults on the scene or has your son basically been left to his own devices?

GCSE maths and English grade 5 needed for apprenticeships.