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 :(

Maybe you should come back to the UK for a year or two or bring him out to you, and encourage, support, guide your child because it doesn't sound like his dad is doing much.

100% this. Stop minimising the behaviour. Nobody gets excluded lightly. Take responsibility and encourage him to as well. Summer born children are not statistically at greater risk of exclusion. Stop the excuses.

gcse’s are pretty easy at pass level. OP I would be pushing to see what special education needs he has. Loads of kids post Covid have been left with massive learning gaps from homeschooling that haven’t been picked up. My own son (year 10) was only this year diagnosed with dyslexia. It got missed at primary (he got all scores of over 118 in his sats) until now and despite being very hands on and somewhat pushy for academic success I would not have guessed. He is so bad he is in the bottom 1% for certain of his scores. I’m lucky as he is a conscientious child and other than his specific needs is very bright in a great school. But he has to work so much harder than his siblings and quite a lot
of the time has no idea what is going on unless it is explained in a way that he can understand. That said his predictions for 10 GCSE’s are all grade 7 and above but that is because appropriate learning support has now been put in place. He was completely failing everything last year. I can completely see that a child with undiagnosed needs might choose to mess around as it is so hard for them to keep up. Even worse as you seem to be indicating that many in the year are somewhat disruptive and messing around.

Qualified FE teacher here (currently work in secondaries) - is it a Level 1, 2 or 3 course? If it's a Level 3 (A Level equivalent), then not unreasonable at all and would be basic entry requirements for most L3 courses. If it's a L2, if they've got Us across the board, I can see not letting him on because he didn't even get a L1 pass (apart from maths and English). If he did get other GCSEs, just not at a C equivalent, that would be a L1 pass, which should be enough to get onto a L2 course. If it's a L1 business studies course, I don't understand that at all. My assumption is that it's a L3 and that would be perfectly reasonable.

Functional skills are the same level as GCSEs but have much less content so are not really equivalent. In the home ed community they seem to be done by those who would struggle to pass a full GCSE, or for costs reasons or because they can be done at home (for YP with illness/anxiety).

It is fair for colleges to ask for certain qualifications before accepting a student onto a course. Exam results are usually a good indicator of ability and whether the student is capable of managing the course.

In your son's case, while you consider him to be capable, his exam results don't reflect that so he has to start at level 1. The alternative would have been to take a year out, study again for the GCSEs required to get onto a level 2 or level 3 course and take them as a private candidate which can be costly. 1s and 2s at GCSEs are really poor grades so he either made no effort which was foolish and should have been discussed with him by you his parents, or he isn't as capable as you think.

Given where he is now, his best bet is to stick with the level 1 course and show he is capable even if he finds it easy or boring and then progress to level 2.

If you wanted to see how he would do if he sat GCSEs instead in order to progress straight to level 3 (A level equivalent), you could print off some past papers and see how he gets on.

My son missed most of year 8 and 9 and then studied for (i)gcses at home. He did the 5 he needed to get onto his chosen level 3 course. It can be helpful to look at what you son is aiming for and then work backwards to find out the best way to help him get there.

Technically, your son could study for and sit GCSES this academic year and next (maybe while doing a bit of work part time) and still start a level 3 course or apprenticeship if he choses that route at the same point as he would if he spends this year doing level 1 and next year doing level 2.

If you want to look at doing exams at home, google 'home ed exams wiki' where you will find lots of info.

So you don’t even live in the same country as your child? Perhaps explains why you seem to know so little of his educational history and actual qualificatIons to date, and perhaps why you are minimising his expulsion. You might not consider your son as being from a deprived back ground ( though I would debate that , if he went to a school where getting zero GCSEs is the norm in his friendship group) but he sounds in desperate need of guidance and support ….you and his dad would do better to actually engage with his college directly rather than complaining about the entry requirements for college.

Grade 4

I think 5 would be better. 4 seems low.

They are not for lots of kids.

I would have a look at the course outline for BTEC level 2 Business Studies to see if it covers “economics, investing etc.” My son did level 3 and the personal finance section didn’t cover investing etc

Agree with this. Honestly OP it’s not doing him any favours to blame the course or the school. It’s boring but he needs to prove he can complete some courses, that’s the current mission. After that he gets choices. A tiny minority of people who try make money from investing, Minecraft etc.

It doesn't matter what you think ,most apprenticeship, s accept grade 4 which is a huge achievement for some kids.

Grade 1 and 2 at GCSE are roughly equivalent to working at a year 6 level - upper primary school!

This isn't an issue about him being excluded a few weeks before the exams. What was he doing the 5 years before this?

Just to add, if you decided doing exams at home was preferred, you would need his dad to be onboard with home educating. You don't need to teach at this stage but you do need to facilitate and know how everything works. Child benefit would also stop.

The tyranny of low expectations.

Ah ok fair enough. Surely if he can't tolerate that one extra hoop to go through then he won't be academically strong enough to bother trying to do the Btec.

He’s got 2 GCSEs at at level 1/2 - that is not enough to do a level 2 bonuses studies course let alone a level 3

What makes you think business studies is a ‘foundation’ course? It’s just not.

I have A level BS. DS has Btec level 3 with a distinction which is the equivalent of an A a level. 2 lowest level GCSE doesn’t demonstrate a high enough academic level to do the course he wants

To be fair missing a Cpl of months of school before his exams should not have caused grade 1 and 2s to be fair. doesn't sound like he has the academic ability for college. My daughter was very academic and unfortunately hit a bad patch before gcse and ended up 'only' with 5s and 6s. There was questions over whether she should have her place at college but with a few adjustments she went in the end. She did find it challenging though and this is with decent grades. It might be worth managing his expectations and get him into something more vocational or hands on. College will be very challenging for a child with 1s and 2s at gcse

To get a level 1 in a gcse paper you just have to write your name and school name. Our college asks for grade 3 and above in GCSEs to do a level 2 qualification. BTEC level 3 doesn’t really cover economics, only a unit of finance. A level Economics would be a better option- but he would need his maths at a grade 7+ to succeed?!? You do seem too laid back about his behaviour and lack of effort. I would try and take more of an active role in his education and arrange a meeting with the college…

Hardly any of his school friends passed any g.c.s.e's :(

I would bet none of them so much as opened a book to revise for 10 mins

Can’t believe nobody has commented on this. Wtf does a Minecraft server have to do with anything?

I should have given a fuller answer! I’d suggest re-doing the GCSEs if circumstances rather than ability was the issue. He’ll not get far without English and Maths really.

The permanent exclusion is a red herring. That isn’t why the college won’t admit DS to a level 2 course. DS still sat GCSEs and even if he hadn’t been permanently excluded it is unlikely he would have got GCSEs at grade 4+.

GCSE grades 1&2 are level 1 passes.

On the whole DC who get grades 1&2 at GCSE would struggle jumping straight into a level 2 course. Obviously there will be a few exceptions.

Functional Skills come in various levels. Whether they are the same level as GCSEs will depend on what level functional skills DS sat. They are accepted by some employers but not others.

The people running the college have to give places to students who have proven they have the aptitude to benefit from them. He has to accept that on paper he's achieved virtually nothing so far in the way of proving his skills. I just looked at some Functional Skills Level 1 papers on line and it's stuff we were doing in the top year at primary school. So he just needs to focus on proving that he's got the talent to benefit from the course by achieving the prerequisites. Moaning that the course "isn't challenging enough" is fairly childish behaviour from a 16 year old, particularly one who didn't actually pass their GCSEs.

I wondered this as well.

My DC summer born - ND/SEN and school that went to shit while they were there - but all did well becuase they had a lot of parental input. It took a lot of work when SLT turned on DS just before GCSE to get him focused and not blow the lot - same with DD2 and two subjects with dire teachers - getting though to them teachers won't be impacted of they do bad they will was hard.

If you are aboard and getting second hand info - not sure you can do much but encourage him to stay on level 1 course till done and seek some local careers advice.