To wonder if the school are setting her up for a fall?

[PaperFlower]

My sister is 16 and SHOULD be preparing for exams. However she hasn't been to school for a fortnight and even before then, she only turned up a few days a week.

She missed an apointment with college for an ICT course but did go to one for a graphic design course. Obviously, graphic design course requires 3 a-c grade gcses. I personally do not see how they will accept her onto this course with such poor attendance but everyone is telling her it won't matter, she'll still get on. She's that confident of getting on it that she's deliberatly missed another apointment for another course (easier entry level).

Now the school have told her not to worry because she is "guaranteed" gcses in science, english and travel and tourism. I don't see how this is possible when she's never at school! what about coursework she must have missed etc? Plus she's had letters home saying she's BEHIND in english and science and needs to attend extra study class!! so how do they work that out??

AIBU or are they just setting her up for a fall?

that does seem a bit odd. Even if she is guaranteed the gcses (which seems unlikely) that is an odd attitude for them to be passig on to her

Yes school's attitude is setting her up for a fall. Doesn't mean she won't succeed but their attitude is very poor IMO. They should be on her case, getting her attending, focusing catch-up on the subjects she stands the best chance of succeeding in and generally not telling her she'll pass.

What evidence is there of them saying this though? Is it her saying they say she's guaranteed them?

Does she also know that most employers expect 5 A-Cs and 3 might get her on a graphic design course (won't she need IT or Art of something?) but it won't get her any further?

It was written in a letter from the school but as we tried to tell her (and my mum!) having "a gcse" does not mean having a grade a-c ... it could mean she gets a gcse at grade D or E.

The thing is with this graphic design thing, I can't understand how she intends to do it because by her own admission, she can't draw and hates art!

I think she just thinks it will be messing around on a mac all day.

if shes doing a modulated course in science she may already have done enough in previous exams and coursework to get a d or higher so just has to turn up and do minimal to get the c grade.

travel and tourism i think is mostly coursework based isnt it? as is english so again if shes done enough in the course work, she may have minimal to do in the exam.

when i was a school the extra lessons were for people who they thought could get the hhigher but just needed extra work and support to get there, could this be the case with your sister?

also college courses dont tend to look at attendance, just grades so the college may not know about her poor attendance.

sorry i forgot to say a gcse is a f or above, so the 'gauarenteed' gcse could be an f