I don't know what your mean by "they ae whatthey are" evil twin, a baker may say a loaf of bread is worth £3, but if noone will pay more than £1 for it, that is all it is worth!
Actually, I think you and I have a lot in common. I value btec level 2 very highly. My students benefit from the course content itself, the self disipline, the maths content, the english content, the practical applications, the ICT, the oppertunities to develop research skills, presentation skills, team work, etc etc. AND i am a strict marker, so the grade they get is actually the grade they have got.
Students are constantly let down however, by these courses being abused by schools, graded inadequaetly, and used inappropriatly. This means the end qualification has little meanuing,and like I said, I am likely to disregard it, unless I personally know the student, or the teacher who has graded it.
i enrol students onto 6th form course - our school has a very large 6th form, and we take from many of the local comps who don't have 6th forms. A distinction in a btec level 2 diploma might normally be counted as 2 GCSE equivilant for the purposes of finding the 5 GCSE A-Cs needed ,to be considered for an A level course,(might, and we wouldn't count 2 btecs) HOWEVER it could not be used to get onto an A level in that subject, you would need a good GCSE for that, in academic subjects such as ICT or Science
KatyMac, hope things work out for your daughter. Double science GCSE ( as long as it isn't applied) should be all she needs to keep her options open. Triple is often unnessessary, and unless you are sure the student will do well, they would normally get better amrks jsut doing the double.
Please keep us posted. I'd like to hear what happens at your meeting, also proffessionally it helps to hear what different things schools are doing at this level.