Foundation or Higher English paper

[lem73]

I have a ds in year 10. He was at level 6a in English at the end of year 9 and his target grade is a B at GCSE. He achieved a C in his first English literature CCA (10% of final grade) at Christmas and then a B in the second in February (15%). I have just found out he has been entered for the foundation paper in the mock exams in May. Why on earth would the teacher do that? 25% of the final grade has already been decided and that is B/C. Why shouldn't he have a shot at getting a B which is after all his target grade. It seems nonsensical to me. I'm very worried and feel sorry for him as he has always enjoyed English and has always received positive feedback throughout secondary so this is a real shock. I have contacted the school but haven't received a reply.

I'm guessing there is some logic, it's only y10, they should be able to explain.
Most likely suggestions

• all that set is doing foundation to give them confidence
• they asked the pupils and your DS picked Foundation
• anyone who isn't 'averaging' a B so far is doing Foundation (to give confidence)

I would guess to build confidence - perhaps they haven't covered enough of the English Lit course yet to make taking the Higher paper in Y10 a possibility. It would undermine confidence if they all took the Higher paper and found it very hard. Most schools have another set of mocks in Y11 where pupils would try out another paper perhaps at a different level.
I would imagine with these levels he would be taking the Higher paper at the end of Y11 as the foundation papers are really for pupils whose target grade is D or below.

The teacher emailed me today to say that because there is such a wide range of levels in his class, she felt it was best to give them the foundation paper. The mark scheme will allow them to get up to A*. She assured me she thinks ds is capable of at least a B and no decisions have been taken about which tier anyone will do