GCSE Italian - anywhere in SW London

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Hi, my son's school doesn't offer GCSE Italian. But he really wants to do it as he thinks it's an easy "extra". His father is Italian. MY DS's Italian is excellent in comprehension, ok in spoken but he has never done any written work. I am more or less bilingual but past experience of teaching him/helping with homework has not been positive, and anyway I don't know the syllabus nor can I facilitate the actual exam.

Does anyone know of somewhere in London (preferably SW London) he can do a course/sit the exam? I am hoping for him to do it in the next academic year 2017/2018.

Grazie!

Can I suggest you contact the Italian Embassy. I believe locally they do free Italian classes which goes up to GCSE for children in exactly your ds' position. I don't know a lot about it, but that's what I was told by someone whose dd does it.

Hesterton, thank you. I had clocked that about the change this year - fortunately DS will be sitting the exam in summer 2018 in year 10 so it shouldn't be an issue.

I was aware the data wasn't very recent, I just wanted to make the point that if over 325,000 children take GCSEs early then clearly they do count for something! It counts for them as a qualification, even if it isn't counted by the school in their league tables, about which I have zero interest. or that re-sits don't count to a school's results.

Witchend, thank you, I am just digesting the relatively indigestible info on the Italian consulate website. There is info there, so will dig deeper. Thank you.

Witchend's suggestion sounds good. Education establishments with courses designed for adults, like the Italian GCSE in a year one evening a week that I did, may not accept students under 16, anyway - even if you can find one running. Lambeth College no longer seems to run it. When I did it, there were a couple of younger students who had an Italian-speaking parent at home and were using it to get an extra "easy" GCSE, but they were older - 17, maybe.

Otherwise, you could try to find a private tutor and then take the exam (including the oral section) as a private candidate at an independent school. If you're in south-west London, you could try Streatham and Clapham High School, which teaches GCSE and A level Italian, and no doubt there are others, too.

Hi OP, my DD took Spanish GCSE last year aged10. We used the NEC (national extension college). Can't remember the cost circa £200-400. We are not bilingual but she was really excelling at Spanish according to her tutor. At the NEC You get a full course plus access to the syllabus and a tutor if you need one. You go at your own pace and the IGCSE has no coursework so all exam at the end. They were very good. . The exam is around another£200 on top from memory. You can sit that somewhere near to you, they have plenty of associated centres.

By the way, it did 'count' when applying to secondary schools on the 11+ trail

NEC only offers Spanish and French in languages at GCSE, so no Italian.

Fair enough Daisy Pond. Not a million miles away, but some schools in the Woking/Surrey area (I am thinking specifically of SJB as one) offer Italian GCSE. Maybe look in that area?

user1490123259, I think you have gone totally off course with your assertions. Also, the reason for posting was to see if anyone could recommend an Italian teacher for my son (who will not be taking Italian as a first language as he does not speak it at home).

No I haven't. You were asking about your son ( who has an Italian father) taking GCSE Italian as an easy extra,

I am correctly advising you that if he wants a GCSE that counts, make sure he takes it in year 11.

So if you want to have a rant about something you are not actually correctly informed about, please by all means start your own thread.

I am very well informed, having enrolled sixth formers for nearly 12 years now - we take students who have been turned down elsewhere, and guarantee them a place- however, that place is often not on the A levels they want, we frequently have students who just don't have the GCSEs they need TAKEN TOGETHER - and so we offer an EBac course, for such students, taking 5 GCSEs, English, Maths, a science, a humanities and a language. This is regardless of whether they already have some of these or not - they HAVE TO TAKE THEM TOGETHER, so if these are the GCSEs they will be counting, taken in year 12, then the ones they did in year 11 are discounted.

Below, in order to close this aspect of the topic, is some information for you.

According to the Department of Education (www.gov.uk), in 2010 a fifth of schools had at least 50% of pupils entering GCSE mathematics early, with a tenth entering at least 90% early and almost 100 schools entering every pupil early. At least half the pupils entered English early in just over a quarter of schools, with 16% of schools entering at least nine in ten pupils early, and almost 150 schools entering all pupils early. The vast majority of the schools entering all pupils early were comprehensives (including some academies), while a few independent schools also did likewise.

This is all totally irrelevant, we enter many pupils "early" as in 6 months early, still year 11 though. Even some might right at the end of year 10, which might still count as having been taken with 12 months of leaving school. These don't always count as one "set" of GCSEs, but do sometimes, as they are all taken within 12 months, and for example, you can do two sciences or two Englishes consecutively rather than concurrently, and it counts the same, if the final exams for each are not more than 12 months apart.

In 2010 around 10% of entrants entered French early, and just under 10% entered German and Spanish early.

And almost all are home language speakers, many of whom end up with a qualification that doesn't count.

I don't get your issue - you don't understand which GCSEs are useful and which are not, and I do, so I am telling you, so now you do know, but you don't want to know, and are angry with me because you don't like the situation??

Of course a GCSE taken anytime counts and if you wanted to study the subject at A level a sixth form would accept it as such. The anecdote above about someone being rejected for English sounds rather surprising, but English is probably more sought after than MFL so maybe colleges can be more picky about who they accept for A level English. For A level Italian, I suspect they'll take anyone with a decent GCSE grade.

It may not count towards school league tables but that's not the candidate's concern.

no idea where they get oral examiners from

often school MFL teachers have quite a few strings to their bow. My son's Spanish teacher also speaks good Italian.

Of course a GCSE taken anytime counts and if you wanted to study the subject at A level a sixth form would accept it as such.

No they probably won't, that is what I am telling you, I don't know why some people find this difficult to understand!