12 year old taking GCSE - advice opinions

[Rustygecko]

My child is exceptionally able, and wants to sit their GCSEs or at least some of them this summer. We went to see their school, (a grammar school) and to my surprise, not only were they aghast at such a thought, but they refused point blank to help.
(I have a sneaking feeling though that once they have got a handful of GCSEs aged 12 they will be at the front of the queue wanting to make publicity off their success).
Any opinions / advice.

I can' see why it would be in your DC's long term best interests to take GCSes 3/4 years early.
Surely they won't have done the syllabus or the question answering technique for most subjects?
Maths is likely the only one to sit early but if they aren't going to get 9s then they shouldn't do it, and then what would they do next anyway?

i think like the pp WHY do you want them to sit them early? and what is the plan once they have done so? will you be taking them out of school as waht is the point of them working towards GCSEs if they have already done them? ig they then do A-levels are you really going to want to send them off to Uni age 15?

Unless you plan to home school your son, it's not a good idea for him to take GCSEs so early. It reminds me of Ruth Lawrence who went to either Oxford or Cambridge (can't remember which) as a teenager.

I'm not surprised that the school isn't supportive. As others have said, what would be the point of lessons if he's already passed the exams?

And what about his social development? Wouldn't he be happier if he was working with his peers?

There is loads of learning out there that isn't in the GCSE syllabus.
Whole swathes of literature, or history.
Areas of maths that aren't in the syllabus such as binary/hexadecimal, boolean algebra, matrices.

Or learn another language out of school for fun.

Assuming this isn't an fake post, which seems likely....

Yup - you should be trying to educate your whole child here, not just pushing academics. Pulling him out of his peer group to be in classes with kids in their mid to late teens so he's covering the right syllabus isn't going to be good for him social or emotionally. If he's that smart, better for him to sit them at the right age and get 9s across the board. In the meantime, as PP have said, you can supplement his schoolwork by encouraging advanced reading, going to museums/galleries/lectures, maybe taking a course like coding outside school.

If your child does GCSEs early, what on earth will he do in lessons for the next 2 years when the class are plodding through the syllabus? Get bored? Distract other kids?

Yeah the school is definitely not going to want you to put her through GCSEs early, it's a PITA for them and of no real benefit to her.

It’s pointless. The only possible reason I can think of is to impress people.

Why do it? Is the key question. There is no advantage to anyone in doing so this early, universities don't tend to take it into account, and there really is no reason other than bragging rights. The grammar isn't going to be particularly interested in bragging about it themselves, as it's not something that the vast majority of parents/students would be interested in.

If they are working at that level, there is a huge amount of sideways/outside syllabus learning that would be useful and interesting to expand on the (often narrow) curriculum for many subjects.

Do they want to then drop the subjects? Or is it because they have a very deep interest in them and want to accelerate?

The only circumstance in which I can see the point in this is for a language that is the child's first language, and they are planning to sit this now to either satisfy the MFL requirement or take another language at 16 (at my own school, you had to choose between one MFL and one classical language, but if you'd taken the MFL early you could have done the classical language and you'd then have both).
I know about schools where Maths is done in Y10 and then additional Maths in Y11 but that's not what you are talking about.

Completely pointless and not in your child's interests. Anyone can get a good grade in a single/handful of GCSEs. The difficulty comes when trying to take 10 at once. It doesn't advantage a child in the slightest to sit random GCSEs early.

My husband took his GCSEs early. He also did his a levels early and went to uni early, had graduated by age 20. He did it because his mum pushed for it. He wouldn’t inflict the same on our children though, it did not do him any favours. There is no advantage to sitting some academic exams early, and as you have seen, reputable educational establishments actually take a dim view of it.

Our kids are exceptionally bright, but we are letting them enjoy their childhood too by developing a range of hobbies. Doing school work doesn’t sound like much of a hobby for a child. If he’s really keen on achievement for the sake of it, why not pursue music exams, or grades and badges in his other hobbies? My kids have, to varying degrees of success, done exams and challenges with musical instruments, Pony Club, Scouts, and DoE. Hopefully a range of interests outside of school will result in them growing into well-rounded adults eventually.

there really is no reason other than bragging rights

It depends. If a child really is that able that they need to be stretched, then moving them 'up' a year/two is really the only way the conventional school system can stretch them. It's worse for a child's education to be bored because they find the work piss easy.

I was moved up a year (not an exam year) in one school and it was awful for me socially though. I was ostracised from my own year group and the one I was moved into. Worst period of my school life.

Extra curricular is probably the best way forward OP.

Why do you want them to do some GCSEs early and what do you expect the school to do with them whilst the rest of their year group cover the syllabus of the exams your little Einstein has already sat?

This.
Only reason to do GCSE at 12 is to impress people but these days I doubt many would be impressed at all.

Couple of things, gcse courses are 2 years long, sitting this summer is feasible. Secondly there's more the learning and assuming he's currently not up a year now, he'll miss on all that education.

Oh and finally, universities can be very sniffy about taking GCSEs spread over several years, part of the challenge is taking 10 at once, one year early isn't that uncommon but 3 years is really not worth it - let them learn extra rather than pushing for early exams

Goodness gracious.

If your child is bright, let him do other things. Life gets streamlined soon enough with the things you have to do. Ds1 did music theory at that age, he loved it and it's an academically similar level to GCSEs. Find something he loves and do that, mine do coding as well.

Passing an exam/getting a GCSE is not the same as getting an education.

I suppose the question is why does he want to sit them early.
are the school concerned that he wouldn’t be able to cope? Or do they think it would put too much pressure on him when he could be focusing on sport or just wider non-exam interests? These could be valid concerns, but I suppose it depends on your child. I understand some kids like different things.

The only thing I can advise is maybe to look on some home Ed forums - for how to find an appropriate exam centre. I don’t know if his candidate number would ideally need to be the same for the set he takes early and the set he does at school. Sometimes it is a big pain for gcses that have a practical or coursework element - how to get this marked - so you could consider Igcses, which tend not to have this element.

is he planning to do the normal amount of gcses at 16? I have heard it said that some unis prefer kids to do the usual number in 1 go - to show that they are able to cope with a high workload at once - but I am not an admissions tutor, so I don’t know for sure - worth thinking about though.

Exactly this ^^

Universities want to see that a student has sat 8 or more GCSEs at the same time.
They also want to see that a student has sat 3 or 4 A levels at the same time.

This is especially true of medical schools and universities where entry is very competitive.

I'm sure your child can be intellectually stretched another way. There is nothing to be achived by sitting GCSEs early other than bragging rights. And most people won't think "wow what a brainy child" they will think "wow, what pushy parents"

As others have said you need to think why you really want to do this.

If they want to learn they can do that independently on subjects they are interested in and will benefit them much more than GCSEs. Lots of techy courses available, MFL, Open Uni, learn an instrument. Or let them think about their weaknesses and spend spare time developing outside of academic learning to be more rounded with sports or volunteering, clubs for other interests.

I have a nephew who was so focussed on academic he is severely lacking in other skills. He has awards and what not for highest results ever in the history of his masters, currently doing PHD, but struggles to do anything outside of it. Lovely, reasonably attractive, but awkward lad, now in his mid 20s, no friends his own age, no social life, no partners (ever), etc. His life is study and nothing else. Wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy.

Be very careful of going down a path you, or your child, may regret.

Well if you are set on doing this, you can enter him as an external candidate at another school or a college. I would ring around to see if they would as often home schooled kids do this so not unusual. However I would think about what will happen re schooling for the longer term. If taking gcse in subjects not taught in school then great but if not then boredom will set in as they will having nothing to do during those lessons.

I don't see the benefit of doing this at all