Language GCSEs replaced by mini-GCSEs

[swedishmum]

Dd came home yesterday saying that they will start a mini (half?) GCSE in 2 languages next year - Y8. The reason? Lots of girls lose interest in languages by Y10/11 so don't do as well as they should.
It's a grammar school ffs - surely good teachers can motivate allegedly able girls to get a decent language GCSE. I'm appalled by the dumbing down. It's bad enough that they don't teach Latin.
Am I being a mad reactionary old bat or am I right to think this is a lame excuse at a selective school?

Not wishing to disagree with your friend forty but I would dispute that.
You do need a knowledge of perfect tense to get a GCSE grade C - the markschemes are very clear on that.
And I would say A level grammar is no easier now than it used to be.
In fact, in many respects I find the exams harder.
I have taught A level German plenty of times and would say the standard the students are expected to achieve, not just in grammatical terms but conceptually, is very high.

you don't need to do lots of GCSE's to include a compulsory mfl though, at the dss' school they do dbl sci, 2x english, 1x mfl, maths and re and then choose another 3 minimum so ds1 for eg is doing history, geog and art. Talented/keen (ie not ds1!) students can do a third mfl, or varous other choices (music for example, tho' it's also available as a mainstream choice) as twilight/lunchtime courses so all students do 10, some do as many as 12, BUt all do aty least one MFL

Got an email from Dep H - the idea is that they can continue after Y9 - said he would have a word with the ML dept to make sure they were sending the right positive message about the subject to the girls! All girls will still be encouraged to take a language. There are quite a few girls in Y9 not taking one - and I know it's not all to do with real ability issues. DD1 is quite shocked by the can't do it attitude of a number of girls in her year. Hope that doesn't make her sound geeky - she's not,just motivated and knows hard work will give her more opportunities in life.

Good result then swedishmum
at wanting to do well at MFL being seen as geeky though