What next - please help!

[talktomuch]

Hi everyone,

I’m really hoping someone here might have been through something similar and could share some advice.

Our son is 17 and has dyslexia with processing difficulties. He’s a bright, determined lad and works very hard, but he has always found academics challenging. His learning differences were only formally recognised in Year 8 by an educational psychologist, after we had struggled for years to get teachers to take our concerns seriously. Since then, we’ve done everything we can to support him—hiring tutors and SEN specialists—though school itself was not particularly proactive, as they felt he “wasn’t disadvantaged enough.”

Despite his effort, he left secondary school with one GCSE in Geography (4), English and Maths (3s), and Science (2s). He then went on to college to a one year foundation course, where he resat English and Maths twice (achieving 3s each time, which surprised even his tutors, who expected him to pass). However, he did really well in a Level 1 BTEC in Personal Growth and Wellbeing, and a one-year Level 3 CTEC course in Sports and Physical Activity (he passed an exam and got a merit for coursework). Had he achieved his GCSEs he would have moved on to a Level 3 Sport and Sports Science two-year course at the same college. Despite doing well at college generally, after the first maths and English resit, College advised that they do not run Level 2 courses and in conversation with them after Easter said that we needed to have a back up plan in case things did not go as we wanted with the second GCSE results.

Sports is his passion—it’s all he’s ever wanted to pursue. He’d love to be a physio, sports coach, or personal trainer, but when we looked for Level 2 options in our area, there were no sports-related courses available. As a backup, he was offered a place on a Uniformed Public Services course at another local college, which has no exams and runs for one year. At the time, we felt this was a sensible fallback, but now that results are in, we’re starting to feel it may not be the right path for him after all.

We just don’t know what the best next step is, and as parents, it’s hard not to feel a bit inadequate when trying to guide him. Surely we can’t be the only family in this situation—if anyone has been through something similar or has advice on possible routes forward, we would be so grateful to hear it.

We’ve explored apprenticeships, but most seem to require at least a 4 in English and Maths, which feels like a real barrier at the moment. We’re also considering the forces (his dad was in the RAF and he enjoyed cadets), though we’re not sure if that’s the right route for his either.

So, I’d be really grateful for any advice or experiences:

Has anyone’s child managed to find a way into sports-related training without first getting the 4s in Maths and English?
Is any flexibility with apprenticeships on this, or alternative entry routes we might have missed
Has anyone’s child taken the forces route in a similar situation, and if so, how did they find it?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read—any advice would mean the world to us right now.

How close was he to a 4 in the English and maths? Would reviews of the marking help? If he wasn't close, do you have an idea of why that was, if he was expected to pass - did something go wrong on the day, did he panic, etc? If you think that he was generally strong enough in both that he could have got a 4, and it was just a blip, could he do one of the online functional skills tests now while it's still reasonably fresh in his mind (without signing up for the whole course, just the exam), and if he passes those, would his school accept him on a level 3?
But the uniformed services course might be Ok as a one-year thing, as it might involve a fair bit of physical activity, and at the same time give him the chance to re-sit the maths and English, and then he can go on to something he is more interested in. He doesn't have to think of it as his chosen path/job. And during the year he could perhaps do some other activities that might help with the sports related path that he does want to do - eg. coaching course, lifeguard qualification, St John's ambulance, etc, which would all be helpful for him when it comes to applying for things like physio etc later if that's what he wants to do

He has sat his English and Maths GCSEs three times, each time attaining a 3. He was four marks off a level 4 in English and eight off of a level 4 in Maths. I have gone through the scripts of both 2025 exams and there is no point in asking for a remark on the Math, but feel there is a scope for the remark of the English paper. College will not accept functional skills giving him access to his preferred course at his current college, as the course is equivalent to 3 Alevels and they feel that they would be setting him up for failure. During mock papers he attains a 4, my feeling is that a GCSE 3/4 is the top of his academic exam ability and we would have to have a very good exam day to attain a four.