Dropping one GCSE so you can focus on the others

[Teenageromance]

Dd wants to drop one qualification she is doing (Certificate qualification) to focus on the GCSEs she is doing and improve her grades after mocks. Has anyone pressed a school to do this?

Schools are reluctant to do this because there is no easy way to supervise the free periods this would create, and the precedent that would follow would then be that everyone can give up a GCSE. If she has particular SEN then this might be easier to accomplish.

Is it a GCSE subject she wants to drop? What subject?

Without more information, I'd say the school will be v unlikely to agree.
How many is she doing? The school will want her to do 8 for their progress 8 score. Some schools now only get their students to do 8 (others 9 or 10!), So it depends ...
Also, I doubt they'd agree unless there are exceptional circumstances. Eg long term absence for medical issues.

I fear you are all right and the school won’t want to set a precedent. It’s a national certificate type subject with lots of coarse work in a subject she is not interested in or of use in her future. It’s taking up time they would be better spent on 8+ gcses

I suppose they couldn't really do anything if she did no coursework for it. I get the supervision issues.

My school actually had a system where the bottom whatever % dropped their weakest subject, it worked because everyone's weakest subject was French/German and the school couldn't keep language teachers. They were put in classes together for a study period.

So it isn't a GCSE then?

If it's not one of the compulsory GCSEs then she can't be made to do it.

My DC asked if he could still attend GCSE PE lessons but not take the exam as he knew he would not get a good grade and could concentrate his revision on his other GCSEs.

He was told that no pupil could be made to take an exam and that he did not need to attend the lessons. He was offered the chance to go to learning support to sit and do independent study/revision. He was really pleased but also a little embarrassed so kept the arrangement to himself.

He was worried about getting back into 6th form so really wanted to concentrate his efforts on his other GCSEs. He ended up getting 12 grades above his overall predicted grades in the 9 GCSEs he took. So less definitely led to more in his case.

Thanks so much for these comments. Bowbridge - very similar situation and your feedback is very helpful. Dd is the same in that I feel her other grades will come up when she doesn’t have this outlier subject to contend with

DDs school have let her drop her french GCSE after she got a U in her mock 😮. She's hovering at a 4/5 for everything else, so their rationale of more time for extra input in other subjects makes sense.

My kids' school offers 'learning support' to some who drop a GCSE. In those periods you are supervised studying for your other subjects. I don't know how this decision is normally made - my kids are academically able/very able and autistic and are allowed to choose (in consultation with me!) this option at any point from year 9 onwards. So a maths & science geek can be left doing maths, further maths, triple science, comp sci and 2x english.

i have twins with a physical disability and they have both ended up dropping a gcse in year ten. In both cases health issues plus hospital appointments was meaning a lot of missed schoolwork and it was getting increasingly hard for them to catch up. They spend this time in the library now catching up/doing homework/revision or extra maths for one of them. They are doing ten gcses now, not eleven.