Post GCSE options- 2DME

[Mel338a]

DD is going into year 10 in September, is predicted all 9’s for GCSE, is autistic and struggles with school attendance and in particular uniform for context. She is very independent and very keen to be so.

I am trying to ensure she has visibility of all the options post GCSE, and wondered if I have left anything out that she could consider. She is also is in a GB team for a sport which may or may not be able to provide an income post 18.

So far I have thought of:

1. sixth form at current school- comprehensive school which has aspirations but she also doesn’t find very supportive. They offer A levels only
2. change to a different sixth form for A levels or NVQ offering
3. go to a further education college for A levels or vocational quals
4. Apprenticeship in an area of interest
5. Full time employment
6. Join the forces and forge a career path there
7. Seek out selective sixth forms/grammar schools
8. Apply for a scholarship to a private school, boarding or day, in the UK or abroad
9. study for the IB at an international school here or abroad

What other options are there? Both myself and my husband trod a fairly conventional route, and we just want to ensure she’s considered what might suit her best.

Does the sport offer any accredited coaching/study programmes or scholarships to particular schools? What does she want to pursue, her sport or academia?

The sport seems to offer DISE at four centres, but focusing on studying sport as well. Which I’m not sure is what she would want to do. She’d like to pursue the sport for a bit, but as ever, she’ll need a foot in both camps for a while in case it doesn’t work out

If she is interested into sixth forms, she will also need to decipher as the content of their learning.

The best of course would be to go from what she wants to do down to where she is and find the best path from where she stands once results are out… a lot of very good education places offer sports at high level too even if not a career.

what does she want to do?

Do you mean going into year 11?

If year 10, I appreciate she's autistic and so will want to plan, but I think that if going into year 10 you are focusing on this way too early. My school won't actually provide GCSE predictions until the end of term 1 of year 10 and I don't think would have been willing to predict anyone straight 9s, on the basis that it's just too soon to tell how someone will do with GCSE content. I appreciate all schools are different on this.

I think though you'd be better helping her manage the transition to GCSE, which some kids can find very stressful (and I would normally put a high achieving autistic in that bucket although I appreciate your DD may find it a breeze) - there's a risk you set up her with options for post GCSE that are based on her continuing to be high achieving, and therefore have her put even more pressure on herself to be perfect. If you focus too much, there's also a risk she will decide one of these options is the path for her, and won't be willing to move from that even if it becomes obvious that it's not the right path anymore (I have this with DD and one of her GCSE choices - she decided she was going to take X at GCSE in Year 7, and nothing I could say would persuade her to even consider something else, even though I think that she's not actually going to enjoy the subject as much as some others!).