Functional English vs GCSE English

[RisingGround]

Does anyone have any experience of colleges insisting that you must have GCSE English even though you have the Functional English qualification?

DD is working towards studying for her GCSEs at home, since coming out of school earlier this year. She's equivalent to Yr8 so a little way to go until she does her GCSEs. However she has struggled with the KS3 English coursework and would prefer to switch to Functional English. DH and I said that was ok but all the college couses I've looked at for the future insist on GCSE English as standard. There's a difference in the study hours - Functional English has less than half the study hours of GCSE English and this seems to be the issue.

So, what I wondered was, has anyone (or their children) managed to get onto A Level courses at college with Functional English (and othe GCSE qualificatiins) instead?

DD's strengths are maths and science but she struggles with any form of creative writing. She has been diagnosed with HFA and we thought the Functional English route would be an easier one for her to follow.

Government funding restrictions mean that colleges have to require that 16-18 year olds continue to work towards English and maths GCSEs if they haven't already achieved them at the required level. That doesn't mean that a college couldn't accept a candidate onto an A-level course with a lesser qualification, but they might be reluctant to do so. For one thing, while at college the student will have to keep plugging away toward the English GCSE (even if there is no chance they will achieve that qualifications), and that will cut into the study time they have available for the A level subjects. For another thing, the college may consider that if the student couldn't manage a decent grade in GCSEs, they lack the capacity to do A levels - even if it's a completely different subject. That's rather narrowminded if you ask me, but there you have it.

There is a huge amount of discussion of this sort of thing on the home education exams forums. I don't know all the details myself, so maybe you'd like to discuss it there.

If you haven't yet read the home ed exams wiki, that is a good place to start: he-exams.wikia.com/wiki/HE_Exams_Wiki There are links from there to a huge Facebook group and a Yahoo group where you can chat about it further.

Normally I would say to go to the college for advice on what they would accept, but my own experience and that of others indicates that many colleges' staff don't know what they are doing. There are so many instances of young people being told one thing one year and then something entirely different the following year, by which time it's too late. Teens turn up at enrollment and discover they won't be allowed to do the course they were planning on, despite staff having assured them previously that their qualifications are adequate for it. So I'd be cautious.

It sounds quite a minefield then. Thanks for your reply, Saracen.

What I've been doing is cherrypicking the more straightforward bits from the KS3 workbooks for DD to do and leaving the stuff she just can't handle - anything connected with English Literature .

It's not something I struggled with at school - I got English Language and Literature at both O and A level so can help her to some extent, but her brain is more in tune with DH's - maths and science.

I think what we may do is carry on slowly with the KS3 and GCSE English and aim for a scrape through pass if that would mean she can concentrate on future studies.

I had had a look at the HE Exams page but will need to spend a lot more time reading others experiences.

It's a shame Functional English isn't currently taken seriously as an indication of adequate literacy. It ought to be sufficient to prove so.

If you decide to continue working toward GCSE, it would be work looking carefully at the different providers (Edexcel, AQA etc.). Also check out the various IGCSE syllabi. It might be the case that a particular format suits your DD better than the others...

worth not work (sorry!)

I don’t know what the syllabus is for “functional English” any more. (Been out of teaching a few years.) When I was teaching it was incredibly basic and nowhere near the level expected for those wanting to go on to college.

Sixth forms where I live won’t accept FS. A levels are academic and functional skills aren’t. I work at an FE college and we would accept a level 2 functional skills English in place of a gcse for most courses.

Most universities want GCSEs too.

While a level 2 functional skill may be the same level as gcse they are just not viewed the same

Yes qwerty, I've heard that too. I understand that some kids with autism get on better with some of the syllabi than others.

An additional point which a friend of mine made was this: if there is something which you feel your young person just absolutely can't manage no matter how hard she tries, don't bother attempting it but instead put extra effort into the rest of the exam. For instance, my friend's daughter is not going to bother answering any questions which require her to speculate on other people's motivations. She calculates that if she does well on everything else, she can still get an adequate mark that way. It will avoid stress and pointless revision time on a topic which she reckons just isn't possible for her.

I think you are doing the right thing in starting off concentrating on the bits of the curriculum which your daughter can get on with. She's only in Y8 and has only been out of school a short time. It will be great to build her confidence now.

There's plenty of time to tackle the challenges of GCSE English (or alternative qualifications) later on, though it is sensible to start to do the groundwork, keep these issues in your mind and know that there may be tough decisions ahead.

At our local college functional skills level 2 was accepted for certain courses - eg BTECs but not for A levels.

Functional skills is equivalent to a D (in old money) or a level 2 qualification. Students who pass this at school are expected to keep working towards learning GCSE while they are in education, up to the age of 18.

There is no requirement to study literature, but I would definitely not waste time with FS.

That being said, exposure to a wide range of vocabulary, cultural capital and 19th century texts will support your child immensely.

You hit the nail on the head there, Saracen with your friend's comments. This is how DD is - she just can't get her head round things that need discussion as to thought/motives etc. If it isn't a clear cut answerable question, she can't do it.

So our thinking is that we look at the various syllabi and choose one that's easiest for her to get a decent pass in and work towards her strengths.

I think we will forget the Functional English route for now.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

As Saracen says, she'll need to keep working towards GCSE English even if she has FS LEvel 2 English. While Functional Skills is accredited at level 2 like GCSEs, it's a much smaller qualification (45 Guided Learning Hours as opposed to 120 for the GCSE).

Note that the one your daughter really needs is English Language, so she can avoid doing literature altogether if she wants. Have a look at the English page on the HE Exams Wiki. If she wants to avoid literature altogether then she can do Edexcel IGCSE English Specification B or CAIE (Cambridge) First LAnguage English IGCSE. These are International GCSEs (IGCSEs) because it's very difficult to get an exam centre for GCSE English language. GCSE English language has a speaking assessment and exam centres generally won't do this for external candidates. However, IGCSE English meets the government's requirements for attainment at 16-19 so if she has this, she won't need to study for GCSE English at college.

That's really helpful, NewEltham. I have been doing a bit more digging around on Facebook HE Groups and researching IGCSE English Language. We will keep the English ticking over, in a non stressy way for DD and go for the one which has the most suitable syllabus when she's ready to do it

Hi OP,
I don't know much about home Ed but what I do know is that not having a good pass in GCSE/IGCSE English will massively limit your daughters future choices. Nearly every university course and every professional training course requires the equivalent of a grade 4 or 5 for GCSE English and maths. If she is at all capable of achieving that then that is the only realistic option. As others have said you can look at different exam boards and consider IGCSEs but unless she massively struggled with English then functional skills will not sufficiently prepare her for the future she might aspire to.

Have a look at AQA Step up to English. There are levels to work through which might be motivating. To get a grade 4 in English Language she needs to be able to navigate the demands of the exam papers. E. G the easy questions demand being able to identify information that is clearly there but later students need to be able to infer and also evaluate. For the writing sections creative and non fiction writing skills are needed. This is AQA. WJEC has a slightly different format but all the skills are the same. For both she will need to do a speaking test worth 0% to validate her result. Do lots of reading of extracts and short stories to get her thinking about writer craft.

Cambridge I GCSE is also a good one to consider. She could do coursework worth 40% but you would need an accredited centre teacher to mark the work and report the marks. Cambridge has to endorse markers. In my experience the CIE I GCSE is more straightforward in terms of demands. The papers are not so trappy.

I'm not sure we'd be able to do an IGCSE that has an element of coursework (although that would be ideal) as we'd be entering as an external candidate via a local school (hopefully). So realistically it will need to be a purely exam based course. I know we can choose from Cambridge and Edexcel. So it will be a question of, when she's ready to have a go, which syllabus looks the more straightforward for her.

Her autism makes it very hard for her to see and think about things which aren't fact based. So, she is not having any major problems so far with maths. That looks very achievable for her. She's a bright girl and I'm sure we'll get there eventually.

I'll take a look at the Step up to English and see if that's going to help. We're working through the curriculum based sections on IXL at the moment, which is a format she seems more comfortable with. She uses her textbooks as reference guides.