GCSE 21st Century Science

[thelibster]

My DD2 (year 11) is currently at a specialist music school but has made the decision to leave at the end of this year and come home to a local state school for sixth form, as she wants to do medicine at university. I was surprised and very disappointed to learn from the head of biology at a local secondary school that the 21st Century Science course she is following at her current school is not adequate preparation for A levels. She thought that she was a good science student (she is predicted A/A* in all three and has scored 100% in two of the six modules already taken) but now self-doubt is creeping in. Any Science teachers out there with any advice please?

Hi...

I am a Biology teacher at an inner London school. If your DD is doing Triple Science then she is more than adequately prepared for AS Biology. It is a hard course whether you have done Double or Triple Science, however the demands of the Triple are such that she should be better prepared than some.

If she is doing Double Award and has done the Additional course then she will be fine, however if her school has made her do the Applied course then she will not be able to do AS Biology as this does not cover the theory needed.

Apologies if this has been covered above - not had time to read all posts.

Thank you dippingbackin, she is doing the Triple Science and that is very comforting news.

You are welcome. The 21st Century Course gets a hard time and if you have very able children I can see why. However for the majority of students I teach who are less able but often genuinely interested in Science it is a great way of getting at least one pass at GCSE.

The whole course is being re-jigged this September so it will be interesting to see what happens.

As a Chemistry teacher I would say that TRIPLE Science is fine for A level Chemistry as well. Sometimes there are slight difficulties on changing school (especially if this also means changing exam boards) but the first AS Chemistry module is fairly standard and this should not be a problem.

Thank you, crazymum, I appreciate your input.

A teacher friend whose dc did this 21C GCSE course thought it led into the OCR A level science syllabuses very well. Both her dc did very well at A level, so it must have worked for them, but I imagine the success or not of the transition is largely down to the quality of the teaching.

Thank you snorkie, panic beginning to subside slightly. Spoke to the head of Science at new school today who, it turns out, actually took DD for Chemistry on her "trial day". He said they did an experiment to see what their lab skills were like and he remembered her and said he was impressed with her approach. He said she was methodical and very thorough and asked him a couple of challenging questions during the course of the lesson. He says, not to worry, she'll be fine. More institutional flannel maybe?

Thelibster - if she's going to get A*s she should be OK, she's clearly bright enough to cope with the gap.
There will be a gap, though.

21st century science and similar were brought in to be "about how science works" - without, in my opinion, teaching enough actual science.
I think it's OK for those who are not intending to take science any further, but not ideal for those who are.