GCSE options - the school wants DS to take 8 instead of 10 -very upset

[HisMum4now]

I am a bit upset after the meeting at school, so sorry if maybe I am not thinking straight.

DS is in Y9 at a grammar school and working mostly at levels7-8, except for level 6 in English and history, his weakest subjects. The school GCSE options include compulsory double English, maths, triple science, MFL, history or geography. DS thrives on science and maths. He is very good with languages, so he rightly wants to take both German and French. So basically this takes care of the 9 GCSE subjects out of 10. As optional choice DS wanted to take ICT or graphic design -for fun as these are his preferred subjects.

Now DS has SEN and the school told us that to accommodate the SEN provisions and the special exam arrangements they need to free two subjects in the time table. They say that controlled assessments in one subject would be overrunning into another and it will be a mess which will impact on DS. So they say, it is better to do 8 GCSEs instead of 10 and not to take history (which is compulsory for other pupils).

We have a bit of a history of disagreement about SEN with the school and I don't believe the reason they are giving. They simply don't want to bother with SEN provisions.

I am very upset about this. It doesn't feel right that the school is taken away opportunities and experiences away from him for the reason of their own convenience.
How will it look to the universities? Will he be considered at all by the likes of Oxbridge?

Is having 8 GCSEs with A grades better than having 10 GCSEs A grades and couple of B grades?

DS is not going to study English or history at A levels, but this is why it would be nice to balance his profile with some humanities and a creative subject, even if not all of them will come out with A*.
What about English Baccalaureate?
What if English doesn't come out with an A - how will it look then?

He is so looking forward to his ICT that I don't know what to tell him.

I know there are a few people here knowledgeable about admissions, so could give me an idea of his chances of getting into good universities if we accept 8?

for top unis and top courses - and also for some programmes at sixth form colleges - what they are looking for is consistently high grades.
ie 8 A/A is better than 8A/A + 2B
and a lot better than 6A/A* and 4B

I do feel your pain though. The boys' school recently reduced an option: they now do as standard just 9 GCSEs. For ds1 (yr10) this is not an issue; he would have liked to do a second language but it would have been a lot more work for him and he has a tendency to stress as it is.

But ds2 will really struggle to whittle down his options as it is, as he has more wide-ranging interests.

How much do you wnat to fight?

No one cares (employer / college / uni) whether he has 8 or 10 so from that point of view you can accept the school's advice.

On the other hand, this is clear discrimination and you have a valid reason to fight.

I came home and felt that I sold my DS. I accepted discrimination. Part of his development to be taken away on the assumption that he is not cut out for it.

It sounds to me like the school is looking after itself not your DS
If he does fewer exams they can keep his grades up for their precious league table places.

If it is written into his statement that the school does study skills and social skills with him, when would they be doing it if not in these free lessons?

I have 8 GCSEs, due to some problems at the time. In the spare time in year 11 I had counselling and helped the special needs kids with reading etc.

Nobody has EVER asked about it or given me any trouble. Jobs and educational places only care about the last qualification you got. Most need at least a C (sometimes a B) in Maths and English, and that's it - as long as he can get into sixth form, it will be fine.

If your DC is superb at any of his chosen GCSE subjects, would he be able to take one or two a year earlier? Some schools do that. Depending on the size of the school and number of teachers, GCSEs might be offered in the Sixth Form as well. Both mine did one extra O level in the Sixth form (Geology and Archaeology). Depends on the expertise of the existing teachers though. Those two subjects were obviously taught by existing Geography and History teachers and filled up vacant bits of timetable. Both did A levels as well.