An Idiot's guide please

[ocuspocus]

My thirteen year old son has come home with his examination timetable for the summer.

RE - Ethics
Maths A (linear) Option F calculator and non calculator
Biology Unit 1 Tier H
Chemisty Unit 1 Tier H
Physics Unit 1 Tier H

He is a typical boy and I ask him what these exams are and his answer is "just exams". I feel a bit silly not knowing what they are and what they mean as he is just choosing his options. We do have parents evening coming up but would like to know before we attend.

Thanks

It sounds as they have an early entry strategy.
For Science they do one module of exams (usually in yr10) - this is what your son is doing now. Together they (B1 + C1 +P1) count for 1 GCSE.

They then do a second module a year later. (If they are doing triple science, they have a 3rd exam to do as well, and the exams count per subject so B1 + B2 + B3 = Biology GCSE).

I'm not sure about the Maths. "Linear" usually means it is the full GCSE exam sat at one time (two papers). I'm not sure why they would be sitting these aged 13 though. (Is he yr9 or yr10?)

RE - who cares?

BTW, H tier means Higher paper and Option F is Foundation.

He is year 9. It is all very confusing.

My DS is in year 10 and has a very similar timetable for this summer. His are actual GCSE exams, so I assume your DS's are too - seems very early though!

They may be internal exams - I wouldn't be entering a 13 yo for GCSE RE.

Roisin - I care about RE as an RE teacher and examiner. I hope (iirc you work in a school) that the 'don't care' attitude doesn't spill over to your students about all subjects you don't like.

Thanks for all your responses. Although I do not understand the reasoning for doing them so early and what benefit they would have.

He is very laid back and completely unconcerned which is a good thing, but sometimes he is a little too laid back and I suppose that if he does not perform very well it might be a bit of shock to him.

Thanks again.

If he is able then I can understand entering him early for Higher papers, although I disagree with the policy, but what on earth is the logic for entering early for a Foundation paper?
Can you speak to another parent in his year and see if they know what is going on?

Scaryteacher - in our school students do just 1 hour a week of RE. On the basis of that they do a full GCSE (half course in yr10 and half course in yr11). Many students get comparable grades to their other subjects, including A and A* for more able students.

IMO there are two possible logical inferences:

1. The RE teachers are far superior to other teachers in the school.
2. The syllabus and the exam is considerably easier than other academic subjects, such as MFL or History or Geography; which require 3 hours a week teaching time.

I taught an hour a week of RE and had to shoehorn 1.5 hours of content into 1 hour. You learn to teach fast and effectively, with lots of concentration on exam technique and each homework directly related to the exam questions (practice, practice and more practice).

We also taught twilight to get them full course, and ran weekly revision sessions from October half term onwards to cover the syllabus if they had missed any and to concentrate on areas of difficulty.

Had we had more teaching time, then we could have got more through at A and A. My department always had higher A-C than History though, and we taught ALL of year 10 and 11, as it wasn't optional (except for the twilight classes).

The exam isn't easier - I've examined for years. Difficult to get that A*.

Roisin, you've got very good RE teachers.

Though my evidence is as anecdotal as yours, being based entirely on the fact that our students do worse in RE than in many subjects. Looks like a fascinating course though. Changed since my day and a really interesting focus on different religions attitudes towards different ethical considerations.