GCSE English in Yr10- views?

[EvilTwins]

I am a secondary teacher. One of my colleagues has emailed to say that she intends to push a group of current yr 9s through their English GCSE in one year. This will involve after school lessons as well as extra homework. I can't really understand why she wants to do so. As far as I can see, the DC will gain nothing from it other than the fact that GCSE English is already done. Apparently she is thinking that they could then do Media Studies in Yr 11 as English will still be on their timetable. I teach Drama, and almost all of the DC on her list do extra-curricular Drama with me. I knows that they all do other activities both in and out of school and don't think that it's necessary for her to put this amount of pressure on them for no good reason. She asked for opinions in her email, and I have given mine, but she has essentially said "thanks for your advice but I'm going ahead anyway". So, as a parent, would you be happy for your Yr10 DC to give up extra curricular activities (this is not just about drama - the DC on this list are the ones who enjoy Art, are in band/choir or sports teams in school, on top of what they do out of school) to take GCSE English early?

I knows? Oops, I know.

No point at all. Children's work improves so much between year 10 and 11. Why hinder some of them, and maybe stop them getting the highest grades?

My ds's cohort all had to do this (take both their English in Yr10). They were very disappointed with the results.
ds took them at 14 (Summer birthday) and just didn't have the maturity to do as well as he would have a year later.
In his school then then offered media studies to some, I think resits to some, and AS Eng Lang in a Year to others (ds included). He got a U. Some got Es and Ds.
Personally, I'd rather he had been given the chance to take his GCSEs at the right time, when he quite probably would have picked up 2 A*s, which to my mind would have been more use than an A, a B and a U at AS.

The school have reviewed it and gone back to all the pupils taking it at the end of Yr11, so that's good (for the present pupils, shame his cohort weren't given that option).

Nope would not like it at all.... the kids have not matured enough, and their exam technique has not been honed enough by Y10 - why set up for a poorer mark than they could have got..

So, as a parent, would you be happy for your Yr10 DC to give up extra curricular activities ... to take GCSE English early?

DSs tend not to do exC so not relevant.
DD does plenty of exC, yet could probably get an A or A* in English at end of yr10 so not a big worry. I would probably talk it over with her & let her decide.

for my DC who aren't academic, it actually depends on other factors.
DS1: Good at English but poor attitude, I'd talk it over & let him decide.
DS2: Iffy at English, might well prefer him to wait a yr to get a slightly better mark (like B instead of C). Besides, under plans of OP's colleague the kids could still resit, right?

Only need CCCBB to get into local 6th form, so not worried about exact marks except for DD who is ambitious & academic, she might want to hold out to get the highest possible mark.

I wouldn't like this plan to be imposed with no choice on pupil's part though, that's the bit that matters to me. I thought that Media Studies was one of the classic GCSEs less academic kids did, so what's best for them might not be the usual MN expectations...

My DS2 did AQA English at the end if y10 last year. He got a B so maybe not too bad BUT he was out of 300 UMS on the boundary i.e. one third of a percent more and he would have got an A. The very competitive uni course he wants to do (not arts based) requires an A in English at his preferred institution. His y11 grades are likely to be of the right calibre. I am gutted for him that the result for an exam his school forced him to do early now precludes him from even applying for what he wants to do and really furious with the school for the poor decision they made.

He grew up a lot in those years and I think given another year he would have been more likely to get an A.

It's never in the best interests of the child unless they are genuine high flyers guaranteed A*. Most will get better grades at the end of Y11 because these exams are designed for 16 year olds and English in particular improves with maturity.
Schools do it for their own benefit. Media studies .

We enter all Year 10 pupils for GCSE English/English Lang. So far it has been successful with most pupils getting their target grades. They go on to study Literature in Year 11 so all pupils get the chance to do two GCSEs in English. Those who do not achieve their target can then retake in Year 11. Works well for our pupils and most parents seem to like it.

Sorry meant to say it has resulted in more time for extra-curricular activities because they have one less GCSE to deal with in Year 11. We are currently auditioning for the Shakespeare Schools Festival and loads of our current Year 10s have auditioned whereas before we did English Lang in Year 10 none would have been involved.

Just no!
DCs grow up so much in years 10-11.

My school gave up doing maths early (30 years ago) because more practice and maturity equalled better grades.

English surely benifits from more time, maturity and more reading. Analysing literature is a very adult skill.

Also, personally I feel year 10 should be the ladt year of full childhood. DCs should be free to pursue extracurricular activities at a high level.

DD has passed adult exams in her hobby (with higher marks than some of the adults), is doing music exams now and her Ranger Guides have learnt loads doing all their own planning.

Her friend, who wants to be a vet, went lambing and helping with calves in Y10.

Education and a love of learning is for life, it should not just be about school exams.

DH makes his living knowing about the darkest corners of where computers meet analogue electronics. He didn't learn that at school, ICT hadn't got onto the grammar school curriculum. He learnt it building his own stuff in his bedroom.

DS(16) did English language gcse in year 10 and English lit in year 11 but within the normal timetable. We don't know his final grade for English language yet as the controlled assessments were only submitted this summer presumably to allow resits of the exam if needed but he's on track for A/A* in both of them. The work was structured over the two years to leave the things that needed more maturity to the end.

I wouldn't be happy with it being done in a rush and after school as that takes all the enjoyment out of it.

My DCs school to English Lang in year 10 and it works really well. If they hit their target grade they do Lit in year 11, and if they don't they resit Lang.

After they started doing this, far more DC achieved their target grades than before, and the numbers getting A/A* increased significantly in both Lang and Lit.

BTW they do similar in Maths (with stats GCSE and FSMQ in year 11).

It also means that when the DC are applying for 6th form/FE/apprenticeships they are usually applying with English and Maths in the bag, and this seems to give the DC an advantage for the most competitive places.

Good to read some good things about early entry. Makes a lot of sense. most parents I know IRL strongly approve, too (others express no opinion at all).

Nope! As a rule it's a bad idea. Lots if schools do it. If the kids get C or above school us happy, if not they re sit.

This strategy gets school " what they need " ie plenty of A*-C but it does not ensure each child gets the best result they could get.

And to do it at the expense of extracurricular stuff. Definitely not!

I wouldn't want mine to do English a year early for the reasons StarBallBunny has mentioned.

At my daughter's school, the top set in Y9 do GCSE Media in their English lessons as this helps them prepare for GCSE English. Passing GCSE English is not just about having the skills, it is also about the ability to apply them. I know from looking at coursework, the difference between their work in Y10 to Y11; it's about maturity too. Pupils mature so much in Y10 and that comes through in their writing. Interestingly when you hear about pupils going to university at a young age to study for a degree, the subject is never English. I wouldn't enter my pupils this early and I would not want my daughter taking her exam before Y11.

Having one dd at a highflying school, the pressure to sit 11-13 sets of exams at the end of year 11 is intense especially if you are told you have to get mainly A.*

Then why do so many?
9 GCSEs all at A* would be enough to impress anyone

No, absolutely not. Especially for English.

Ds is only year 7 but I would say he is an A/A candidate in English. Even if he didn't need the A for overall results or to carry on with English - why would it benefit him to take it a year early and get a worse grade?

It may be different in other parts of the country, but around here only the 'poor' schools take any GCSEs early - or make their dc take more than 11. The selective schools take 10-11 - all on time (occasionally maths early). The private schools take 9-10 - all on time (occasionally music early for the gifted musicians).

nb. I am aware it won't be A/A* when ds takes his

EvilTwins I have a year 12 DD. I would not have been happy with her taking the English GCSE in year 10 as with hindsight, the level she reached at the end of year 11 was far greater than she would have been able to achieve a year previously.

The only advantage I can see is that it is would be over with, but it is not an exam that is intended to be taken at the end of year 10.

I would also be concerned that if the students were doing the lessons after school, this would be in addition to a full day, and so they may not be able to give it the focus it requires.

At my DD's school media studies was seen as a soft subject, so to sacrifice a better English grade for this would provide no benefit.

Eviltwins I have a year 11, August born DD and would not have been happy with that either, especially losing out in the extra CA too.
As it was , her school did Eng Lang in yr10, and she did get her target B grade (after a re-mark and the AQA fiasco) and decided not to retake as creative writing a struggle for her. Friends with A* targets ended up with Cs and have retaken.
DDs writing for literature this year has greatly improved, so wouldn't be surprised if she did better in that, although target still B.
Not having to take English Language in the same sitting as other GCSEs wasn't much of a gain either, as no revision needed for it,

She did Maths early too, in Feb of yr 11. And got her target. idea being to give opportunity to resit. Lower sets had first go in November of yr11.

For her, as they only do 9 actual GCSEs, it means only 7 in one sitting. Hope that doesn't be one an issue for Uni applications.

Generally, I think mass early entry isn't a good idea, but occasionally it works out better. For example, the schools that did early entry english for yr 10s in 2011 got far better GCSE results in my county than schools whose yr 11s took it in 2012 due to the harsh marking last summer, but that was probably fairly exceptional. I definitely wouldn't be happy for dc to miss out on extra curricular things to facilitate it.

DS1 has just done Eng Lit at the end of Year 10, along with all those in the year group doing Eng Lit. Seems to be the other way round from other early entries. He is predicted A, although could be A* on a good day, so we will just have to wait and see.

There was a little bit of twilight time - a day in the Easter holidays for course work (which DS quite enjoyed - it was nice to concentrate on it for a whole day) and an after school film session of one of the books.

Each class did it slightly differently though. DSs teacher actually ran two days in the holidays so all children could attend.

I wouldn't have been keen on it taking up extra-curricular time though.

He also did Maths, which seems a bit of a nonsense. Only his set were entered, they will do iGCSE next year so he will still have a maths exam to do!