GCSEs are they all moving to two year courses?! new curriculum

[smellylittleorange]

Is my understanding right on this...with the new changes from 2017 all GCSEs will be two year courses ? Currently looking at secondary school entry for 2015 one school has gone back to two year gcse syllabus and one is three year ...it is not a deal breaker but am weighing up the pros and cons of each school. Can anyone advise.....? Yours faithfully confuddled of Hampshire!

GCSEs are usually 2 year courses- year 10 and 11. Some schools start in year 9, but dont think they really learn anything different.

I am really after finding out if all schools will move the two year system with the recent GCSE overhaul though...therefore schools that currently have a three year system will have to move to two?

its up to them .... there are few rules - especially for academies
some GCSEs are done in a single year

Ahhh OK thank you talkinpeace again ...

I understand that DD's school (state comp) is staying with a 3yr programme (always under review). Other parents & children I speak to about this are strongly in favour of 3 yr programme.

Interesting...I always thought three year =bad ...early option choices and some GCSEs taken too early to get best potential mark? But then again if the school does it well perhaps it means longer to get a good grounding in the subject? Ha! Confuddled again

Everyone on MN disses it, but people I speak to IRL all gush about how wonderful it is that the pressure is taken off, that the kids learn they can do exams, and what those exams mean, that it keeps them motivated because yrs 9 & 10 actually count for something. I have a very unmotivated yr10 right now in a fairly traditional school (one of his exams count at end of yr10 & all the rest of yr11). He sees no point whatsoever in making any effort outside of lessons, especially not at homework. I badly wish he was in the other system right now.

IRL I've heard only one person be critical of 3 yr programme. Her DD got B in math in yr9 or 10 & mum reckoned it could have been much higher grade if exam taken later because the girl quite liked math. I do see her point, but there are ways around that if the family had wanted to push for them.

Our local high school has switched from 3 yr programme back to 2 yr programme for the reasons you expected, btw. So the 3 nearest state comps are all running different schemes, near as I can tell.

I am foreign. I think basing qualifications on a small set of exams taken in a tiny time window is insane, but I have to live with this stupid system.

ds2 is a grammar - it's gone from a 2 to 3 year programme, but I don't think the exams are taken early - they just take longer over them. Well that's how I understand it at the moment, so he has to choose options this year (year 8) which is early imo, but not too problematic for him because he knows what he wants to do.

My understanding is they will all have to move to a 2 year system. However, if your child is starting in 2015... Everything could have changed by the time they sit their exams. Choose a school based on how it feels and the ethos, not how they do GCSEs.

All GCSEs are now linear, that means schools cannot chunk them and do modules throughout the course. However, they can still do them at different stages, if they want. So some schools still allow pupils to sit some exams early - at the end of yr10 or even at the end of yr9. This is discouraged*, but it is quite possible.

However, this doesn't affect the length of the course. Many schools now have a 3 year KS4, with options chosen at the end of yr8. I see this as a narrowing of the curriculum and a devaluing of the arts and MFL, but it seems to be a trend set to continue.

DD1's school does a 3-year GCSE - course starts in Yr9, no early exam entry though - all exams taken in Yr11. I agree that there could be narrowing of the curriculum, but OTOH my DD is delighted not to be doing ICT and DT any more, and she is doing an extracurricular GCSE in Ancient History on the side. She has known since the end of Yr7 what subjects she wanted to do at GCSE though and was just glad to start.

It means they can go into more depth when working through the syllabus, have a bit of time to ensure that everyone understands the material and lastly - leave themselves a bit of breathing space for those entertaining mid-course goalpost moves this government is so fond of.