If a year 9 child was a level 3/4 at english/maths, is there any possible chance of them getting a C in GCSE?

[MyballsareSandy]

I'm asking on behalf of a friend of mine who has a daughter who struggles at school. School are helping but she still has a long way to go. Friend has to choose options with her DD early next year and the DD would like to do some kind of child related job - childcare in a nursery or similar. She is worried that this now involves having to have certain GCSEs in order to complete the paperwork required.

Firstly, is that the case? Surely there must still be many children that leave school without qualifications, what happens to these kids? If at least a C grade is required to get into these roles?

It got me thinking and I'd appreciate views from those who have gone through this.

Sorry, I don't know, but I would think it would be hard to get to C grade by end y11 from that starting point.

However I believe it is now the rule that if you don't get to C grade standard by end y11 you must continue with these up to age 18, along side whatever you do at college/6th form.

From what I've seen from college brochures (my DD is y11), if you are near (e.g. D grade) you can maybe get on to a Level 3 childcare course and retake, and if further away you need to do a Level2 vocational course whilst retaking, and then later progress to Level3.

Level 4 is the average attainment of a child at the end of Year 6. From where she is now, I'd say itd be difficult for her to achieve a grade c by the end of year 11. What are school doing o support her?

I've managed to get one child from level 4a (just 2 marks more would have been a level 5) in year 9 to a C at GCSE. That's in 10 years of teaching Maths and at least 4 classes working at that level. It is occasionally possible, but it doesn't happen often.

I do know that some of my pupils last year have gone to college to do childcare courses without having a grade C in Maths or English. I'm not sure of the level of the course, but I do know they are re-sitting their Maths and English GCSEs as well as doing the childcare course.

She really needs to discuss with the school, but she could have a reduced timetable in year 10 and 11, to maybe 5 GCSEs, and go to college to do a vocational qual one day a week. If she doesn't get C grades in maths and English she will have to do these alongside whatever childcare qualification she does at college once she's finished year 11, which could be Level 2 or 3 depending on how well she does in other subjects.

So rather than aim for the C grades by the end of year 11, which looks unlikely, encourage her to think s little longer term than that, so maybe a D grade at the end of year 11, and the magic C a year later.

This course asks for 4 GCSEs, grades D or E:
Level 2 childcare

My daughter is in year 11 and working very hard towards getting her C in maths. School provide extra maths sessions, and she's attending 3 per week which is helping. She was pretty much where your daughter was in Year 9. I'm also thinking of getting a tutor for her so she gets some one on one.

Minimum requirement for a BTEC Level 3 college course (for year 12 and 13) would probably be a C but sometimes they will accept Functional Skills Level 2 instead of the C. DS got in via that route with his maths, having never achieved above an E.
But BTEC Level 1 or 2 courses for her Year 12/13 include an element of functional skills to bring you up to a level in line with the rest of the course. So there are possibilities!
It would be good if she could go the Functional Skills route to get to Level 2 by the end of her Yr 11, if her teachers feel she really won't achieve at GCSE, but if not there are still possibilities!
I think it wouldn't hurt to sneak into a couple of FE college open evenings or get their course prospectuses because she may be able to see light at the end of the tunnel and knowing that she does have options and routes might make all the difference for her Yr10 and 11 in her other subjects.
I think our young people are indoctrinated to a certain degree that there's only one way to skin a cat (sorry cat lovers) and that can really put pressure on during Yrs 9/10/11 whereas 'where there's a will there's a way' and 'forewarned is forearmed' might be a better ethos!

My DD will struggle to get maths grade C at GCSE (she is Discalculic). One thing the Ed Psych said which I think is great advice is to make sure the less capable students are not left to drift along doing "fun" maths etc- the school needs to teach these pupils HOW TO PASS THE EXAM - you need to keep asking this question: what are you doing to make sure they know how to get over that C grade hurdle

Having been chair of a preschool I can confirm that report writing is a big part of the key worker role and most/all settings will look for someone with at least basic childcare qualifications. We did employ a couple of play workers who worked with the children but didn't have much writing up to do but they still had NVQ level 2s in child care.

Usually a level 5 would be end of y9 level to track to a grade C in English so a 3/low 4 would be unlikely to make enough progress.

The situation is worse for current Y9 as they will be sitting the new English GCSE and the 'pass' grade will be set at a 5 (they are getting rid of letters and replacing with numbers), which is roughly equivalent to a B. As it will all be totally new, it is unclear what grades college courses will have as their entry requirements for this guinea pig year.

However even now you can get onto various college courses without English so long as you resit English alongside the qualification. The aim is to get the C grade before leaving school so potentially another couple of years of study/tutoring.

She may still be able to get onto a Level 1 or even level 2 Childcare course at college but would have to take Maths and English alongside. It may be that she can get non-GCSE Level 2 equivalents which would help her job prospects longer term and progress to Level 3 Childcare (A level equivalent).

As previous posters have said it is unlikely to go from a low level 4 to a C.

This has the added complication that they will be on the new syllabus and grading system.

The maths syllabus is becoming much bigger at GCSE with several grade b topics now on foundation. Meaning that weaker students will struggle to access even more of the content.

As the students English is low they are probably also struggling to understand the questions. What are they doing outside of school? Is a serious effort being made to improve their English/maths skills. Our yr9 have 3 hours of maths a week. Which is hardly anything. The ones that make the most progress are those that do maths in between as well.

Thanks all, this is really interesting. I'll send my friend a link to this thread.