Taking gcse core science again

[RufusTheReindeer]

Ds1 had a dreadful year 10 science class, destroyed his confidence in the subject, this was from the September 2013 til about April 2014 when he was moved to a different class with a different teacher

All the double science students took their core science in June of year 10. He did well (B) but I felt that in a better taught class and taking his exam this year he may well have got an A

Spoke to his new (very good ) science teacher at parents evening and we discussed a retake. She explained that it wasn't the schools policy and that he did well in the exam, she then looked at his year 10 controlled assessment and seemed very surprised that it was a C

He had three opportunities to take this so it should really have been at B/A level which may have pushed his overall grade into an A

His year 11 mock result is an A with his controlled assessment being an A so he is obviously capable

So to get to the point...I feel he has been failed, bad teaching, a C will do attitude with his first assessment, and taking the exam a year early

I would like to see if he can take the core science again this year

Is this even possible??? I don't want to contact the school if I am talking completely out of my arse (plus ds1 might not even want to bother!) but I want to get my facts straight before I mention it

Anybody had any experience of this?

Oh and I do think that ds1 has done well, he has worked hard and I am really proud of him....it's just really pissing me off that the school has had a bump in its science provision and it's backfired for him

He can retake if somebody agrees to do the core science ISA with him and maybe some revision lessons.
However, as he has a B already, I'm not sure what he will gain by doing so. He has a good enough grade to do science A levels and in the long run the B grade won't hold him back unless of course he was thinking of medicine/vet etc. In that case, again there is no point as he would have to declare he has done it twice and that would affect how they viewed his results so all in all, I would think it was worth the bother.

We run a retake class for a very small amount of students who unexpectantly underachieved and have currently got a D (and want a C) or have a C and want to do (and are capable of doing) sciences at A level.

No experience, but:

• imo there is a lot of content in the science GCSEs, so you are increasing his revision workload for the summer
• he would have to redo the ISA in school which will take up teacher time
• no benefit to the school as only his first result can be used for their metrics

Does he wish to continue with science?
Is there a reason he needs a higher grade (e.g. rules for continuing in 6th form)?

Thanks teen

He has to next the next level of his science this year, did core last year and now he is doing the 2nd part of his double science if that makes sense. So he is revising anyway and wouldn't need to revise extra (or that's how I see it anyway )

Agree with the ISA, that may be an issue

Don't really care re the benefit to the school (although I do see how that may affect their decision)

He doesn't want to do anything science wise so he probably won't want to do it again anyway but I do want him to have the option

He will hopefully get A's in the subjects he wants to do at A level anyway so 6th form shouldn't be an issue...I hope!!!!

I am probably just tilting at windmills!!

Thanks what

How did I miss your post!!!

Should say here that ds had a bit of a thing about getting all A's in his exams

I don't think he is that fussed now but I think I am just so angry that they upset him so badly for nearly a year. He would have taken triple science if we had know how bad it was going to be, stupid broken crystal ball!!

At least I can say...it may be possible and see what he thinks. It's obviously his decision and he doesn't need an A

The topics for additional, which he's doing this year, are different to the topics for the core he did last year, so he would have extra to revise. That said our school has the same set up and let's any year 11 retake their core even if they got an A! They're running revision classes anyway for the lower set kids who didn't manage to get the C grade, so the ISA (controlled assessment part) is done with them.

I would definitely retake.I don't think it is a big workload .Many many kids do 3 full science GCSEs in one sitting

I would say it is quite a bit of extra work as they are different topics so it would double the amount of revision he would need to do. However the core science exams tend to be in June towards the end of the exam series whereas the additional topics are in May, so I advised the students who retook to get the majority of the exams out of the way before they started revising for the retake properly. They did attend an extra lesson all year though.

That's great, thanks everyone

Think ds will say no and so will the school but at least I know it's been done before and could be a possibility