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Original poster

Can DD retake German GCSE next year to improve grade if need be?

32 replies

Sobek · 12/03/2015 21:16

Just back from parents' evening and year 10 Dd's teacher said she probably won't hit her target grade of an A (she's double option, so does German in Year 10 and French in Year 11). I said that DD doesn't want to do French next year and would like to carry on with German with the hope of improving her grade to an A*. He said that it's no longer possible to improve your grade this way and that she will be stuck with whatever grade she gets for German this year regardless of any improvement if she takes the exam again next year. Is that correct?

OP posts:
Mostlyjustaluker · 12/03/2015 21:20

No. The first grade will be the only grade that counts for the school statics. However many exam specs and assessment criteria are changing for next year and German maybe one of them so she may have to cover new material and be assessed in a new way. Also if only your daughter is doing German it won't be possible for the school to teach one student.

Original poster
Sobek · 12/03/2015 21:58

Thanks for your reply. At Dd's school, those taking both German and French spend one year on each, so she takes German in Year 10 and French in Year 11. Those only taking one language do it over a period of two years. So she thought that if she didn't do well in her German this year, she could join the pupils taking it over two years for their final year and try and get a better grade. Her teacher said it's pointless as she's stuck with the first grade regardless. He didn't say anything about the spec changing.

OP posts:
ThisFenceIsComfy · 12/03/2015 22:03

What grade is she likely to achieve now then?

IreneA78 · 13/03/2015 09:44

Op
I don't think the school are acting in your DDs best interests at all.
I would be insisting that she does not do German this year and tries for it next year.I think one language at A* is much better than 2 at B or C

tiggytape · 13/03/2015 09:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

noblegiraffe · 13/03/2015 16:20

She's certainly not stuck with the first grade! What an odd thing to say. I teach GCSE resit kids for maths and their grade will certainly count if they finally get a C. She will be issued with a certificate for a resit exam just as if it was the first time around, they don't have 'resit' stamped on them. She could bin the first certificate and no one would ever know about it.

However, resits don't count in the school league tables, so an improved grade wouldn't help the school.

Original poster
Sobek · 13/03/2015 19:04

Thanks to you all for your responses. Dd has a target of A but is currently predicted to get a B at best. She is disappointed as she really likes German and would like to do well in it. The teacher led her to believe that she had achieved A grades for her speaking and writing controlled assessments, which are worth 60% of the marks. He told me last night that she has in fact got Bs and that it is too late to retake any of the controlled assessments now. Dd is upset as she feels that the teacher lied to her about her marks so that she would not ask to do the controlled assessments again to try and improve her grade (any retakes would have been different questions of course). He also told me that a grade B is all she would have been expected to get anyway given the 'government statistics that the school was given about her primary school results'. She got all level 5s at primary school and was the highest achiever in the year for maths, so I'm a bit surprised at that comment. Also, why give her an A target if they only ever thought she'd get a B?

Double option students go on to take French GCSE in Year 11. They will not have studied any French for more than a year when they start the GCSE French course in June this year. The French department is rumoured to be very bad at the school and Dd doesn't rate her chances of getting a good result, hence her desire to carry on with German next year. Her teacher said that she should take French as 'two Cs are better than one A'.

It seems to me that a lot of parents complain about the MFL departments in their schools....or is it just in my county (Sussex)?

OP posts:
Original poster
Sobek · 13/03/2015 19:05

School said it is too late to withdraw from GCSE now as she has already been entered and that she would get a grade 'x' if she did not do the exams which would look far worse than a grade 'c'.

OP posts:
Chipsahoythere · 13/03/2015 19:07

The teacher won't have given her the target A*. I have children in my class that I know would never get above a grade C, yet have targets of A. They won't reach that target.

Chipsahoythere · 13/03/2015 19:08

She could ask the teacher if she can do another controlled assessment that she prepares in her own time.

HmmAnOxfordComma · 13/03/2015 19:13

If all that is genuinely what the teacher has said, then they are talking a load of crap.

The first result is the only one that counts for the school's Progress 8 stats, but dd can retake and get a new grade.

Also one A grade is much better than two Cs.

HmmAnOxfordComma · 13/03/2015 19:14

Also, if she got level 5s at primary, they need to get her to a B minimum anyway, not a C...

noblegiraffe · 13/03/2015 19:23

The withdrawal deadline for OCR is 21st March.
You can withdraw from Edexcel at any time (but may not get a refund if late)
The withdrawal deadline for AQA would appear to be in July, after the exam.

So the school is incorrect.

Original poster
Sobek · 13/03/2015 19:26

The teacher genuinely did say all of that to me. I think he is hoping she will get a B, but she was led to believe that an A was likely as he misled her about her controlled assessment results. He said it's too late now to retake controlled assessments as they all have to be sent off to the board next week. Actually, I should have questioned him about that because Dd in Year 11 French is still doing controlled assessments. I think I was just a bit surprised by what he was telling me and not thinking straight. Controlled assessments can't be taken in her own time unfortunately as she has to have a teacher sitting with her whilst she does the work.

Interesting that level 5s would be expected to get a B (which is what he told me to be fair). Suppose I feel slightly pissed off that at first he gives her a high target (an unachievable target perhaps?) and now says that he would never have expected her to get that anyway!

OP posts:
Original poster
Sobek · 13/03/2015 19:27

That's interesting Noble. Do you know when the withdrawal date is for WJEC or how I could find out?

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 13/03/2015 19:29

If a level 5 gets a B, then that's the minimum that they are expected to get.

pearlgirl · 13/03/2015 19:31

I still have students doing controlled assessments for German - I am aiming that all will be done in time for marking and moderation and dispatch to be done by the exam board deadlines. Please feel free to pm if you want.

Chipsahoythere · 13/03/2015 19:33

No I meant she can prepare in her own time. I'm an MFL teacher and CAs don't need to be sent off for my exam board til May

Original poster
Sobek · 13/03/2015 19:42

Thanks so much for your replies. Dd would be very happy to prepare for controlled assessments in her own time. I think I need to speak to the school about this but I'm not sure how helpful they will be.

The teacher also told me not to get too hopeful for great results in the exam because the German listening exam is the hardest exam out of all the GCSEs taken in the country. He said that last year the highest result in the school for the listening paper was a B and that the average result nationally was a C. When I was telling Dh this, my Year 11 Dd overheard and said that is absolute nonsense and that when she took German last year she got an A in the listening paper, as did quite a few others in her class (she got an A grade overall, but had a different teacher).

I don't think I can really trust this teacher! Feel a bit stupid now for not questioning him a bit more about what he said!

OP posts:
Original poster
Sobek · 13/03/2015 19:46

Can I just clarify something...just in case I'm not understanding this properly. If Dd gets a C this year, but retakes it next year and gets an A, then it is the A grade that will stand? The teacher definitely said told me that you only get one attempt now and the first grade you get is with you for life regardless of any grade achieved later. He said this has been introduced by the government to stop schools entering kids for GCSEs more than once in an attempt to improve grades. Maybe he isn't trying to pull the wool over my eyes...perhaps he's misunderstood it himself?

OP posts:
sablepoot · 13/03/2015 20:09

If she takes it this year and next, then both grades stand. She would also have to do an entire new set of controlled assessments for next years exam. In most cases (eg CV) she could choose to declare whichever result was highest and ignore the other, but in some cases (eg UCAS) she should declare both results. if the first result was the highest, the latter result might be harder to forget about as depending on what exam boards she was using for other subjects it may appear on the same certificate as some of her other subjects.

noblegiraffe · 13/03/2015 20:11

Deadline for amendments to entries for WJEC is 31st March, with late fees payable after, however it says that no late fees are charged for withdrawal of candidates, which certainly suggests you can withdraw after that deadline.
See page 7
www.wjec.co.uk/CM-W04.pdf?language_id=1

The government introduced a rule about resits where the improved result doesn't count in the league tables. A student who sits maths in November and got a D then sat it again in June and got a C would not be included in the 5A*-C inc maths and English measure for example. However that student would most definitely have a C in maths to gain entry to sixth form and to put on their CV. The teacher is most definitely wrong on that count! Otherwise I wouldn't have a Y12 GCSE resit group at the moment as there would be no point!

HmmAnOxfordComma · 13/03/2015 20:30

All I can say is this teacher has really rather exceptionally low expectations of her students.

HmmAnOxfordComma · 13/03/2015 20:30

Sorry, his.

EllenJanesthickerknickers · 13/03/2015 20:49

This teacher is wrong. He's getting what counts for the school mixed up with what counts for the pupil. (Or lying) 2 Cs would be better for the school than one A in progress 8, but not* for the DC.

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