Year 8 pathways?

[Sinkingfeeling]

DD1 came home last week saying that she will now be doing an NVQ in Spanish at the end of Year 9 and has had to drop French (which she started learning in Year 7 and loved) and take two extra maths sessions a week to accommodate this. It isn't clear whether she will also be able to take GCSE Spanish if she wants to. I'm worried that this pathway will limit her options later (if she wants to take languages at university like I did for example) and confused about why she has been put on this pathway. I've emailed her tutor (who hasn't taught her previously but is there for pastoral care) and he's replied to say he assumes that the reason she's been put on this pathway is that she needs extra support in either English or maths, so only one MFL can be taken to accommodate this. Her grade given at the end of her year 7 report is 5M for English (roughly equivalent to the old 6B?) 4U for maths and 5L for French. Does anyone have any words of wisdom about the situation before I phone her head of year to discuss? For comparison, her twin sister is at the same school, had slightly lower grades for her core subjects at the end of Year 8 and hasn't been put on the same pathway - she's taking French and has just started Spanish (non-NVQ pathway).

I can't help but my son's school is similarly restrictive about MFL so I have enrolled him on a German KS3 course with Wolsey Hall - they mainly work with home-educated kids. Maybe take a look - if your daughter wants to carry on with French you might have more face to face options available locally.

Are you sure 5M doesn't mean 5 medium ie 5b, 4U=4a, 5L=5c?

If so I can see why they would want her to be having extra maths, especially with the new curriculum. She isn't on track for one of the new 'good passes' (I think).

On the other hand, the French grade is good for end y7, so it does seem a shame to have to drop it. Is she already doing Spanish also already, not clear from your OP.

So in your position I would definitely want the extra maths, but would try to persuade the school to see if there is something else other than French to drop (eg a tech subject or performing arts). But their hands may well be tied by timetabling constraints.

Thanks both - useful comments. I'm waiting for her tutor or head of MFL to call me back.

Teen - no, to be quite honest I'm not sure about the levels. One teacher mentioned in passing at parents' evening last May how the 'new' grades equate to the 'old' ones but I've tried without any luck to find something in writing about this. Her report says that 31% of her cohort were level 5 at the end of year 7 and 67% at level 4, but that doesn't help very much!

Maths is certainly her weakest subject and I do welcome any extra input, but would rather it wasn't at the expense of French. Unfortunately, I don't think she'll be able to drop a different subject because of timetabling restrictions as you say. I'm a bit worried about her going down the NVQ route quite so early on, especially in a subject she could be potentially good at. She didn't learn Spanish in Year 7 - only French was offered to everyone.

They might be getting them to do an NVQ in Spanish at the end of y9 to ensure they end up with some kind of MFL qualification, but then still let them continue it on for GCSE in y10/11 if they are good enough. (I think DD's school did something similar). You could ask.

Yes, I think that's possible - those who are good enough would be able to continue with Spanish to GCSE, but still only the option of doing one language.

Just thought I'd update - dd1's head of year and her tutor have reviewed her end of Year 7 grades and agreed that she'd been placed on the wrong pathway, so is now taking French again, has dropped the Spanish NVQ and is starting German from scratch - all very confusing for her and for us but at least it's been sorted out early in the term and she now has the choice of two languages she might take for GCSE. Thanks for your helpful comments, Teen

Good, glad you got it sorted.