DS wants to drop an AS level...school say no because of funding???

[LondonBus]

DS is in Y12 and has started 4 AS levels. He is absolutely hating one of them, and wants to drop it. He says he doesn't understand a thing being taught, and his teacher confirms he's doing badly in tests. DS is stubborn as a mule, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't even tried to achieve in the tests. Today he missed a lesson.
I've asked if he can take three subjects this year, rather than be forced to continue with four with a view to dropping one at the end of the year and i'm told it's not possible as the school receive funding based on how many hours students are in lessons, and with only three subjects he won't be studying for sufficient hours.
There are no subjects he's willing to swap to in the option blocks available.
Basically, how do I convince the school to let DS do only three subjects, when they consider him to be academically able enough? I'm genuinely surprised DS is struggling with this subject, as he's finding similar subjects fine. - I feel it's a lost cause trying to persuade DS to apply himself (although obviously I'm doing that!) so please don't tell me this is the answer. You have to know my DS to understand that's not going to work.
The next step is to meet with the teacher, but I also need to know how to persuade the school to let DS do three subjects. Thanks.

No info, but interested to hear more about funding.

DD has started a BTEC plus AS, and if she finds the AS itself or the workload too hard we intend that she drops the AS. But the BTEC itself must be considered sufficient as only 3 of them are doing an AS too.

Also interested as many places are now only saying start with 3 AS, so wondering why this is considered insufficient. (Wonders whether school are being economical with the truth).

From a recent email to Y12 parents Most students are undertaking four AS subjects (36/50 lessons a fortnight with two lessons set aside for stewardship/volunteer work and two lessons for recreational PE)

I'm wondering if DS is getting minimum teaching hours, considering other schools are happy with three subjects. How can three subjects be sufficient for funding in Y13, but not Y12?

What sort of school is he at LondonBus, and where is he on the ability scale?

The school is correct about funding.

I had a similar problem at AS but was at a college so it may be different. I told the tutor that if I wasn't allowed to drop the subject I would just stop attending anyway. However a school 6th form might be stricter and not allow a student to attend the 6th form if they aren't doing enough subjects, I'm not sure how that would go.

He's at a medium sized "Good" comprehensive, and was always in tops sets.

He's academic but lazy. He did very little work for GCSE course work, then did very well in the exams with no revision, which gave him A's and B's at GCSE.

In the subject he wants to drop he got a mid-B, although I expect him to get an A (it's the only subject he got an A in his mocks, while he managed D's and U's in other subjects).

Molio could you explain about the funding? How does it work?

The school will be funded at a lower rate but if he leaves and goes elsewhere they won't get any funding for him at all (not sure when the numbers are counted, it's around now I think) and they won't be saving any money if he leaves.

At mu DCs school you they allow students to do voluntary work or work experience for the 4th slot but I don't know if that qualifies for funding

My sister had the same problem. So she stopped going to the lessons, turned up to the exam, wrote her name on the paper, and nothing else. She scored a perfect 0, so received an ungraded, and never had to declare that she took the AS level in the first place.

Not recommending this approach (my parents were livid when they found out), but she's a stubborn one, and well actually, it worked around the funding issue.

Which schools does it apply to?

At DT's state (but selective) sixth form, anyone who didn't get an A in their fourth AS has been made to drop it. Which seems seriously OTT to me.

scatterthenuns I think that was DSs plan, but he's heard that last year someone who didn't turn up for lessons wasn't entered for the exam. Much to their surprise when they actually turned up for the exam!

I think you're right about it being a funding issue, and Sixth forms are really struggling at the moment. I believe that each student needs to have a programme of study of at least 540 "guided learning hours" to attract full time funding, any less and the Sixth form will lose money.
As well as a typical classroom lesson, a guided learning hour can be an hour where a student has access to someone who can guide their learning e.g. a teacher. A free period will not therefore count if it's spent away from a teacher.
My DC has just dropped a subject and was told initially that they would need to sit at the back of the dropped class anyway (which sounds pretty odd, it must be hard to concentrate on another subject to that being taught) but started another subject instead. I think this was to allow the school to still count those hours for funding purposes. They also had a form which the continuing subject teachers had to sign to say they will give additional work to the student to make up for the "lost" hours of the dropped subject.
Maybe you could try suggesting these options or find another source of guided learning hours that they'd be happy with?

Is that 540 hours per term PeterTavy?

If so, that makes it 51.5 hours per week on average which should be guided learning.

Per year.

Wait till after October half term when the funding is allocatted and then see if they'll let him drop it. Shouldn't be a problem then

Would doing an EPQ count as guided learning instead?

Schools have a duty to act in the best interest of the child - making him do something he cant cope with is not in his best interests. Can you check with LEA if he can drop a subject without school's consent?

Ignor my last post...eve I don't work 50 hours a week! So it's 13.8 hours a week he needs to do?

Be careful about not going to the lesson, hopefully you will have heard about it right from the beginning if this is the case but I know of sixth forms that have the rule that if attendance falls below 95% students/parents have to pay the exam fees in order to be entered.

Odd that would be fine then. Pay the fees for the subjects you want to be entered for, and not the one you wanted to drop.

It must be different at 6th form colleges then ...
then again the funding they get per pupil is much less than schools anyway

All exams have to be declared should he need to complete an UCAS form.

Not true if you score nothing. My sister sat her A Levels last year. My family are very up on the rules, so unless there has been a change since August, whole subjects (not just single exams) can be omitted if you score 0 ums.

This is the Student Room's official advice on declaring grades, so it may appear that there has been a change in declaring 0 usm U grades.

A U grade in an AS or an A level does not have to be entered UNLESS you plan to resit it. However, the 'check this before you pay and send' page in Apply includes this statement: "Don't forget that all subjects for which you have received a result must be entered, including those you have failed." That seems to mean that everything must be entered, even if you failed it and even if you don't plan to resit. The page I've linked to above does not make this clear, so you may like to ring UCAS and see what they tell you! Update: it appears that the UCAS advisers answering the helpline are telling people that U grades must be entered regardless of whether you are re-sitting the subject or not.