Moving school during GCSEs

[MaryF1975]

Does anyone here have experience moving school during GCSEs where the exam boards are different at the new school? DD is in year 10, so half way through her first year of GCSEs and will be moving school.

We have compared the GCSE exam boards from the old and new schools at the suggestion of the new school and all her topics bar one are different. She is keen to move herself, so we think would be willing to put in extra effort at the new school. Is this likely to have a very negative effect on her results, and is there anything else we should be doing?

Even if we could find another school nearby with matching exam boards from the old school, we would be outside catchment so I do not think she would get in.

Why is she moving school? This is going to be very difficult even if the exam boards are the same as schools do things in different orders so she might end up learning Pythagoras twice and completely missing out circle theorems.

I moved schools half way through CGSE year one- but decades ago. I think it depends how determined and quick to learn she is (don't mean that in any way offensively to anyone- but some children just seem to find it easier to pick up new things than others) as well as how able you are to help her (ie do you and DP have the background and knowledge yourselves to identify areas where she may need help and provide that help, would you/she be happy about contacting school teachers to check on her progress,could you afford a tutor if necessary etc).

The schools I moved to was actually much better in terms of academic results than the one I left, and I came out of it with a much better set of GCSE results than those of friends from my old school who had been getting similar marks to me when we were at the same school. (We moved due to DF's job, this was a lucky coincidence).

However, for most subjects I basically wrote off anything I had learned in the first half of the year and had to learn the topics for the new GCSE board on my own. In my case I managed to learn from text books etc for most subjects but Maths and Science were another matter. Not only was the syllabus different but the topics (and calculation methods) covered in earlier secondary years were different so I found myself entirely unable to understand what was happening in the first few science lessons and unable to score well in a maths test on day 1 (to decide which set I should be in). This was very disheartening as I was used to being at the top end of the class. This is why I mention how able/willing you are to intervene- in my case these were DF's specialist subjects and he spotted quite quickly that I needed help (I didn't want to help as I felt stupid).

Hope that makes some sense- hopefully with the national curriculum there should be less of an issue now over assumed knowledge entering in to CGSE but if I were thinking of this for my DD I'd be asking about this too.

Good luck with whatever you decide

A family friend did this. Her dd was very unhappy at old school and her results are now improving due to better teaching at new school and being generally happier.
Providing she can still take the same subjects at GCSE, it shouldn't be too great a problem.
The new English syllabus for English means that there shouldn't be any problems with coursework for this subject. Are there any other subjects e.g. Double Science where she has done controlled assessments this year (if taking triple Science all controlled assessments are now done in Y11)? It can be possible to transfer these from one board to another (but it's not easy).

I think it is very likely her grades will be affected. English and Maths are supposedly much harder. English might cover different books to the ones she is currently doing. Don't forget she will only do two terms of year 11.

Is the new school willing to reduce the number of subjects she does so she can catch up?

My DS moved schools in year 10, after the Autumn term. Luckily he had chosen fairly traditional subjects and the majority (but not all) the exam boards were the same.

It was a really positive experience for him as most of his new classes have under 20 students in them (compared to over 30 at old school). He has really knuckled down and did have some catching up to do, but all his teachers were very supportive in helping him catching up.

His grades dipped initially, but are now mostly exceeding the grades he was getting at the old school.

I'd say the thing that will make the most difference is a positive attitude (from the student and the school) and an acceptance that there will be extra work initially.

Good luck.

I would not move a child at this stage in year 10 - even if exam boards are the same, they are different so it will be exceedingly difficult. speak as a Mum of a year 10 and a teacher.

If I absolutely had to move schools at this point in year 10, then I would look at dropping at least 1 GCSE. The time freed up could be used for self study to catch up on missed items for other subjects. In any case timetabling may mean all options can't be continued anyway.

She is way over 'half way' through year 10, there could potentially be a lot to catch up on for some subjects. You are talking getting on for half the syllabus having been studied.

Even if the boards are different, often topics will overlap, if they have been taught in the same order .

I think you will need to get each teacher in the new school to list topics already covered and see what your DD has missed, then make some kind of catch up plan which, as I said above, I would expect to include dropping something.

Personally I would expect maths, English, science, languages to be not too much of an issue and have quite a lot of overlap even with different boards, but something like History or Geography could be completely different.

Thanks all. A move is almost certainly inevitable due to a change in circumstances. DD welcomes the change, so should see some positive mental attitude!

Having to jump through the school application hoops at the moment, will have a chat to the school about the order they have studied things once we are further along.

English could be a massive issue. The school I work in, the school my friend teaches in and the school ds goes to are all using the same board for English, but are all teaching completely different texts and, at this point in year 10, they've studied three of their four texts in depth (their Shakespeare, their poetry and their nineteenth century novel). Moving school between any one of these would be a disaster in English!

Is there any way the new school could accept her into a year below and start her GCSE time again, otherwise she is really going to struggle. I guess the alternative is to drop some subjects so she takes fewer of them using the freed up time to catch up.

I moved schools at the end of yr10 and stayed back a year as the exam boards were completely different.
I was an A student at the first school (before A*) but finished with bs and cs. I really struggled to settle and felt out of place with the wrong year group.
I wouldn't move mine unless absolutely necessary.