I don't want my dd to do a modern foreign language GCSE, but the Head says many university admissions department require this now?

[hmcAsWas]

Dyslexic dd is hard working and bright and gets good academic results (however she has to put in three times the effort of anyone else to get good scores given her poor working memory, processing issues etc)

She is doing just fine with the majority of her subjects but is hopeless at Spanish (she took Spanish rather than French on the advice that Spanish is 'easier'). She is in Y9 and has been learning Spanish for two years but what she knows you could write on the back of a postage stamp. She really has not one clue - and none of it sticks. Language acquisition is obviously going to be much, much harder for many students with dyslexia since mastering English is tricky enough!

Head advises that students should do one MFL GCSE because this is expected by the Admissions Departments of most good universities? Is that so? I've always understood English and Maths as the must haves - do we really need to factor in a Modern Foreign Language too? She is academic enough to go to university and I don't want to scupper her chances.

I'd like her to drop Spanish and do a different subject. Only with a herculean effort and private tuition would she have a hope in hell of passing it - and the work involved would detract from doing her other subjects justice.....

"What is your daughter interested in? Then buy the magazines, tape radio programmes or watch the TV news. Look up unfamiliar works and learn them"

Well meant advice and thank you - but would be on a hiding to hell with that one for dd. I also haven't the time to 'special' her in a MFL, she is already a full time project! (I have to put so much more effort and time into supporting her with her almost all of her subjects than I do her NT brother...her Y9 exams are looming and I am constantly managing both her rising anxiety and her revision)....moreover she needs some down time - she already has to put in so much more effort in learning across the whole curriculum than her NT peers

In fact, I came to the conclusion that she should drop Spanish when I started to look up Open University modules in Spanish for me to study in order to be able to support her (she won't pass without massively substantial support and hot housing). I realised then there have to be limits

Understood. Dyslexic DD wanted to apply for medicine. GCSEs matter. Not subjects but grades. So it became a bit of a calculation as to which ones she would do better in. Humanities were always going to be tough, so MFL with support during the holidays was the better option. Honestly A levels have been so much easier as she is doing subjects she likes and is good at.

There is no disagreement. MFLs, and totting up the points on the mark scheme, is hard work. The only advantage is that there are other ways of learning. She did get better grades in her languages than in Eng Lit or History. And your DD should be aware that not being good at a language at school does not mean she cannot learn a language in real life, if she is motivated enough.

I also totally get the extra time spent supporting a dyslexic child. DS just got on with it.

Thanks Needmoresleep. I hope that she will try and learn a language later in life when the circumstances are more propitious (when she isn't doing any other academic study at the same time)

My daughter in yr 9 has dyslexia. She finds foreign languages really hard, it is a real struggle to try to persuade her school that she might not have to take a language GCSE. She finds the vocab so difficult. She is a high achiever and puts so much pressure on herself to do well and is getting so stressed at the thought she’ll have to take a language GCSE and that she will fail. The school are not listening, they see a hard working child but they don’t see the hours of tears and struggle she has at home to do her homework. I worry for her mental health and her anxiety over this.

I don't have a GCSE equivalent pass in French and it prevented me doing a straight History degree at many universities. I eventually got on a joint honours programme and majored in History so got round it but I think the school are not completely wrong. I believe that most people should be required to study a MFL and I think the school has a right to set it as an expectation provided they have suitably qualified staff to teach it.

You'd be better off starting your own thread about this asking for advice. This is from 2016 so the OP is probably long gone and most people will only read the first post and not see yours.

The school is completely wrong when it comes to universities here - the last one to require universal GCSE MFL for some years was UCL - even then, there was the alternative of taking a course in first year and even that is no longer required.

Ask him to make a reasonable adjustment under the DDA.

I was the same (undiagnosed because my English teacher did not believe dyslexia exists), I could not get on with French at all and it was virtually compulsory at my school (early 1980s) it was French or GCSE typing.

It ended up with 3 of us doing art in the time others were studying French.

However I later started to learn British Sign Language and took to it like a duck to water as did another friend who is also dyslexic.

There is something about the grammar that makes it logical.