Not having the opportunity to do triple science

[ramennoddles]

DD goes to a private school and is studying for her GCSEs. Her school doesn't offer triple science because it is time consuming. However, DD likes science and generally does well in it. Will her not being able to do triple put her at a disadvantage because of the sterotype that less kids who are less able at science do double? If she applies to sixth form to do A levels, how can she prepare for topics she missed in double when she does her 16+? Do you have any advice as to what she should do?

Is she wanting to study science subjects for her A Levels? You may be best checking with local sixth form/college for their entry requirements. I imagine if she has good strong grades it won't be a problem but it's worth checking.

If she doesn't want to study a science subject at A Level it's nothing to worry about at all. She will be at no disadvantage whatsoever

ordinarywalls she plans to do science for a levels. Do some sixth forms require you to do triple science? I heard some other sixth forms do their own internal exams but I'm worried she might not be prepared enough with just diuble science.

Does the current school have a sixth form - presume it won't be a problem if she can stay at her current school as they all start in the same place.
The new 9-1 GCSE Double award equivalent (Combined Science) has much more content and is harder than the old Double award so should be much better preparation for A levels.
Most sixth forms will allow pupils to take Science A levels with both Double and Triple, but they may ask for a slightly higher grades e.g. 77 for "Double" or 666 for "Triple".
A good sixth form should be able to tailor the lessons to cater for pupils with both types of Science GCSE when they get there rather than expecting pupils to do it themselves.
In the long term she won't be disadvantaged in any way by the school not offering Triple Science.

catslife unfortunately ithe school only goes up to 16.

The research I did suggested that double science candidates who proceed to A-level sciences in a school which only offers double do pretty much exactly as well as students who do triple and proceed to A-level in a school that does triple.

The disadvantage seems to come in where students from a double-offering school transfer to a sixth form where the majority of students will have done triple.

What sixth form is she likely to go to, and is it attached to a double-offering or triple-offering school?

cantkeepawayforever she will mostly likely try to get into a sixth form that probably is a triple offering school. Do you think it might be a good idea if she could do GCSE out of school? Or is that very expensive and troublesome?

I would get in touch with the proposed secondary sooner rather than later and ask:

a) what proportion of Science a-level students have done Double science at GCSE and
b) how they get double science students up to speed (this may well be via reading over the summer between Y11 and Y12, or separate groupings at the start of Y12)

DS is at a double-offering-only school, a proportion of whose students transfer to an almost universally triple-taking very academic school. There's a structured programme to bridge the gap, and they do very well. Same is true for students transferring between the schools with 'only' normal GCSE Maths, whereas the very academic school also does a further Maths GCSE.

I wouldn't go down the 'doing GCSE out of school' route, but i would have a structured plan in place to bridge the gap over the summer after GCSEs - hopefully the school will provide this, but if not, it's something you should look to put together.

With the new 9-1 scence GCSEs, the heavy content of even double means that more schools are choosing it, and also that the gap to A-level is, understand, smaller.

Actually just back from a Y11 curriculum evening and it was banged home very firmly that NO sixth form or college (in my area) requires triple science for an individual science at A-Level. And even more importantly no university in the UK requires GCSE triple science for a degree in medicine.

It is massively more important for a child to do well in all three sciences combined than take on individual sciences and drop off a cliff because the new changes have made them so much harder. It might change in the future but right now its better to get top marks in 2 sciences than average grades in 3 sciences.

The fact is that if your DD only does double Science and then moves on to doing A level Science subjects at a different school, there will be a big gap in her knowledge. The fact that the school will allow her to do this is not really the point. What does matter is she will have a lot of work to catch up. She will be at a big disadvantage, especially if most of the other pupils have done triple.

It is unusual to only offer double in a private school, wouldn't most kids want to do triple? Is it really too much work?

At my local comp pretty much all kids start in yr 10 studying for triple, then after mocks in yr 11 they decide who will sit the double and triple exams.

That way, even if you do "only" the double (combined) you still have the same foundations, and able to do a level science if you want. If a comp can do it, why not a private school?

But ask the 6th form college!

It might change in the future but right now its better to get top marks in 2 sciences than average grades in 3 sciences.

Dd did double. She's moved for sixth form and goes to a very academic school. Is doing biology and suprisingly when the teacher asked who had done triple dd says less than half put their hand up.

It seems odd for an independent school to not offer the option to do triple - isn't kind of thing people are paying for?
Is it a very small school? If it has no sixth form, perhaps they don't have the individual science specialists in the quantity a school with a sixth form would have. Do they have a very small staff and small year group which puts great restrictions on timetabling? Most schools manage the timing of offering 3 sciences without a problem.
What kind of science enrichment are they able to offer too? Again it's the kind of thing that should be available if you are paying fees and many state schools will offer too.

In the end, it probably won't be a barrier to getting into A levels or a significant issue at uni application time. However, it's not really what you want, which makes it not ideal. I know you are paying for the whole school experience, but one of the things about paying is that you pay to be able to get the things that matter to you and might not be available, or available to all elsewhere.
Would you consider moving your DD to a school which will offer these things?...perhaps a school with a 6th form which is more geared up to really pushing the sciences and which is able to offer what you really want.

I’m surprised too that triple science isn’t offered at your independent school. You’re the paying customer and your dd (and many others) would like to take it! Id talk with the school and/or look for another school.

ds's private school only offers double science too, but pupils go on to Oxbridge and other top uni's for sciences and medicine courses.
I wouldn't worry about it.

ChocolateWombat yes it is an extremely small school which is frusturating when it come to subject options. DD is in Year 10 so we thought maybe it's too late to transfer and there isn't any good schools that can offer places now that the year has already started (we live in North London).

As part of the research I did, I contacted my old Oxbridge college. Apparently up to half their medics and scientists only have double GCSE - they count double from a double-offering school the same as triple from a triple offering school.

My DD did triple science at secondary, if you wanted to do A level physics/chemistry/biology then you had to have done triple science.

A-level science courses follow on from combined science. Separate sciences are not needed. There is a lot to be said for doing a broad range of GCSEs. Separate sciences reduces this breadth.

Not so, slim shady.

A lot of independent schools are small and non-selective, so providing a proper triple stream is hard. A compromise would be to do the extra modules as twilight, but students soon lose the motivation when they realise they have to give up their own time for an extra GCSE.

I'm not sure what the extra modules are like now, but in recent manifestation of the GCSE, they basically taught "factoids" and didn't contribute greatly to the A-levels.

cantkeepawayforever thank you so much for your contributions.

Those Oxbridge students will be doing 2/3 humanities, 2 MFLs, a creative or performing arts subject - no way will they have time for a spurious science.

For university scientists/engineers/medics, GCSE is the last time to do all these enriching subjects. They should enjoy it while they can.

The college did say that where a school OFFERS triple, but an applicant has done double, that might be something that they discuss. However, my context and yours is one in which only double is available (though my DC's school is different in that in then goes on very successfully to teach A-level sciences), so that is not relevant for you.

Wanting to keep open a wide range of options - both DS and DD did / will do 2 MFLs, a creative subject, 2 humanities in DS's case, 1 humanity 1 tech subject for DD - is the school's reasoning, and my understanding at the time i investigated it was that this would be an entirely valid reason for that college's entrance too. Perhaps less for 'predicted grades only' universities, but certainly for Oxbridge, who interview and look at personal statements, it was fine.

I wouldn't worry. My daughter did double science and ended up with a PhD in chemistry. She just wanted a wider subject base at GCSE and she had no idea of what she wanted to do.

Could she self study the extra paper in the three subjects and sit them at school? I don't know how the new science GCSEs are structured but it used to be possible to do this.