My daughter got a 3 in a science assessment and was told she's in danger of failing her gcse

[emochild]

And it's only autumn term of year 9

And people wonder why kids are stressed

I would hope that in the next 2 years and 1 term she will be able to drag it up to a 5

Well that's just crap teaching isn't it? From thinking that a single assessment can be accurately graded using new GCSE grades for a GCSE that hasn't been set yet (even proper full mocks won't be accurately graded as grade boundaries are a mystery), to thinking that a 3 at the start of Y9 is an indication of failure 2 years from now, to also apparently believing that a 4 is a fail.

I shall admit to having a bit of a rant to said teacher

Ironically she also got a 3 in history and the teacher was over the moon

Made up marks/grade boundaries/predictions are helping no one

It was a crap thing to say.

I'm pretty sure Science is a three year GCSE now though, so what they are learning now may well be in their exams in year 11 (I'm not excusing the comment though).

So shouldn't she be roughly on track to get a 5 at GCSE? That's hardly 'failing'.
I would suggest you call the head of department to clarify.

What did the teacher say when you complained?

The topic learned now won’t be covered again. So she won’t have a chance to improve upon her work in lessons and may well get worse with the topic unless she redoubles her efforts to improve the topic now.

I know you want to shout at the teacher. Please don’t. Maybe encourage your child do do a bit more revision and practice... it will teach her more than if she doesn’t do well, her mother will just shout at the teacher... (who may or may not be in the wrong for trying to motivate/ demotivate your child).

I didn't shout at the teacher -but I did express my concern at the level of pressure being put on a 13 year old who is more than 2 years away from formal exams
Teenage mental health is a massive concern of mine for reasons the school should understand

The way the school does it is teach the entire content by the end of year 10, then based on end of year assessments decides who is doing triple, double or single science
Those doing triple get the new content in year 11 and the others have a year of revision and consolidation
As she doesn't want to go into a science field I'm not concerned that she will likely do the double science option rather than the triple

If I only I could ‘like’ your post!!

Because of the pressure teachers are under (because your child’s result may affect their pay in the years to come), we sometimes lose sight of the feelings of others in our panic... it’s not right, but it does happen. In fact there’s been a lot in teacher news about this very same thing!

I think it's clumsily put by the teacher. A grade 3 at the end of Y11 wouldn't be a Pass but most pupils improve a lot between the start and end of the course typically 2 grades between Y10 and Y11 so more progress likely for current Y9s.
I'm pretty sure Science is a three year GCSE now No it's still a 2 year course, but many schools are starting in Y9 due to increased content.
The way the school does it is teach the entire content by the end of year 10, then based on end of year assessments decides who is doing triple, double or single science
Is that up to date. If that's what the school is telling parents then they are out of date as Single Science no longer exists for the 9-1 GCSE.! For Science there is a new combined equivalent to Double award and then the Triple i.e. 3 separate Sciences.

How hard is your daughter working?
I might tell a bright kid who was behaving badly and not doing the work that they were in danger of failing if they don't change.

She does work hard but her maths is not her strongest subject which is now affecting her science

She's also a massive worrier and can talk herself into wrong answers by overthinking things not like me at all

Ds is yr 9 and likewise has started 3 year gcse courses. In his October Report he got 3s and 4s for everything. His GCSE target is 6 for everything. His progress is described as "On target " for all subjects. It does sound like your dd's teacher is being a bit premature!

I don't know about all core subjects and all awarding bodies, but if Pesrson (Edexcel) is anything to go by, they will give indicative GCSE grades from a Year 7.

Edexcel will be no more able to give indicative GCSE grades for science than any one else. The standards haven't been set, because they will be set by the first cohort to sit the exams, which is current Y11.

It is possible to sit a single science qualification but it will be either Biology, Chemistry or Physics and will wreck the school’s league table stats so is unlikely to be offered. Single Science does seem to still exist in Northern Ireland though.

noblegiraffe is correct.

My dd is year 11 and doing Edexcel Science (foundation). Last year in May, she sat three papers set by Edexcel to see how her cohort performed with the new 9-1 style papers.
She received her results in September and they were ungraded, just the amount of marks achieved. 58/150 gave her 85 which put her in the top 15% of her cohort.

So even at this point with the first lot of PPE's having taken place in year 11, (results not back yet) we have no actual idea of grade boundries or what the results given by Edexcel actually mean for our kids.
Basically no one has a clue about grades in Science or any other subject apart from maths and English until after the current year 11 have sat the exams for the first time in summer '18.

What are PPEs?

Mocks. PIXL call them Pre Public Exams.

There are these in Science beyond the June Y10 exam?

I know for maths Pixl released November PPEs and March PPEs so I expect they'll do the same for science as they are being paid enough.

They were shit quality for maths though, so a lot of schools used the Edexcel secure ones - they also released November and March mock papers.

The Science exams my dd took in year 10 were a one off, offered by Edexcel basically to see how the cohort performed with the new style papers.
I don't know how those doing the higher papers fared but my dd's 58/150 over 3 papers on foundation doesn't seem a lot. If that put her in the top 85% of then I'm guessing it was pretty hard?
The exams don't count towards the summer '18 GCSE at all.

Fffion PPE's are mock exams taken in November and March.

The performance in these summer mocks was very low for the higher tier and pitiful for standard.

Well you beat DS (year 9) who had a "1" in RS this term......unfortunately it's compulsory as a short course GSCE. ( they start maths, science and RS GCSE's in yr 9 here)
He is a top set/ hard worker generally and thankfully not terribly phased by it but it does seem a bit demoralising. 3 was apparently the top grade in his year.

Whilst I don't mind them starting the syllabus in yr 9 it does seem a bit rubbish to be grading them now against the same criteria as at the end of yr 11. I know I would have really struggled with it whn I was a teenager. There is enough pressure for them as it is.