Is it too late to start cramming for GCSES in May?

[BonnesVacances]

DD (16) has been off school for 2 years with ME/CFS, since Y9. She's not been able to do any schoolwork in that time and still isn't at this stage so this may be moot anyway.

She's currently still being entered for all her GCSES but we're just wondering which ones we should scratch off the list and which ones she still has a chance at if she is able to start studying at home.

The school says the teachers can't give us any guidance as they've not seen her for 2 years but surely the teachers know the exam spec and how big a task it would be?

DD's SATS were L6 and she had a CAT score of 124 on entering Y7 so is capable of a lot when not ill. In Y9 before she went off after just one term she had a NC achievement level of 7H in her core subjects and 6H in the others. She'd have been targeting grades 7-9 if she'd been at school. All her reports mention that she was hard-working, conscientious and gave her the top level effort grade.

So are there any subjects you think she could still manage to scrape a pass in if she were able to spend the next 4-5 months cramming?

We think that it is most likely too late to start studying for Maths now as she has missed so much content but maybe a Maths teacher could confirm that? If so, we'd rather spend the time focussing on another subject that she could get a pass in.

We also figure Computer Science is out of the running as she won't have done any of the project work. She's also supposed to be doing Spanish, Geography and RS. We asked her Spanish teacher directly who said there's a lot for DD to cover but it's not too late for her to do the foundation paper and get a 4 or 5. Not sure about Geography and RS.

Any ideas about English? She's read 2 of the set books already but still needs to look at a Shakespeare and the poetry. And she definitely won't make the speaking component test so that would be unclassified.

Just to be clear, we're only looking for bare passes, not grades 7-9. And we're only looking at the practical side of things at this stage. We know we have to juggle this with her health etc.

Thanks.

It is possible with a good timetable set up to cover all the subjects. The most important ones to concentrate on are English, Maths and Science. Anything else is a bonus.

Some employers and higher education institutions require these to be passed first time so prioritising these would be useful.

I would aim for a definite 4-5 hours revision per subject a week as a minimum.

DDs school is suggesting 2-3 hours per subject a week starting this week but thats for students doing 8 gcses having been in school.

The school should be able to recommend revision websites and books. Also many private tutors will be able to help bring your dd up to date with the curriculum.

She was already at the standard of a GCSE pass in maths when she stopped attending school in Y9 (level 7 was roughly equivalent to a GCSE grade C, which is now a grade 4). To pass maths she would really just need to brush up on the maths that she has already done. She could sit a couple of past papers to see what she can remember and then there are lots of resources on the internet to help with the rest.
I think maths would be one of the easiest for her to pass because she has already covered the content needed and she is obviously talented at it.

Agree with the PP that Maths, English and Science would be the best ones to focus on. If she has maths and english then if she is well enough for sixth form that will open up more options for her and she won't need to resit them (there are compulsory resits for sixth formers without maths or English).

This sounds really hard.

I honestly don’t think it would be possible with the new specs. It might have been possible under the previous specs. Sorry.

She could just do English Literature in which case there would be no spoken element. The new spec is very hard though and she will have to know the texts and the poetry very well.

Op actually most of her teachers are still getting to grips with the new spec.

Dual award science might be a possibility if she spent at least 15 hours a week on it? I'd steal clear of triple. It's very content based/ fact driven. So if she's good at memorising... I'd highly recommend you getting her a tutor....

In the 2 years have you had any help from the lea tutoring service? I really think you'll need help with this.

Has she literally done no work in 2 years? I have me/cfs (and was a teacher) and think to expect her to go from nothing to hours and hours every day will be hard.

What does she need for a level/whatever she wants to do. If it's it gcses including gcse english and maths id focus on that.
If you can afford a lot of tutor hours you could find a tutor who could work with her but it's not a lot of time and I know with a muddy head it's so hard to do a lot of concebtrating at once.

Is there someone senior at school who will help or have they washed their hands of her?

It could be worth getting in with local homeschooling network - maybe even leaving it a year and sitting next year?

Or just do English and maths so she has those under her belt and see if she can get into college with circumstances taken into account.

Thanks all. A mix of views there.

We're not too concerned with GCSES and college have said they'd accept her for 3 years without any GCSES. So there's no pressure. It's more about what hope still exists for DD to come out of school with any GCSES at all.

It's a good point that she was probably already at the level required to pass the core subjects when she last studied. I hadn't really thought of it like that. I'd only seen it in terms of what she had missed.

I guess the best thing to do is to do some specimen papers when she is able and see what she gets.

School have washed their hands of her. They won't give us any guidance but have agreed to enter her for all the subjects to keep her options open. I think they are more worried about their progress 8 score and would rather she didn't do any.

Does anyone know the deadline for applying for access arrangements?

Sorry to hear about your daughter OP.
My son attended school throughout his GCSE courses but in some subjects he'd not taken much in (paid enough attention).
I'm not a teacher, but I bought all of the CGP revision guides and worked with him on a strict revision timetable.
Based on what I learned I think English, Maths and dual science at foundation level could be achievable, provided she has support from you or a tutor and of course assuming she is well enough to put in the hours.
I wish her well and hope her health improves.

The deadline for applying for access arrangements is 21st February, I'm not sure how it will work in terms of collecting evidence when she hasn't been in school. You should contact the SENCo as soon as you can to find out what documentation you might need to provide.

If she would be year 11 is there no way she can just go back a year and restart at year 10?

Alternatively if you can afford private places such as MPW link here www.mpw.ac.uk quite often can do 5 gcses in a year if that will be all you want her to do.

Surely if she has not been able to do any work for two years, she is going to need a really phased entry back into learning, and not a packed, pressurised timetable though. This isn't someon who has done no work because they were o a round the world trip or something, it is someone who has been too ill to do anything. She isn't going to just be able to pick up to full on revision from now.
Have you looked into dropping down a year, and spending the next 6 months with tutors catching up in some areas, then starting Yr11 in Sept 18 ?

As I said in the OP, I'm just looking at the logistics of what and what isn't still possible. She doesn't need to do any and won't if her health won't allow it. She can still go to college and doesn't need to repeat school.

But it makes sense to figure out which options to keep open if she wants to choose to do one or two nearer the time, and at what point each one will cease to be viable. Unfortunately the school says it can't help us with that so we've told them to therefore put her in for all them and we'll let them know once we've done our own research.

What have school done to help? They can't just do nothing as she will impact on their exam results. Have you contacted the LEA about their lack of help?

Rs is onot an easy option with a good teacher- there's 2 religions and quotes and approaches to learn.

I really wouldn't bother if going for a bare minimum. If really focus on maths and English and aim for a c grade so you have those for the future. Maybe science as well if doable.

As I understand it, if DD doesn't do any exams at all, her results (or lack of) won't need to be included in the school's results. I think this is the school's preferred option tbh.

They've said all they can do is enter her for the exams at our request but they can't help us with which ones are still viable options as they haven't taught her for 2 years. We don't have a very good relationship with them and they haven't been very supportive so it's not a big surprise that they're not being helpful about this.

I think they'd provide home tuition for English and Maths if we wanted it (and because they'd have to). But she has cognitive difficulties so all this has been put on the back burner to focus on her health and get her better first. This is supported by a medical professional so the school has accepted that. But it means overall they've just washed their hands of her really and don't want a couple of meagre passes on their stats instead of a full suite of grades 7-9.

Hence the unhelpfulness.

I thought the lea was supposed to sort and supervise home tuition in the case of being out of school long term sick? It really does look like they've failed you.

If you could get support for English nd maths and are careful to pace and work in small chunks I would go for that.

I don't believe you can be at gcse pass standard at the end of year 9 can you? She won't have studied any of the content?

I'm sorry I am another who doesn't think it's possible, particularly as she's been ill.

I doubt very much the school have refused to help because they think she won't get high grades!!

I'm horrified the lea hasn't been teaching her.

Can I butt in with another suggestion.

Your post caught my attention at I was pretty much where you are a year ago, though thankfully not yet at GCSE stage (DD now yr 10 now) DD did miss 2 years of school ahead of making her GCSE choices & at that stage we just weren't sure if she would manage anything at all. We looked at dropping several subjects to help her cope where she could. Turned out not to be necessary

She did have a different diagnosis, but CFS is a symptom. I was originally diagnosed with fibromyalgia & M.E, but actually turned out to have EDS the same as DD.

When her health nose dived & she ended up in a wheelchair I started looking for answers my self as her doctors seemed content to write her off.

Roll forward a bit & turns out we also have an inborn inability to metabolise vitamin B12 properly. I would suggest getting your daughter tested as CFS/M.E. Is a very common misdiagnosis for B12 deficiency & it isn't a standard blood test. Even when they do test for it, they don't always understand the results properly, so a deficiency can be missed. Add to that, the fact that tests are unreliable anyway & you can see why it's often missed diagnosed as something else. (Mine turned out to be low for years, but nobody picked up on that as the cause of my symptoms)

There's several medical articles showing the success of treating CFS & Fibromyalgia with B12 injections

We eventually persuaded our GP to give DD a therapeutic trial of B12 injections - GP wasn't convinced, but admitted afterwards that the effects were "nothing short of miraculous"

Your DD sounds a lot like mine in her school reports. Mine caught up within a few months & is now doing really well in school. She was on her feet & like a new DD after only 6 every other day injections

My DD is younger, so self treating her isn't an easy option for us, but as your DD is 16 & time is short, I would ask for the tests, then I would suggest looking into self injecting B12. It's really cheap, though your first one needs to be medically supervised due to a slight risk of allergic reaction. You pay about £30 & clinics such as Reviv, or can even be found even in Harvey Nicks etc

There is a Facebook that we're a huge help to us in getting treatment & supplies for myself in the links section of this link below. This is all of the info you need in one place...

http://www.b12deficiency.info/