My child is doing Drama and Theatre A Level. Last summer we were told that 15 children had signed up to do the course. For various reasons those numbers have dwindled and around christmas time it ended up that there were three children doing that A level. Two of the other children in the class have chronic long term health issues and my son was the only child in the class for three weeks which, as you can imagine, has presented difficulties. One of the children has now returned although there are no guarantees that they won't need more extended periods off and it has been confirmed that the other child isn't able to return. This leaves a maximum of two in the class if all goes well and the examination board decrees that you need a minimum of three for examination devised pieces. I fully appreciate that this situation isn't schools fault and when I emailed them last week (having given them some time to contact me about it and they hadn't) they responded immediately and did say that it was being raised with the examination board and at the highest level within the college. I had a another email back this week saying that they were liasing with the exam board, considering timetabling options for next year (whatever that means) and looking at drama provision at other other schools within their educational trust. Yesterday my child came home to say that they have been informed that they will be working as a group of two except in devised pieces where they have permission for a teacher to take the part of the third pupil. They are really not happy about this because the teacher will obviously take no part in the creative devising process , this leaves just the two of them to knock ideas about and develop them. They will only be able to have a piece that is ten minutes long (5 minutes per assessed actor) they feel that this isn't long enough to develop plot and character. A short piece won't give them very much to write about in their accompanying coursework. The teacher is only available for certain sessions - they won't be able to have full run throughs very often. They have been told that to compensate for that they will just have to write the teacher a bit part - they are not very happy about that either. This is the good scenario. They/I am concerned that the other child may either have to drop out or have more absences and there seems to be no contingency plan for what happens then.
My child is looking at doing a (non-drama) course at university that will require 3 As or 2As and a B - they can't afford for this A Level to go wrong as in the wake of changes to A and A-S levels their school chose to go down the 'just do three A Levels' route. Virtually a term and a half in it feels too late to be swapping subjects (and they really don't want to; they adore drama and have it as an outside of school interest too) but I have real concerns about their ability to be able to get a good grade in this subject which now feels very compromised. They can't just join up with the year thirteens as they have done all their devised piece work. I am wondering if it might be a possibility for them to do drama at another local school (half an hour away and outside of the education trust but their siblings go there so we know them and they did actually have an offer of a place there but turned it down - preferring the teaching of a different subject, not drama, at their original school) but I don't know if that would work. Can you attend/be registered at two separate schools if they are not in official partnership? I am beginning to feel that the best option might be to start year 12 again at the school half an hour away but that feels very radical. They have a summer birthday so I don't think it would be the end of the world. Any thoughts appreciated - they are quite down about this so I apologise if it seems I am making a mountain out of molehill. I will obviously go back to the college and feed back my thoughts but I do already get the sense that this is the only option that feel they have.