Science gcses- syllabuses won't be covered til after Easter. Normal??

[kitnkaboodle]

Just been to post-mocks parents evening. Science results disappointing. I asked the three diff science teachers if all the content had been covered, and turns out they don't expect to finish until after Easter. Is this normal? Or bad?? They've organised lunchtime and after-school revision sessions for after Feb half term, which is good, but I notice none of the other subjects are doing that ...

No answer other than my own experience. All subjects syllabuses finished by Easter (including all 3 sciences) except Geography. A bit of a worry but its only one subject so will prioritise learning it at home. Not sure the school could have gone much faster.

It depends on how they are teaching it to be honest. If the school is attempting to teach Triple Science in the same time given for Combined (equivalent to Double) then it's not unusual. There is considerably more content in the new syllabus which makes up for not having to carry out controlled assessments.

That's normal. The new content is MASSIVE and many schools have not been able to allocate additional / sufficient teaching time.

I've only once finished the syllabus before Easter and that was several years ago.

I won’t be finished before Easter, way too much content to cover in four lessons a fortnight for triple. Kids know this.

I mean the kids I teach know this and have the schedule so they can see what is happening.

Interesting comments, thanks. So is this a result of the new syllabuses, or was it always like that even with the old-style gcses??

Depends on the teachers. Our son has already finished Chemistry and Biology and are just starting revision, but the Physics teacher was telling them they may not even finish by Easter. Yet a different class doing Physics had already finished with a different teacher.

DC1 did triple last year. They finished Chemistry just after Christmas, Physics at 1/2 term and Biology at Easter.

They didn't finish maths until the end of April!!

School has now shifted to choosing options in yr8 to start in yr9.

"and turns out they don't expect to finish until after Easter. Is this normal? "

It was normal when DD did triple science. She took her GCSEs 2 years ago, and the syllabus for the sciences had far more content than her other subjects. The science mocks were also far later than her other subjects - they did them in March.