Starting school in year 11

[victor2012]

Following a similar thread here, from someone who was going abroad for a year during her son's year 10. in my case, this has already happened. My 15 year old step son is returning after two years abroad. The local school has advised me to put him back one year into year 10, as he has no coursework for assessment from the first year of the various two year GCSE syllabuses which he needs to undertake. However, his education abroad has been extremely good. He has now taken IGCSEs in Maths and English (a year early). He can fluently speak a foreign language (for a third GCSE and A level). So, for some subjects, he would be going back TWO years.
My question is: Should I be insisting that he starts year 11 and catches up on Humanities during Maths and English lessons (which subject to his grades in August), he will not need to do. He is a bright boy!

I have a son who has just finished year 10. I think the main problem you face is that he won’t have covered a lot of the examined course work.

For example in History they have studied Germany 1890-1945, the Cold War and a large part of the Migration and Empire topic which means that in year 11 they will only finish Migration and do Elizabethan England.

Similarly in English Lit they have already studied An Inspector Calls, Jekyll and Hyde and the Poetry Anthology leaving only Macbeth for year 11.

This is the problem your step son will face - he will just be missing such huge chunks of material. All GCSEs are examined in final exams in year 11 - there are no Controlled Assessments anymore.

Work out what he really needs in terms of exam passes and focus in them. Does he need any humanities at all?

The other option is you look for a college of further education. The government introduced a scheme where child can leave school at fourteen to attend college to continue their education. This may suit your dss better as he may have more flexibility about the subjects he sits without having to repeat things.

He might need to sit GCSE English and maths anyway, iGCSEs don't count in league tables or progress 8.

Has he already done gcse work in his other subjects?

No matter how bright he is and no matter how good his education he NEEDs the content for the GCSEs.

Thank you for your responses. Part of the problem is that, my step son believes that he will be rejoining the classmates he left two years ago. He's more excited about that, than anything else. I knew that parachuting him into the middle of the various syllabuses was going to be a big ask, but the few comments here, have been pretty unanimous against this. I think I need to talk this over with the headmaster, in more depth.

The history syllabus for example varies a lot. My dd has just completed y10 and she's completed History of Medicine, the Norman Conquest and doing the Cold War when she goes back in September. If he was educated overseas, he may not have studied British history.

Even if he was granted permission not to do maths and English, there wouldn't be staff to
teach him humanities as they will be teaching other classes.

What are his A-level subject choices likely to be? Not all subjects have coursework and humanities aren't mandatory at GCSE. (I'm assuming that his teaching overseas might not have been U.K. history)

Could you afford him to go to a tutorial college for a year? They can often teach GCSE in a year as classes are small.