Dropping a GCSE in Year 11... are we likely to persuade school?

[FedoraHat]

We want to drop one of DC's GCSE options. It was a subject that required prior skill, we thought DC was up to the standard but they're clearly not - an assessment by a private teacher has said there's no way they can get to a pass standard by next summer.

I'd prefer that DC drop the subject altogether, and use the time for revision another subject that they actually stand a chance of passing. DC also feels the same rather than labouring at a subject that, if they're lucky, they might get a 3.

I think school will object, that the teacher will say that they have confidence that DC will pass. But a year ago we brought this up and the teacher said they would provide extra support.. and have done nothing. Elder DC also had this teacher for the same subject, was predicted a reasonable GCSE pass, and came out with a bad fail - as did most of their class.

What arguments am I likely to come up against from school against doing this, so that I can prepare?

Thanks

The problem is what your child will do in the hours she should be in those lessons. Who is going to supervise her? Who is going to give her the extra work and mark it?

Is there a learning support centre where your DC could do supervised study during the lessons that would be freed up. are there any other borderline subjects that for example you could say if they drop music/art (would be a guess at a prior skill subject) that they could spend their time doing. eg. if weaker at maths doing some extra past papers etc. If you have a basis of a plan as to how it would help other subjects it may be more persuasive.

I would have thought the best thing would be to talk to school, ideally in a way that doesn't present the problem as 'their fault' IYKWIM.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's a standard answer to 'what do they do' in such circumstances.

DD dropped RS mid year 10 for various reasons - she just went and worked quietly in one of the ALN rooms used for general learning support. Thinking about it I believe she could also have worked in an area of the school library not used for classes but it was agreed that the quieter environment would be better in her instance.

By year 11 there seemed to be actually quite a lot of fluidity in who was doing what - dd also dropped literature in Welsh as did many other students, and they used that time eg to complete coursework in art, DT etc if they were doing a practical subject, worked at listening etc in the French teacher's 'cupboard' and so forth. As far as I can see schools generally want to support their students as much as they can so long as you're still doing all your core subjects and generally working hard & being co-operative, so there does seem to be flexibility (and an expectation that 16 year old GCSE students will be wanting to work and get on with things of their own accord).