DS wants to repeat Year 13

[user20]

Hi,

My 18 y/o DS who is in Year 13 and is due to finish school forever at the end of this year is wanting to go back next year to repeat the year. He is currently out on study leave.

Basically, he is only doing one a level as his attendance was below 80%, not just this year but last year in year 12 too.

He has had no valid reason for this behaviour, he has just been lazy and made excuses and turned up to school whenever and when it suited him.

He is an intelligent guy, he got 4As and 1B and 2Cs in his GCSEs, It has annoyed me and my DH a lot over the last two years that he has wasted his potential like this, he could have done so much better.

I just want him to have a better life and employment opportunities.

He just seemed so distracted over sixth year, he just seems to be always on his phone and listening to music and on social media. he was missing deadlines, not revising for exams, well last year he did but left it to very close to the exams and came out with 2Ds and a C in his AS exams which is impressive for somebody who didn't bother going to school or revising.

The school were meant to Kick him out so many times as they tried working with him but he didn't co operate, the workload got too much and he had to drop down to one a level a few months ago as it was too much work to do in such a short period of time.

He has a btec ict exam in a few days and hes done nothing for it - he can't even be bothered to work for one exam.

He has said often that he regrets his behaviour as he knows he was capable of doing more and maybe going to uni in September, I wouldn't be bothered if he chose not to go to uni but I think he needs his a levels.

Anyway, after a long wasted two years, reality has kicked in as he now wants to have a good career and has found out that if he were to start a two year a level course at an FE College, his education wouldn't be funded from September 2020 onwards.

He now wants the option to go back to school next year and repeat Year 13 - is it likely after all this carry on that they'll have him back?

@EvilTwins I am interested in all my kids and I want them all to do well at school and have a well paid career!! If I didn't care or wasn't interested then I wouldn't have even made this thread - I wouldn't have cared about DS messing up his A levels.

I am not a teacher and I don't work for the exam boards - I have no idea what changes they're making to the grading systems!! All I know is he has a C in maths and English, I don't work for educational bodies so I don't know the ins and outs of the new grading systems!!

He won't have Cs for Maths and English - he'll have a number grade - presumably 7 for English and a 4 for Maths? Have you actually seen his GCSE certificates?

And only one science - that's not possible is it at state school?

@Bunnylove83 he's booked in for a meeting with his vice principal in 2 weeks and he's going to speak to her.

I have told him to expect the worse but do go in and apologise profoundly (he should say this in person but write a letter too) and just explain it from his heart.

I do genuinely think the VP will say no. He shouldn't get his hopes up but there's nothin g wrong with asking. He'll cry his eyes out but again I have no sympathy.

Saying that, if he somehow is allowed back for an extra year, the school will have to lay down some very STRICT rules he must abide by and I will fully enforce this at home

@titchy I've never seen his gcse certificates - if somebody came up and told me that their child got a 7 in English and a 4 in maths I wouldn't have a notion what they were talking about so I still use the letter grading system as I'm so used to it.

If an A is equal to a 7 and a C is equal to a 4, then that's what he's got in maths and English. And as for the biology, I've no idea. He only did one science. Don't ask me why because I was never consulted about it

IGCSE people only have letter grades.

@pikapikachu he didn't do Igcses so he will have numbers for maths and English but we refer to them as letters because I know it better than using numbers

I've never seen his gcse certificates

Oh dear..... OP I do not believe, assuming England state school, it is possible for him to have a Biology GCSE. I think you perhaps need to see those certificates....

Well it's good that the VP is willing to meet. I recommend (and sorry if I've missed this as I did read the thread but may have glossed over any references to this) he tries to decide on a plan that he wants to work towards in advance of this meeting.

Sitting in front of a student who hasn't worked hard/attended telling you they will now work harder and are sorry almost never leads to a changed outcome. It almost always reads as I don't know what to do with my life so can I stay here a bit longer please!

But if he can go in and say I need x and y qualification to get onto course z. I want to do course z because ... and I've applied for this work experience/voluntary position across the summer holidays to support my future education tends to make it harder to say no because it is quite hard for the VP to actually say no to a young person's genuine wish to achieve something.

Even if this plan is fluid it would suggest to the VP that he has started to take his future more seriously.

Having said all this, I don't want to give a message of false hope. In a time of terrible budget cuts and increasing teacher shortages then the VP will go into this meeting knowing that they'll be crucified if by the school business manager for taking someone who they will get no funding for, and will be a negative drain on the budget every single time they photocopy a resource for him or support him in any way that every other student will get £4K+ to cover.

@titchy DS doesn't show me things like that - I'm sure at the time I asked to see his certificates but he can be funny that way and wouldn't show you them. Anyway my OP was not about what GCSE's he did and didn't do so why exactly does it matter what subjects he did?

Rather than looking back now is the time to start looking forward. He has some decisions to make. Messed up A-levels happen and there are still options, not always the easiest but they are there.

What does he want out of life and how does he see himself getting there?

You might have to think left field - for example engineering apprentice with the Royal Navy (only mentioned as he likes karting so a possible link)
The key is he will need to think where he wants to end up and then you can plan from there.

It doesn't matter at all - but I have a sneaky suspicion he didn't get the grades he told you he got. Have you seen the AS certificates even? How do you know he got Cs and a D last year?

Knowing for certain what grades he has (not what he's told you he has) will mean people can give you much better advice as to a more suitable route for him.

He needs to be looking for an apprenticeship or a job right now, I don't think more education is right for him at the moment.

Sorry, just that I am on the Navy website at the moment, they take people without GCSEs or A-levels and give them the opportunity to sit them and then progress further. This is just to illustrate that there are other options. www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers/roles-and-specialisations/services/fleet-air-arm/air-engineering-technician

How can you not know what GCSEs he has? What did his teachers tell you? Why did he drop one subject in year 10?

@Bunnylove83 that's so true. I think he's all confused, he doesn't know what he wants. He's applied for a course at an FE college next year but he said he wants the school door left open for a possible return should he Decide to do so at the end of the summer holidays!

If he goes to the VP and asks - who else is involved in this process? Do they have to take it to the Department For education or the board of governors?

I think DS is remorseful. He has even said he will tell the VP that he will use his savings money to pay all his exam entries next year if they agree for him to go back.

DS' attendance will need to be monitored at all times next year - it should be easy enough to with their SIMS system. If he even has one unauthorised day off I want them to tell him to leave immediately

Oh, one final thing that may be worth trying to negotiate with the school is if he withdraws from his ICT BTEC before the exam next week. From your post this suggests that he would finish year 13 with no Level three qualifications which mean that he could do year 13 next year and they'd get up to 85% of their original funding.

Please don't take this as a recommendation though as a) we don't have BTECs and I'm not completely sure they can be withdrawn from in the same way as A Levels which are increasing 100% examined so nothing has been 'banked' before June of year 13, and b) they still may not want to offer him a re-take year as it most likely sets a poor precendence for year 12 students who need to understand the importance of working in year 13 the first time round, and may appear unsupportive to teachers who have tried to help him this year, so the school may decide he should leave regardless of whether he's completed his remaining qualification.

@titchy I can't see him lying about his gcse subjects when he knows I could just ask his school for his grades. And I've seen all his reports and I've been to all his parent teacher meetings during year 10 and 12 so he hasn't lied about his subjects.

I don't know about the rules regarding gcse sciences, it mustn't be legally binding if he was allowed to only do biology

If he goes to the VP and asks - who else is involved in this process? Do they have to take it to the Department For education or the board of governors?

OP you seem unwilling to take it from two people who have an understanding of 6th form funding that this is not an option for your DS. It won't matter how remorseful he claims to be. The school will not be able to get funding for him for another year (and neither will an FE college) no matter who they ask. It's not personal, it's how the system works. Students are funded if they start a Level 3 course in the year they turn 19 but only if they don't already have Level 3 qualifications Getting a U in an A Level counts as a completed qualification. I'm not sure how much clearer it can be.

Even if your DS does not want to show you his GCSE results, the school will be able to do so. In a UK state school, he will not just have one science - he'll either have two grades for combined science or three for triple science. Did he not take English Lit either? There's no grade for that. And Maths & English Language will be numbers - whether or not you understand them. I strongly suggest you contact the school on Monday to get some facts straight, then you will be in a better position to help him.

@Bunnylove83 he's already done his btec ict exam - he did it on Thursday.

However I wrote to the school and even got a doctors letter to say that DS would be withdrawing from one of his subjects and they said they didn't get it but I sent it in the post so it's not really my fault it didn't arrive.
His exam entries weren't cancelled

Unfortunately he cannot offer to pay as a private candidate (sweet idea though that as) while he's enrolled at the school. This would be another funding consideration for the VP as they will have to pay hundreds for his exams without renumeration from the DFE. There is no way around this that I'm aware of if he is counted as an on-roll student. The alternative would be being a private candidate but then he cannot attend lessons or have any access to online resources from the school.

The DFE or governors will not need to be involved in a decision, although possibly the Headteacher would.

@EvilTwins I'm only trying to get my facts and bearings right about this - I'm trying to help DS solve this awful mess.

What about people who got their AS' in year 12 last year and then were allowed to repeat Year 12 this year? AS' are level 3 qualifications too are they not? Even if they are only half of an A level? So why was funding not stopped for them If they already had level 3 qualifications?

ASs aren't a full level 3 qualification that's why.

Ha ha ha, he wants to go to uni and study law or criminology??!

Well, I want to fly to the moon...

His behaviour has not shown what he wants. He’s had two fucking years to get off his arse and work!

I would not support repeating a year. Time for tough love. Work. See how he gets on. Might drum into him the value of hard work and exam results.

titchy is correct. ASs don't count as a full Level 3 qualfication. I have two students in my Year 13 cohort who did Year 12, took AS exams but then dropped out and came to me to do a BTEC Extended Diploma instead.

Both you and he need to accept that he's burned his bridges where it comes to school. There is clearly a lack of honesty and/or deliberate cover up on his part because what you perceive to be his GCSE results cannot be correct. It's too late now for remorse and wishing that he worked harder. He didn't.

My son who got similar GCSE's just refused to work for his AS levels and even though he passed all of his subjects at AS in Year 12 albeit with low grades one grade D and two grade E's. He point blank refused to do Year 13. He left school and we were furious but insisted he get a job. He worked in a warehouse for 10 months and he found out the hard way it was really hard work. He then asked us if he could have another go at doing A Levels. We told him if he could convince his school Sixth Form to let him try again we would agree. He managed to persuade the Head of Sixth Form but he was only allowed one year to complete them. He moved on to A2 for two subjects had a D and E grade in, but also re-sat AS as well and started a new subject which he had to attend both AS and A2 lessons. He did work much harder and somehow managed to come out with three C grades, he was only 3 marks off a B in Maths. He said he was happy with his grades but did not want to go to Uni. He then decided to study to do a Class Two lorry driving course and passed that and has not looked back. He just needed an extra year to grow up. He now earns almost as much as our daughter who got her degree and then Masters in Business. I would tell your son he has to get a job for a year and then see if that motivates him to change, otherwise he will just waste another year.

AS is not the end qualification for sixth form students so is not taken into account in any funding conversations. This provides an opportunity for retaking at the end of year 12 this isn't applicable in year 13 once A Level exams have been sat.