My son doesn't want to do core science

[ctatnell]

Hi I wondered if anyone could help or had any information. My son has just started year 10 GCSES and absolutely hates science. We are told he cannot drop it as it is a core subject but he is refusing to go to school when he has it which is 4 out of the 5 day week ! Has anyone been in this situation or is there anyway around this core subject. Maths and English are core subjects and you have to redo them at college if u fail at school. So if the government is saying science is so important how comes this isn't the case for the subject too. Surely going to school for all the other subjects is better than him not turning up at all. Any help much appreciated

Even with your update you don’t seem to know why . My own Ds has Adhd so do understand some of the challenges of school but for me it is about getting him to where he needs to be .
I work under the basis when he goes to college/ job he is going to stand next to everyone else and he has to be the best there to get the job / place.

Not much at the moment we have another meeting in a few weeks and an Sen staff member is meeting with him each week .

At the moment I am doing the most I can to encourage him to do the science...

Have you tried relating it to your own life, list the things you wouldn't do if you didn't have to? So for me that would be never doing any laundry ever again, but I have to do it. Mine will be for the rest of my life, your son will be doing science for 2 years.

It is a means to an end, a stepping stone he has to do to get into college and do a trade. Although with his attitude and things he doesn't want to do I am not sure how long he will last on any course where he refuses to do elements he doesn't want.

What grades does his chosen course need for him to get on it? What is he doing himself to show that this is important to him?

If he doesn't attend school on the days he has science how will he pass maths and English GCSE? Or does he just think that he will resit them at college.

As a mum of a ds (16) who missed practically the last 4 months of year 11 - add, anxiety etc I would say you and your school need to tread carefully here. You don't want him to totally disengage here - I'd see it as a positive that he is happy to attend the other core subjects. What level science is he doing? My ds went from Triple award higher to triple award foundation to double award foundation which is the lowest now available. A d he got 2 level 5s so I'd class that as a win. 🙂 That finished the syllabus earlier so more chance to revisit and revise. (Had he been there) The least pressure.

What I ended up with was aiming for the best possible outcome under the circs. I believed if he felt pushed too hard and the school was too rigid he'd end up with NOTHING. A huge possibly. As it was he got 4 (graded 4 or 5) and is re-doing his English this year.

We did move schools to a more supportive one at beginning of year 10 as prev school incredibly inflexible. We did even discuss him 'unofficially dropping' subjects as in going in, participating but not doing other work - hopefully with the school's backing as I would have made them aware so he wouldn't get shit for not progressing. At the new school however they were able and happy to reduce his timetable as much as possible to get the best possible outcome which I believed we did.

What I reminded him and myself was that this is HIS education. The school provides a service to enable him to achieve but at the end of the day it can be our decision how much of it he chose to take advantage of.