3 year GCSE courses

[mintyneb]

We've just been told today that DD (yr8) will have to chose her GCSEs next summer to start them in yr9.

Up until now the school has done GCSEs over 2 years so traditionally DD would have had over a year before having to make a choice. This has therefore come as something of a surprise.

Apparently research shows that 3 year courses are better all round but as there won't be an info evening until Feb it will be a while before I can officially find out more from school.

Any thoughts from folks whose DC have gone through this and come out the other side?!

And if 3-year GCSEs were the cause, rather than a significant contributory factor to reduced curriculum breadth, then all schools with 3-year GCSEs would have a very narrow curriculum offer, which is not the case. There is more than that at play, here.

Comefromaway - maybe that's one of the advantages of a large school, then: that it can offer greater breadth of choices.

A lot of schools around here used to offer them until the Govian move away from so called lesser qualifications and the fact that a btec can only count once in Progress 8. Some of the more academic 6th forms won't accept them for A level entry too. Some schools offer them only to lower ability children. And I expect things to get worse after last year's debacle with results and changing the grade boundaries. My son's btec dance teacher was heartbroken on results day and has now swopped exam boards.

It's honestly not me that's desperate to prove anything. It is Ofsted (and others ) who have seen this based on inspections of a very wide range of schools.

I am glad your DCs' school does not seem to have narrowed the curriculum or reduced the focus of KS3 to a mini GCSE, but this is pretty rare.

The opposite extreme is the one year GCSE which is equally ridiculous.

In other words, Comefromaway, Gove's attitude narrowed the curriculum offered in a lot of schools.

Piggywaspushed - I'm glad, too. I know I'm very lucky with my children's school. We're lucky in the current climate to have access to a school with so many subjects on offer at KS4 and KS5, and so many fantastic teachers.