DS wants to drop triple science for combined

[MumOfDiamonds]

Hi everyone! My DS is currently in year 11 and when in year 10 he was placed to do triple science. His school have only just started teaching the biology module and he's really struggling with it. He spoke to me last night, saying he wants to drop triple science and do combined as he feels he will get higher grades. He does a lot outside of school which contributes to what he wants to do for his career. He doesn't need science for this at all.

I was just wondering if anyone else's DC has changed from triple to combined this late in the year. Im worried doing triple will bring down his grades in other subjects.

Thank you!

I think he is old enough to make his own decisions even if sometimes it maybe a mistake.

His life and future and he needs to decide.

Hopefully it will work out ok

Wow that is late to start a whole new bit to the syllabus as surely he's already done mocks or is about to? My daughter is going all three as individual GCSEs, but my son did dual which still covers all three subjects so he still had separate biology, chemistry and physics classes. There isn't an option just to do, say, physics and chemistry at our school.
But regardless you need to have a talk with his head of year or GCSE coordinator.

Combined means he'd still have to do Biology....

If he drops to combined he'll still have a load of biology to do.

The main thing is, if he drops to combined have the combined sets been learning the same stuff (excl the triple bits) in the same order? Or is he going to risk missing out chunks of biology and redo bits of chemistry?

Triple is a lot of science though, especially if he's not loving it.

If he's y11 and is only just starting Biology then he might be better off dropping Biology and just taking Physics & Chemistry?

DD is in y10 doing combined and has done ~ 2/3 of the Biology, 1/2 of the Chemistry and 1/3 of the Physics. (Started Science syllabus in y9)

There is no issue with ‘only’ having a double award - I know plenty of people (myself included) who have science degrees with only double award. The issue is whether the material he’s learnt so far is useful for double, whether he has any bits missing. The only people who can help him with this are school. But it’s totally ok and quite mature to say ‘this isn’t working for me, I want to do something different’

My daughter also did Triple Science but had lessons in Biology\Chemistry\Physics throughout years 10 and 11. They didn't just do one module at a time. It was a lot of work but she couldn't have done her A Level choices if she'd done Combined Science. What are your son's future plans?

I don't understand. All 3 subjects are usually taught concurrent.

*concurrently

I don't understand what you mean when you say his school have only just started teaching biology? There's only 3 months left of teaching time; there is no way his school can teach a whole GCSE in this time ... If this is really the case then he won't be the only one struggling!!

Can’t get my head round them doing an entire subject in the last term before their exams! 🤪😳

is it the whole of the biology or a unit within Biology. Most schools are close to finishing everything required in order to start revision.

I wonder if the OP means 'the Biology module that is extra for triple'? That might make more sense of the situation.

Science has a lot of content so don't "finish" as early as other subjects.

I'd speak to his teachers, a change this late might not be for the best depending on what he has covered compared to the combined course.

he might be better off dropping Biology and just taking Physics & Chemistry?

Not possible in the state sector.

titchy Do you mean not allowed legally, or just 'most schools won't let you as then it screws up progress 8'?

All three sciences HAVE to be studied as part of the national curriculum. So LEA schools have no choice, while yes academies are exempt, but in reality it scuppers progress 8 and poor progress 8 risks their academy status.

The single science GCSE (a third bio/phy/chem) has also been abolished. Thanks to Gove.

I wonder if the OP means 'the Biology module that is extra for triple'?

Possibly this is board dependent but at least for OCR (which my DC are taking) there isn't actually an "extra module" for triple. There is just more content for every single topic. I can't see how it would make sense to teach this all at the end as you'd be jumping about between topics.
... but maybe it is different for other boards? or maybe that is what OP's DC's school are doing, which is why he's finding it so hard!

I assume that they haven't just started the biology syllabus and you mean one biology module is giving him problems.

Before he considers asking the school to swap, he needs to see if this topic is in the combined syllabus or he'll be "wasting" the extra work in chemistry and physics that he's done.

My understanding is combined is two thirds of each of the 3 sciences so you won't be cutting just biology if its a state school. It will cut workload though. I would maybe e-mail his teacher or get him to chat to teacher and see what they advise. By us you can do the A levels with combined but you have to catch up the missing third in each. Ours are all taught throughout years 9/10 and 11. I would prefer individual sciences but option isn't there.

Dd did this in Y11 as the school were only starting to teach the final module of one of the sciences after Feb half term, this was a complete balls up on their part, and around a third of the triple group dropped down to double. Those who continued (generally because they were very good at science and/or needed it for A level) were eventually taken off timetable for around a week and studied just that module.
DD didn’t need science for what she wanted to study, and it was going ti be too pressured for her with her other subjects, so dropping it was definitely the right choice for her. And she went on to get A*\A in the exams.
She’s applied to university this year and it’s not affected her offers. She still has 9 GCSEs.
Actually, that might be an issue. If your DS does drop it, how many GCSEs will he take? If it’s less than 9 then I would be more cautious.

Not sure that I understand what the school is doing OP. Firstly there are no such things as modules anymore the subjects are all completely linear. Is the school doing a term of Chemistry, a term of Physics and then a term of Biology. So how much Biology has he done? Has he done the Y10 biology topics and they just have to finish the Y11 ones or has he done no Biology at all!
My suggestion if he is struggling with Biology but not the other 2 Sciences would be to move to the Foundation Biology but still take Higher tier in Chemistry and Physics. This would reduce the amount of biology content he has to do but would still mean he has the same no of GCSEs.
The danger of moving to the Combined Science is that the 2 grades are averaged across all 6 papers. So if he is much weaker at biology, than the other 2 Sciences, it could really drag his result down.
You cannot mix tiers for the different Science subjects if you are taking Combined Science but you can with the Triple.

I understand he will have to do biology but they have already covered the modules needed for the combined GCSE. The modules he's doing now are for the extra papers. I just think 6 papers for science is way too much. He wants to perform on stage and as a fall back he would like to teach drama and English. He really enjoys chemistry and physics but he doesn't feel he's done enough in biology for the triple science papers.

He covered biology in yr 10 but since starting back in September he's not done any. He's only just finished chemistry and they are starting biology now for the triple science students. The combined students have finished all their modules (not sure what they call them at school, I'm at uni and we call them modules) and are now concentrating on revising. He's doing further maths too but he's confident he will be fine with that. The triple science is the only thing he is worrying about and when it's not needed for what he wants to do later in education, I don't see the point in him doing it.

OP assuming you are in England, it's six papers for both combined Science and triple Science. The only difference is that the combined science papers are shorter with 1 hour 10 mins to do all the questions whereas the Triple science papers are longer with 1 hour 45 mins per paper.
6 papers for 3 GCSEs - one in chemistry, one in Physics and one in biology isn't any different to most other GCSE subjects.