Can 16 year olds to a year of online GCSE retakes at home and then do Alevels over 3 years if needs be in school?

[M0iraR0se]

Ds has had a shitty time and struggling with mh issues. Currently wants to do retakes himself at home online. 4 that he wants to better grades in, will get Eng and maths but might want to get a better grade in English as one of the 4 so an access course wouldn’t really be suitable.

Thinking a year getting well might be a good thing.
Is that possible? Have been told 16 year olds need to be in full time education.

Also have heard they can retake a year of Alevels if needs be. Would he still be able to take Alevels over 3 years if he had to if he’d started them a year later?

He’s bright so not an ability issue just MH.

He should know in about a month though which ones he will want to resit. Could he maybe plan say three or four which he will plan to resit in November and then hone that list once he knows his grades. Say English, Chemistry and Physics would probably make the most sense. Use revision tools such as Seneca to revise. He should have already covered most of the course. He would then have five GCSEs from this year. What help is he getting for his mental health and what do they recommend he does?

Im not sure how they are deciding grades but would think he should be able to tell if he will fail.
Apparently teachers lists the students in order of ability.
If he is certain the teacher will underestimate him because of previous performance them he needs to revise for the resits.

If he wants 3y of alevels i would get on and start them this year.

Does your son even want to go to university?

We’re currently battling with CAMHs who have been beyond shite. Got another assessment Wed and they promised something but the sceptic in me isn’t expecting much or a magic wand for Sep. That said 2 months is a long time.

Would love to chat Theletter, so little info anywhere or support. Nice to hear of somebody else in the same boat.

Determined not to let this all seem like the end of the world and trying to remember that life throws curve balls to everybody.

f he is certain the teacher will underestimate him because of previous performance them he needs to revise for the resits.

All grades are based on evidenced internal assessments and exams.
The teachers can’t really underestimate. If anything, they will overestimate.

So for example, a student gets 7,8,8,6,7,8,8,7,8 in internal assessments over the course of 1.5 years. The teacher will have more than likely predicted an 8.

If a student has achieved 5,6,4,5,6,6,6,4,6 they will more than likely be predicted a 6.
What teachers can’t do is say ‘oh but they been ill so we’ll award a 7/8.‘
Predicted grades are based on evidence.

@therealkittyfane

I really think that you should wait and see re. GCSE results this year. They are based in best performance in all internal exams and assessments and ‘best possible scenario’ predicted grades.

Your DS only needs a 5/6 to get onto A level courses at college.
GCSE retakes may not be needed.

He can do the A levels over two years, sit them and retake if he likes - in the 3rd year.

You can only use the 3rd year of ks5 if you haven't taken any exams. As soon as you do you are considered finished and the free education comes to an end, even if you fail them all.

If you think you might need the third year you need to withdraw before the exams and repeat y12.

Yes absolutely wants to go to uni long term. Trying to get him to take things one step at a time though.He is driving the resits not me. He should pass them all but grades could be anything. He has had a very spiky 2 years. Impossible to predict. We don’t have the criteria, all his grades or know what ranking he’ll get after grades submitted.

@M0iraR0se

Loads of people suffer from mental illness. His was not his fault. Surely unis can’t penalise for it. Who glides through life without bumps?

His Alevels would be maths and Computer Science both of which he finds easy and GCSE grades should be high( but who knows) as however ill he could still pull off high grades. Still not sure about the third.

It's not about penalusing him. You said he wanted to go to universities that are hard to get into. They don't just look at past grades, but also an applicant's capacity for intensive study. They need to know he'll be able to cope with intensive study alongside everyone else, without his mental health suffering further.

At my sixth form college the usual route in this case would be a level 2 course for a year - a level 2 vocational course in Media, Health and Social, Sport etc - alongside maths and English resits, then on to a level 3 course as usual. The level 3 in that case would usually (but not always) be a vocational course. They can redo Science GCSE alongside that. It would not be usual to repeat a year of level 3 (going that route is designed to remove the need to do it, because of the more gentle pace of the level 2 course and the enhanced pastoral care that comes with it).

Students who have followed this route have gone on to university when they came from school with almost nothing.

And 2 years is a long time. He’ll only be applying for unis and several years of debt if he is well enough. Really don’t think he should be judged on illness 2/3 years previous caused originally by life events.

You can only use the 3rd year of ks5 if you haven't taken any exams. As soon as you do you are considered finished and the free education comes to an end, even if you fail them all.

DC here did A levels (2 years) followed by a diploma (1 year).
Followed by degree.
Funding stopped after the 1 year diploma at 19.

Depending on when he became ill Covid results might be better for him. Hard as it is you will have to wait until August to form up plans.

Camhs is tricky, do you have a crisis team? We are in hampshire and they have one called i2i. But we only got to see them after 2 nights in hospital.

Would having a year at home be a positive? If your child has cancer and needed a year out of school to recover no one would think twice, mental health illness need to be taken more seriously. Saying that we want our daughter back in school as staying home will shrink her world. However if in September she is not well enough we have a backup plan.

Do look at the online schools, they might give him structure and focus but also the time and space he needs.

Also, mental health isn't a "protected characteristic". Telling a future employer/university that gaps in your academic record are due to mental health issues may naturally invoke sympathy, but they're under no legal obligation to be blind to it when deciding whether to offer the role/place.

I actually think overcoming mental illness shows a huge amount of strength. It shouldn’t define you for ever.

Had to ring Crisis hence this follow up assessment Theletter.

I could have written that last post Theletter, we have exactly the same stance.

Although sitting the bloody things would have been better. He was doing really well with revision. Has spiralled hugely since. Partly due to not getting correct support when he should have done.

Really don’t think he should be judged on illness 2/3 years previous caused originally by life events.

If your son has been ill for 2/3 years, his school will have applied to the exam board for ‘special consideration’.

You can take the year to redo extra GCSEs as a home student - For the best unis you still want to do the A-Levels in two years. You can resist during year three but it does count against you. When he applies make sure you get an expert to write the personal statement not just a random form tutor - can make a huge difference.

If his GCSEs are ok, and I am sure Covid will bring good news for most students he could home school for a year - actually focusing on getting well whilst doing an intro to the A levels then aim to go back the year after to sit them as a two year course.

@roguenhoff

Also, mental health isn't a "protected characteristic". Telling a future employer/university that gaps in your academic record are due to mental health issues may naturally invoke sympathy, but they're under no legal obligation to be blind to it when deciding whether to offer the role/place.

Depends if the mental health illness kicks into the disability act, same as for a physical illness.

Mental health illnesses should be treated in the same way physical illness are. If a person has gaps in their academic record for an acute life threatening physical illness it is considered more favourably than a mental health illness.

Also, this year's chaos around the exams is actually a bonus as future employers will see 2020 and know that everything was up in the air.

My ds dropped out of Alevels two months in. We thought at first he would go back after Christmas (he is very bright and the college supported this decision) but the time came and he still wasn’t able to face it.
We took him out of college, he was working and the pressure was off, and a couple of months ago he announced that he wanted to sign up for two Alevels so he is doing it through an online study college. He’s doing maths and further maths and he is much happier.

He was under camhs too and on anxiety medication and just couldn’t do another two years of study in a school like environment.

I think it’s important to remember that there is time, there is no rush and they will get there in the end with the right support.

He was doing really well with revision.

Was this prior to the lockdown and if so, was it evidenced in any way (topic tests, etc)? If so, then the school can legitimately have used it in its assessment of his grades.

One thing to think.about if just studying for GCSEs (or any public exams) unsupported except for the use of an institution as an exam centre, is that in the event that things get so bad again that a similar assessment system has to be used again next year, their will be no-one actually able to make those assessments.

No no evidence it was in the run up to lock down and after. Was in his own time and his own plan.He’d kind of taken control, had a plan and liked being at home initially. Seemed to work and give him space. Pretty sure school wouldn't have had much evidence from it.

It’s such a bloody nightmare if you’re not a straight forward student. We just can’t predict anything and then only have a couple of weeks at best after results to sort out a plan. Hence me trying to get ahead so we don’t rush into anything out of panic.

I don’t have any specific advice but wanted to share my experience in case of any help, My DS decided to drop two of his 3 A levels in Feb of year 13 Super bright lad, forecast all As / A*s but had not been in a good place mentally for several years. He left school with 1 A level, is now taking a couple of years to study 2 A levels independently ( Online course for one and tutoring for the other) - not cheap but he is contributing to cost by part time work. Main point I wanted to make is that mental health if by far the most important thing, if I had to do all this again I would worry less. Finally after a year he seems to be getting his life together. A situation I feared and stressed about for years did in fact happen - he massively underperformed at school, didn't get to the Uni course he had planned when he planned etc but it is really really ok. He is sorting himself out in his own time and I honestly now think he will be fine. Good luck OP

A levels are not the only route to university. Level 3 btecs can get you to uni too. FE colleges are better geared up for resitting GCSEs alongside other qualifications. If he gets 4s in English and maths though he won’t be funded for resits as he will have passed them.

Can I just say - I know you say you don’t have long after results to come up with a plan - but at my college if you rocked up on enrolment day with no idea AT ALL what he wanted to do, in fact if you phoned up without even having applied, you’d come in, have a face to face chat with a member of teaching staff who could advise on a route. If that didn’t find anything then a senior member of staff would take the enrolment on personally and do everything they could to find a three-year route to university for him. It’s really not uncommon at all and wouldn’t be held against him in the slightest. In fact I kind of enjoy a “challenging” enrolment, especially when you see the student then go on to do well. Colleges want students to enrol with them and aren’t as nit picky as schools.
Plus a much more agreeable learning environment.

So yeah, if you turned up on the day and said “this is a mess and we don’t know what the hell to do” it wouldn’t be an issue at all!