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Original poster

Should she drop French GCSE?

38 replies

Thisismynewname123 · 04/12/2020 10:04

School do 3 year GCSEs. DD is in Y9. French in years 7/8 was very basic, so they are doing foundation French in Y9, moving into GCSE curriculum next year. It's all vocab and verb tests at the moment. She's only just started, but she is struggling. School discourage dropping subjects after the first term. She is a generally high achiever and would hope for at least 7/8s across all subjects with a smattering of 9s if things go well. Is it worth suggesting she drop French now while she should still be able to pick another subject? Or leave her struggling and hope once gets the hang of it that she will improve? I can get her a tutor nearer the time but don't really want to commit now to 3 years of a tutor. She wanted a language to get her IB so that all university channels are open to her. She expects to go the maths/science (medicine if she does well) route long term and that is where her strengths are. I hate to see how stressed she is before every test and not performing at the top where she is in other subjects.

OP posts:
PresentingPercy · 07/12/2020 09:49

Look at their entry requirements than. It’s quite clear.

olivo · 07/12/2020 18:52

How do med schools know how long the GCSE course is? Surely, y9 is spent solidifying basics before starting the actual GCSE work in y10?

OnTheBenchOfDoom · 08/12/2020 16:03

Both my sons started with Duolingo in year 7, by year 9 they combined it with Memrise. The MFL teacher had a specific GCSE "pack" from year 10 on Memrise which helped immensely.

I would definitely get her on the Duolingo and go right back to basics.

Re med schools wanting GCSEs over 2 years, sorry but how the hell do you control that when applying for a school? A lot of children don't know what they want to do at 16 never mind 10 when choosing a secondary school for them. I also don't think med schools have the time nor inclination to be checking to see if a school did GCSEs over 2 or 3 years.

MrsMiaWallis · 08/12/2020 16:04

I couldn't find anything on the Cambridge website aboit gcses having to be done over 2 years

lanthanum · 08/12/2020 17:53

I'm guessing that what medical schools might not be keen on is applications from pupils who have taken their GCSEs across two years, rather than looking at when they started the GCSE course. Most schools that do a three year GCSE course still have them take most exams at the end of year 11, and as others have said, what they study in year 9 for some subjects may be little different to a school with a two year GCSE model.

Some kids follow up mediocre GCSEs with a year doing more in a private sixth form, and I would imagine that the med schools are not as impressed by their results as someone who has got everything in one sitting.

Original poster
Thisismynewname123 · 09/12/2020 12:50

I've just seen all of these responses. I hadn't received a notification so missed it all!

Re - the 3 years GCSEs. They take all GCSEs at the end of year 11. They select them in year 8, to begin in year 9. Some subjects are a rolling curriculum so they don't necessarily start all GCSE content until year 10. I think they do it to ease the pressure on timetabling years 7-8, and focus on whether they are double or triple science students. They only find out at the end of y9 (based on end of year tests) if they have been selected to do Further maths (if they choose to). So I don't know how any university would know how many years they have taken them in, as subjects are taught differently.

She is conscientious and makes these decisions herself. I mentioned Duolingo to her and she was already aware of it/has used it because it's been discussed at school, so she is ahead of me there. She knows what she needs to do. It just doesn't come naturally to her. She doesn't want to drop it. She knew it would be a challenge when she took it on. I asked her at the weekend and she said she would be satisfied if she could get a 6 in French, and she thinks it's probably too late to drop it now anyway, so she isn't considering that as an option.

OP posts:
clary · 09/12/2020 15:50

A 6 in MFL esp if not madly keen is a great grade and don't let any of the MN "my child gets a suite of 8s and 9s" tell you different! Ds2 v happy with 6 in Spanish ( he's a scientist too)

ittakes2 · 09/12/2020 21:36

My daughter passed her 11 plus but during an educational psychologist assessment we were told her brain was just not wired well for languages and to avoid French and take Spanish as it’s easier. Any chance she can switch to Spanish? My son’s grammar only starts teaching Spanish in year 8. They started French in year 7 as they consider it harder.

mummymadnessmandy · 10/12/2020 17:32

drop it. She should do what makes her happy and focus on subjects that do so.

ClaudiaWankleman · 11/12/2020 10:50

My daughter passed her 11 plus but during an educational psychologist assessment we were told her brain was just not wired well for languages

Unless your daughter struggles to communicate in her native language then this is empirically false.

randomsabreuse · 11/12/2020 11:12

German was the language recommended for people who don't "like" languages as GCSE German is very structured and logical use of grammar rules with fewer exceptions than French. Limited experience of Spanish but it is still less "neat" than GCSE level German.

I am well aware German gets tougher at A-Level and beyond. Kind of irrelevant though..

L2001 · 27/12/2020 00:28

[quote Thisismynewname123]@AuntyPasta yes, her hearing has been checked and is being looked into. She can hear, but it's weak, and it's the listening that she's struggling most. Otherwise I wouldn't even mention her hearing because it doesn't affect her ability in any other subject.

I will find duolingo. Thanks for the suggestion.

@ClaudiaWankleman you're right, I wouldn't. It's because French teaching was so poor in years 7&8 that it feels like they're starting from not a great base. But I get your point[/quote]
I would encourage her to continue! I'm not quite sure what the ebacc is exactly, but i took gcse languages (french & spanish), and im hard of hearing & wear hearing aids. Granted, i much prefer the humanities /languages subjects & was terrible at science related subjects, so the opposite of yours, but my school were very helpful when it came to my language learning help, and with my hearing loss.
I had a speaker for the listening section of my exams. So instead of it being played from a cd, which i really struggled to hear, i had a person sitting in front of me reading from the 'script' instead. This meant i could lipread, but was the exact same exam text as all the other pupils!) perhaps something like this could help if she is struggling?
(Apologies if im repeating something from another poster, i've not read all responses yet)

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