Science tier question

[PeasandCucumbers]

Looking for experiences and opinions on tier choice for combined science GCSE please.

DS has done first part of his mocks, sitting one exam in each science. He sat the foundation tier and so far has two of the three back as a grade 5. DS is really keen to go for the higher paper but school have said to him that he will likely do foundation. Seems odd to me that if he currently is working at a grade 5 why he isn’t doing higher with the possibility of pushing for a 5, 6 or even 6, 6.

I get that it can be a tricky decision for grade 5 pupils but just want him not to think I am already grade 5 so don’t need to do any more work!!!

Is it easier to get a 5 on foundation? Don’t want to push for him to do higher and then come out worse off but he seems really committed to working harder to prove he can do higher! Tbh I don’t really understand why some subjects have tiers. He’s doing higher in maths of that makes any difference and currently predicted 6/7.

I don't know about science but in my subject (MFL) which also still has tiers, it is certainly easier to get a 5 on Foundation. You have to get more questions correct, but the questions are much easier.

IME it's better for a student to be a confident F 5 than a "oh crikey this is hard" H 4/5. In 2019 a 5 in H Biology needed a mark of 72/200 - so more than 60% of the paper would be inaccessible to that student. I think that can really hit confidence.

If I had a student achieving a solid 5, I would put them into the F paper. What year is he in? In most subjects the H paper involves different work - if he is in yr 11 will he have done that work?

Subjects have tiers btw so that a student can achieve a good grade without having to learn the more complex work.

It's a valid approach though I agree there are some people whom it does not favour (that is, those who might get a 6 on a good day but are put in for F as a safe 5). A 5 instead of a 6 is not the end of the world tho - it's a good pass which will count where needed (such as primary teacher training) and I imagine he is not thinking of science A levels.

What examining board is your DC with?

First and foremost: Higher tier has more in depth content. If he hasn't been taught the content he shouldn't do higher tier.

DD2 is doing (Edexcel) Foundation tier. She is in a set that was mixed Higher/Foundation. She was consistently getting 5/4s in tests but it was clear to me that it was the harder content she was struggling with, rather than 'lack of effort'.
In fact when I went through the Foundation guide compared with Higher, all the stuff we had been leaving as 'too hard' happily disappeared.

One thing with Science. In the first year there were swathes of pupils entered for Higher who would have fallen off the bottom (ie got a U) if they hadn't introduced a 3,3(?) grade that they hadn't been planning on. So I think schools are playing 'safer' now.

Also with everything so disrupted this year I could also see schools erring on the side of caution.

Thanks for the responses, seems people feel foundation should be the way to go. I just felt with 6 months to go there is nowhere for him to improve to if he is already working at a grade 5.

He isn’t planning on doing a science A level but is seriously considering an engineering btec along side other a levels. He can do this with a 5 but they prefer a 6. He is definitely stronger in Physics than biology or chemistry. If he was doing single sciences I am almost certain he would be doing higher in that subject.

I do understand about the tiers meaning you don’t have to cover the more complex elements. I have emailed school to ask their thoughts on it as well so we will see what they say.

DS took triple, but he was 5/6 borderline on 2 of his sciences. The very strong advice from school that, unless you needed a higher grade for future study it was much better to "bank" a 5 on the foundation paper, rather than run the risk of get no grade at all on higher. The problem is that the higher paper is all hard questions - there are no simple ones just to break you in gently as it were. It's really aimed at those who are comfortably expecting to get a 6+.

Can your DS try a higher paper and see how he gets on? If he's sitting foundation mocks, there might be the issue that he hasn't even been taught the higher tier stuff anyway.

If your ds was taking 3 separate Sciences, then it's possible to mix tiers so that he could do the Higher tier on his strongest subject and Foundation tier for the others.
Unfortunately it isn't possible to mix tiers for Combined Science because they average the marks across all 6 papers.
6 months left wouldn't be enough time to cover the extra Higher content on all 3 Science subjects.
If you look at the exam board info about tier entry, then Higher tier is aimed at pupils who will definitely obtain grade 6+.

Has your son tried a Higher paper? If that's possible it might either show him that he is more comfortable with the Foundation or open a conversation about considering the Higher?

He hasn’t done a higher mock yet but following his foundation mock results that is what the Head of Science is now proposing so we can see how he gets on.

I don’t necessarily want him to do higher, I want him to do the paper right for him but knowing him I think a shot at a higher grade will motivate him much more but equally I have said to him that it may be best to do foundation, focus on being a strong 5 and work harder on subjects like maths to improve his grade there as much as possible.