Switching language for GCSE

[user64332]

At my dd's school they are put at random into French or Spanish in year 7, my dd was disappointed to be put into French and did ask in year 7 and again in year 8 if she could switch to Spanish but was told no. Now she has to submit GCSE options and has to chose a language. She is frustrated because she doesn't like her French teachers and doesn't enjoy the class, though she isn't unable. I told her to chose Spanish instead, which she was delighted about as she didn't think it would be an option, but I told her that when I was at school Spanish or German wasn't offered until year 10 so it will be fine and she can catch up over summer. Now her form tutor has told her she can't because she will be behind, but I'm not sure if that's just his opinion or a hard and fast rule. Unfortunately we've missed the deadline for asking questions about choices now, that was last week. I told her just to keep it on Spanish and if they question her, ask them to call me.

Has anyone elses child taken a new language for GCSE?

I doubt the school will allow her to do it. It will be very hard to join a class where everyone is 3 years ahead of her and the teachers won't have time to help her catch up.

One of mine did a new language ab initio for IB in the sixth form - so roughly the equivalent of a GCSE in 2 years. It was a lot of hard work.

If she is going to do it, she would really need to start now. It would be too much to try and catch up on her own in the summer.

I think its so unfair they did not let her switch in year 7. At my son's grammar they all did french only in year 7 and in year 8 were allocated another language but you could lobby to choose either french, spanish or german if you had a good reason. Spanish is the easiest of all the languages (so said the educational psycologist).
I also doubt the school will let her do it either. A huge part of the basics of the languages is the children remembering words. She would be two years behind the other children in the class.
If she was prepared to study separately, you could have an agreement with the school that she sits and exam at the beginning of the year and if she's caught up she is allowed to study Spanish.
If she is still in year 8 ie not in year 9 yet - in theory schools that say they start GCSES in year 9 are just doing extra prep. As lots of schools start GCSES in year 10. So you could argue this point of view so she has a year to catch up.
Also, it depends a bit on whether she is doing spanish becausea language is compulsary and if she cares what her spanish GCSE grade will be or not.

By the way - worth asking her if her languages teachers teach both subjects. It would be very unsual if they didn't. My daughter's grammar was large with 200 plus students in each year group but even then they never had a dedicated spanish and a dedicated french teacher. All language teachers usually teach several languages. Not liking her french teachers much might be meaningless if she also gets them for Spanish.

We did Spanish as a second language, starting in year 10. However, we were all starting from the same point.
Could you arrange to speak to the school and see if they'd be willing to assess her in September to see if she was at the right level. She'd then have 6 months from now until September to learn independently and catch up with the rest of the cohort. If she's serious, this is achievable.

Totally not allowed to start a new language from scratch in yr 10 in our school, even for very able linguists. Since the syllabus changed it’s too much ground to catch up on.

Not allowed at our school, only exception might be if a child is from a family that is fluent in Spanish / French (if taking both). Spanish is taught in a lot of schools from y7 now.

If she wants to change she needs to get proactive now but it will depend how committed she is.

Does she use any extra stuff outside of school with her French? Like Duolingo or Memrise? Is she knows how far she has progressed in these with French she could catch up now to do the Spanish. She could then demonstrate to school that she is not behind.

Ds's French teacher also teaches Spanish so if she is merely doing Spanish to get away from a particular teacher she may come unstuck. Sometimes you just have to suck it up if you don't particularly gel with a teacher.

Allowed to switch in our school if performing well. Mine did this and it was fine.

It wouldn't be allowed at our school due to them continuing on from where they were already up to but it is of course doable (if she can access lessons elsewhere) because we offer a number of one year or two year courses as extra curricular for languages .

If she is really wedded to it and you can afford a tutor would it be possible to start tuition now so that she was caught up by September?

DD's school only allows it if the language is the child's second mothertongue/home language/acquired it via other reasons (we had a student moving back after 4 years abroard) and they have to pass a test to see if they are at the same level as the pupils studying it from Y7 onwards.

If something like your DD's choice would be come up it would flag in the school's system straight away and put up for investigation. Most likely it would automatically be routed to the default language and the family informed.

What a ridiculous system where they randomly allocate for Y7. Why not ballot them at the end of Y6?

I can't believe you told her it would be fine to choose it without checking with the languages dept first, and also just because it was an option to do so when you were in year 10!!

@GinaJaffacake

What a ridiculous system where they randomly allocate for Y7. Why not ballot them at the end of Y6?

We used to do this at my old school. About 10% of parents responded Welch year, so mostly it was random tbh.

@GinaJaffacake

What a ridiculous system where they randomly allocate for Y7. Why not ballot them at the end of Y6?

Most likely because it may create problems that there would be an uneven split between the languages like 75% French and 25% Spanish which the school wouldn't be able to accomodate. I also think most children in Y6 don't have a preference for one of them unless they have some knowledge. DD wasn't bothered despite having decent French in primary.

DD's school asked if there was a particular reason to NOT do one of the two languages they offer in Y7. In most cases these children do speak the language already and it is a nightmare being fluent and sitting in a class with absolute beginners but there are not enough to form a class with advanced students.

I don't think you can just put Spanish down and hope they won't notice! It's a different language and although yes it's easier than say German it's still different to French. It will be obvious in her first lesson and they will just ask her to choose French or something different.

@GinaJaffacake

What a ridiculous system where they randomly allocate for Y7. Why not ballot them at the end of Y6?

It isn't 'ridiculous' at all. For timetabling purposes and regulating class sizes there needs to be an even split.