Maths GCSE Higher vs Foundation - getting a grade 5

[Mumohmum]

Hi. My DD, year 11, needs to get a grade 5 to stay on at her school 6th form and is apparently going to be entered for higher tier. In her mocks she missed a 5 by one mark. Teacher says she'll still be entered for higher tier as she was close. She also got a six on a test before the November mocks. Anyone in the know as to whether it's easier to get a 5 on foundation or higher? I believe you have to score quite highly on the foundation papers to get the 5, but the questions are easier and not get so many marks on the higher but the questions start off pretty high level. TIA.

What happens she takes Higher Tier but then does not get enough marks for the grade 5? Would they give her a grade 4? I am sure someone.more knowledge will be along to advise you shortly. I do believe most children go up between mocks and real exams with all that revising though.

Normally teachers prefer to enter students for the foundation tier if they are borderline (it's much easier to get a 5 on foundation).

However, it's likely that your DD will improve between mocks and real exams, so presumably her teacher is thinking that a 6+ might be possible? It's also worth finding out if her mock was a real GCSE paper, in which case they might not have covered all the material yet and this would have limited how well she could do.

Does she have another set of mocks?

Trust the teacher. There's 5 months to go, so she ought to improve by rather more than 1 mark between now and then! The teacher will also know if this was a below-par score for your daughter (sounds as if it might be, if she's had a 6 before).

Trust her teacher.

I believe they enter the children for exams at the end of February? So a decision will have to be made by then. At my son's school they do both November and February mocks and I think they base decisions on the February mocks.

At that school they want a "comfortable" 6 for the higher paper so it may well be that your DD's school haven't covered all the content yet which is why the teacher is suggesting the higher paper. For peace of mind I would want to see why she just missed the 5, was is miscalculations and silly mistakes or lack of knowledge?

From Ofqual
"Higher tier papers must strike a balance between testing the content aimed at grade 4 and 5 students, and providing challenging questions on the grade 9. In a higher tier paper, half of the marks should be targeted at grades 9, 8 and 7 and the other half of the marks should be targeted at grades 6, 5 and 4"

It can be utterly soul destroying for a child to not be able to answer at least half a paper on maths. It can knock confidence, hence why my sons' school always say grade 6.

Thanks all. Yes I trust the teacher and will trust the teacher to make the correct decision. There is another set of mocks in February. I wondered if anyone knew what the most reliable route to a grade 5 was, whether through sitting Foundation or Higher GCSE...

Depends on the kid. Some have a complete meltdown when faced with the higher paper and cope better on foundation, some make stupid mistakes on easy questions and prefer answering a few questions well on higher.

What percentage did she get? If she's 'one mark off a 5' and they used e.g. 2019 grade boundaries rather than anything more generous then she has a good shot at working up to a 6.