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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

"Science" reports

27 replies

LotusCheesecake · 07/12/2021 12:48

Hi,

My DD is in year 10, studying all 3 sciences as separate subjects. She has just received a snapshot review from school, which gives me a grade for effort / grade for ability (so no wording - we have a parents evening next term).

Despite doing the three individual sciences (and to be clear she will do three individual GCSEs) she has just got one blended science grade. What are other peoples experiences in terms of something like this?

In my view this isn't helpful and I think we should get three separate grades for three separate subjects - they might as well lump her history and geography in together and tell me a humanities grade!!

OP posts:

DraigFach · 07/12/2021 13:03

Triple award science where you get a GCSE for each studied subject is much more difficult to attain than single award or double award where all three independently studied subjects are blended for a grade. It gives students 3 opportunities to achieve a decent "science" GCSE grade.

In general terms, the single award science pupils are those who either show a lack of aptitude or enthusiasm for the more in depth requirements for double or triple science.

This isn't a new concept, my science GCSE grade was A/B back in 1995, I opted for an extra humanities subject rather than step up to triple award science.

To be honest, I'm surprised the school haven't told you about all this before - we were prepped at the end of year 8 for the structure of GCSEs in year 10...which was probably done better through virtual channels because of covid as we recieved digital copies of the presentations.

Original poster

LotusCheesecake · 07/12/2021 13:08

Sorry I've obviously not explained this well.

My DD is doing 3 separate GCSEs - biology, chemistry, physics.

However for the purpose of her school report, we can just see one grade for "science" (I assume it must be her physics teacher, as they have said she is performing well, which from the recent chemistry test she did recently she most certainly isn't).

My point is - if she is doing biology, chemistry, physics as separate GCSEs, shouldn't we be seeing three separate ratings from the three separate teachers rather than bunging it all together. If she was doing "science" as a gcse, then the single grade would make more sense.

OP posts:

trumpisagit · 07/12/2021 13:11

I don't understand what the PP is talking about but my y10 son is doing triple Sci (3 gcses like yours).

His report gives individual grades for each science, and he is doing better in one than the other 2, however what the numbers and columns on his report really mean is as clear as mud.

Hopefully parents evening will be more useful.

kiaushtyd · 07/12/2021 13:13

Are you sure she is definitely doing triple science? You would still do all three sciences if you weren't doing triple science.

kiaushtyd · 07/12/2021 13:15

In our school who is doing triple science isn't finally decided upon until yr11 so until that point they would just get a general science grade. From yr11 they would get individual Bio/Chem/Phys grades.

Original poster

LotusCheesecake · 07/12/2021 13:15

She is definitely not doing triple science. She is doing individual GCSEs in biology, chemistry and physics.

This is all super helpful by the way - I am intending to speak to the school about it and I'm glad I've raised here as will mean I can be very clear about what I'm trying to say!!

OP posts:

Original poster

LotusCheesecake · 07/12/2021 13:16

I've gone and been unclear again, haven't I... I meant she is definitely not doing double science!!

Thanks for bearing with me

OP posts:

poppy235 · 07/12/2021 13:17

Science teacher here. I agree she should have separate reports if she is doing "triple award" aka separate sciences as she will be awarded 3 GCSEs with independent grades.

If she was doing double award it makes more sense to get a grade/report based on science as a whole as her overall 2 GCCE grades will be calculated this way.

I have worked in schools where it wasn't always possible to see all 3 specialist science teachers at parents evening due to sheer volume. The system was to meet with one who would have collected data and feedback from other 2. If you have a concern in one area eg chemistry you should request to see that teacher if at all possible.

RedskyThisNight · 07/12/2021 13:18

Yes I agree she should have grades for each individual science. Some DC can vary wildly between sciences.

My DD is taking combined science and, whilst I understand why they just give a single grade on her report, I'd still like it broken down into separate sciences - she does have 3 separate teachers!

kiaushtyd · 07/12/2021 13:25

One thing they might be doing is waiting until later in the year when more content has been covered and they can give a better indication of grades in the individual science subjects. If it is anything like the system in my school these grades may have been put in around half term by her teachers, but they don't go home to parents until a few weeks later. If something like this happened then it could be that she hadn't done enough individual assessments for each individual science topic to give a reliable grade at that point. Lots of schools don't get any more or only slightly more teaching time for triple science compared to combined science so it maybe that they just haven't done enough lessons yet. But I'd still ask for a call with the head of science just to clarify the situation.

catndogslife · 07/12/2021 13:49

If your dd has a time table with 3 individual Science subjects listed on it and the amount of teaching time for each is the same, then I would expect 3 grades one for each subject on reports.
I would check with the school i.e. Head of Science whether this is an admin error by the school e.g. have they mixed her up with someone with a similar first or last name who is taking Combined Science?
In England it is no longer possible to take a Single award science so @DraigFach is incorrect. Wales has a different GCSE system now which may account for the difference.

DraigFach · 07/12/2021 14:43

@catndogslife I'm not incorrect thanks, but you're right there is a difference in Wales because my DD is sitting single award science GCSE.

@LotusCheesecake in that case I agree with you, it could well be worth just dropping an email to the form teacher again we do this in our school, it may be different in England to enquire why you're not seeing attainment and effort across all three science subjects if they're all independent GCSEs.

JustLarkinAbout · 07/12/2021 15:24

I agree that there should be three as aptitude, effort and achievement can be very different across the 3 sciences. Is this at GCSE level? If it's lower down the school then it might be that because of sheer volume of how many children each teacher sees they have divided up the report-writing and (hopefully) obtained the perspective of all the teachers before grading and commenting appropriately. At GCSE you should definitely know, per subject, how it's going and what is needed to improve. In either case, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask to talk to one or more of your child's science teachers for more information. Now, if they have exams in January (school, mock or actual), or in early January if the information is less urgent.

lanthanum · 07/12/2021 17:16

We get each reported on separately, but we suspect the difference in predicted grades between the three is more down to the individual teacher's confidence in predicting high grades than ability/performance in the subject. DD's lowest prediction of the three is the one she wants to continue with, but her exam score is further above the median than in the others.

At this point in year 10, it's unlikely there's that much of a difference between the sciences. However by the end of year 10 you'd hope that you'll be given a fuller picture.

We only get to see one science teacher at parents' evening, and it's been the same one each time. Although I understand the timing issue, it does seem crazy that those considering applying for science A-levels (applications due imminently) cannot have an appointment with the relevant teachers. We can email them, at least (about to do that).

Pythonesque · 07/12/2021 21:31

By contrast, at A level my children have had (at least) 2 teachers per subject, and their reports have included grades from each teacher individually.

Come to think of it, both had multiple teachers for GCSE music and yr 10 and 11 reports included multiple grades accordingly.

Lougle · 07/12/2021 21:51

At DD2's school they are taught the three sciences separately at GCSE level, but they don't decide who is going to do combined/separate science GCSE until March of year 11.

HelloDulling · 07/12/2021 21:56

I would expect three separate reports, and my DD is doing the double science award. It’s still timetabled and taught as three subjects, so the 3 different teachers all give a report.

dizzydizzydizzy · 08/12/2021 04:31

DD did triple science and only got 1 line in he repot for science. I would say it would be because they would do say half a term of biology, then half a term of chemistry etc.

Lougle · 08/12/2021 06:46

@dizzydizzydizzy

DD did triple science and only got 1 line in he repot for science. I would say it would be because they would do say half a term of biology, then half a term of chemistry etc.

That doesn't sound great. DD2 has 3 science teachers, all taught separately each fortnight (they run a 2-week timetable).

Bessica1970 · 08/12/2021 07:04

One science grade across all 3 sciences on the report is normal at our school. To be fair I don’t think anyone has ever queried it. We would still discuss the progress separately at parents’ evening though.

LegoClone · 08/12/2021 07:25

The year 10 triple science students at my school will only receive 1 science grade in their reports this term as they have sat the same assessment paper as the rest of our year 10 higher students. At this stage in the course the amount of additional content they have studied in comparison to the combined science course is tiny so producing alternative assessment papers for them wouldn't be useful.

We probably won't be reporting separate grades for biology, chemistry and physics until they sit whole paper 1s later on this year, at which point any differences we report on their abilities in the separate sciences will actually be meaningful as they will have studied a significant proportion of the course by then.

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 08/12/2021 07:27

DS is doing 3 separate science GCSEs (ie triple science). He has different teachers for each subject and each subject has the same amount of teaching time across his 2 week timetable. In fact the school started teaching the GCSE curriculum in the last part of Year 9. He gets 3 challenge grades - basically what grade the school expect/hope he will achieve in the subject and then a traffic light system of whether he is on track to attain that grade.

dizzydizzydizzy · 11/12/2021 23:16

@Lougle it worked fine. DD got 9s for all 3 science subjects at GCSE and is now studying one of those subjects at a top university.

Lougle · 11/12/2021 23:23

[quote dizzydizzydizzy]@Lougle it worked fine. DD got 9s for all 3 science subjects at GCSE and is now studying one of those subjects at a top university. [/quote]
Good for her! [Smile]

joyinthegloom · 12/12/2021 09:15

Out of interest, what happened in the school reports in Years 7, 8 and 9?

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