GCSE as private candidate - experiences please.

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My child was put into the German/French stream when she entered her secondary school. She had been learning Spanish since Y4 (relatives & friends live in Spanish speaking countries) and we have kept that up privately. She is very lucky in that she has extremely good linguistic ability and she has decided she would like to do Spanish at GCSE.

She cannot do it through her school because she's not in the right strand. Also, she wants to do German and Latin so that's her languages choices taken.

Her external Spanish teacher believes that she would be on target to achieve an excellent mark in GCSE in Y10, so a year early, and we are exploring our options to make this happen but I believe she would need to be entered as a private candidate.

I have not yet spoken to the school regarding this possibility but have other parents been able to put their child forward for an extra subject through their own schools or would we need to find another venue. I am finding it difficult to know what to search for when I google.

For context, she's on an 8/9 flightpath for all academic subjects, I think if she were struggling I would not even consider this as the extra workload would not be fair.

It is quite common for schools to enter native speakers for the GCSE in their own language, particularly if they've been getting some teaching so they can have confidence that they're properly prepared. Just talk to the exams officer and/or head of languages. If the school teaches Spanish, that makes it much easier, as they will be able to do the speaking exam without having to get someone in.

My son sat a GCSE in a subject that he did privately (school didn't teach the subject) through his existing school. I just spoke to the exam officer at the school and they were happy to enter him as he was predicted to get an 8-9 which he achieved. We just had to pay the exam fee of around £40 I think. If your daughter is likely to get a high grade the school shouldn't have a problem as the result will reflect favourable on the schools overall exam results.

Thank you for both of your answers - that's reassuring.

The result may only count in their statistics if she takes it in year 11, so it's possible they will prefer that. However if she's on course for a stellar "attainment 8 score", it may not matter.

We home educate and use a private exam centre so this could work for you too.

There is a cost but the system is painless and works well. If you want to indicate roughly which area you are in we can point you in the direction of a centre.

We use Tutors and Exams and they have several centers around the UK.

Just keep in mind the centres book up early and many had their deadlines for summer 2022 this week.

The school can facilitate her speaking exam via their MFL teachers, and she would just join the other exams with all the other Spanish students.

The school will be happy to add another 8/9 to their statistics.

I used to work in an Exams Office in a school. We would definitely let your DD enter Spanish in the circumstances you state. She wouldn't need to be entered as a private candidate per se as she is already registered at that centre. The Head of MFL or Exams Officer may just want a quick chat with the tutor.

it would probably be cheaper to do it through her school / a local school as they'll likely only pass on the flat fee from the exam board. If you do it through a commercial exam centre they've got costs to cover so they tend to charge about £200 for a GCSE (including the exam board's fee). But it's perfectly possible either way.