A range prediction might help, but frankly as a very academic student, I'd have been disappointed if I didn't get the top grades that I wanted whether they'd been predicted or not. You can ban predicting grade 9s but it would just mean that there were unspoken predictions instead - everyone has done past papers and seen the grade boundaries, everyone knows what they're capable of and what they'd be happy with, so whether the school officially predicts it or not wouldn't, I think, have much bearing on whether the student is happy. It would also make me distrust the school if they kept predicting an 8, say, in something like maths or sciences where I could see that the boundaries and correct answers would make 9 realistic. Maybe different in some of the humanities I suppose where the pupil wouldn't always know themselves what was needed for the extra marks. It would have put the pressure on me in advance, though, and I'd have been trying harder and harder and getting more and more stressed to figure out why I wasn't getting grade 9s in the mocks or if I was, why the school didn't think I could do it in the real thing.
Are schools allowed to offer functional skills these days? Does it have to be in additional to GCSEs? I tutored a pupil years ago where they did all do functional skills in Year 10 or early Year 11 I think, or possibly alongside GCSEs in Year 11. it was certainly in maths, and possibly English as well. I think I read later that it wasn't allowed any more, though it sounds like that could have changed now. There was some rule that they had to be offered the chance to do GCSE first before they could try FS. It is a shame for some pupils, as I know some who had a chance of passing FS, but were unlikely to get GCSE, and it would have saved their disappointment and time having to wait to do it as resits. And for those who couldn't pass GCSE maths or English, it really restricted their sixth form opportunities, even when they might be strong in other GCSEs - some of them were unable to do any A-levels as a result, and had to go elsewhere to do BTecs etc. So allowing functional skiills alongside GCSE would really have helped them. I guess it might be too much to practise two different styles of paper, though, and if they have to have the chance to try GCSE, you still have to teach most of the foundation content to them. At the colleges around here, at least, those with a '3' in GCSE still have to do resits of it, rather than move to FS - that seems to be only for those with 2 or below. I wish there was a lot more flexibility in the system for those trying so hard to pass maths or English.