GCSE Options for v dyslexic DS

[peoniesarejustperfect]

DS is in Y9 and has come back for half term full of chat about GCSE options, which are filling me with dread.... He is very dyslexic which is compounded with issues with working memory and processing speeds. He's in a mainstream school, but with a lot of support (at school and me). His EP gives him 25% extra time, a reader and scribe (we've never used the latter).

His interests are art and design/DT. He quite likes geography, music and tech. He finds programming difficult, so Computer Science is out.

He's set his heart on designing golf courses, so ideally would get enough at A Level to get onto a Foundation course and then Landscape Architecture. If his is too much of a stretch, there are more vocational routes, but they don't have the design focus that he likes. I have no idea if that's possible for him, but don't want to pop his bubble and think having a plan is motivating etc.

His school is mixed academically and they are supportive of him focusing on
5-6 GCSEs. He's quite diligent/hard working and I think he'll be ok with quite a lot of course work.

That would suit him more than a lot of memorising, revision and timed assessments - essays and multi-choice are difficult for him. If the timetable options allow, how does this sound to you?

• Maths
• English language
• Art
• DT
• Geography
• Music (plays sax but

Any thoughts or experience would be really appreciated. TIA 🙏🙏🙏

Don't forget that science papers can be done at foundation or higher tier (foundation capped at grade 5). Foundation has less content, and the questions are a bit more straightforward.

We we’re in this position in 2020. This doesn’t really answer your questions directly but just an example of what happened for someone else struggling with the same issues. My DS is very practically minded (although for food and sport, not design) and severely dyslexic.

He ended up doing

• English Language
• Maths
• GCSE Art
• BTEC Sport
• NCFE Food
• GCSE Chemistry
• GCSE Biology

He did triple science (although only to sit the separate chemistry and biology papers) during the physics lessons he did extra English and maths. He also did one less option that everyone else and did extra English and maths in that block.

Despite all the covid disruption, he passed all his GCSEs/BTEC/NCFE in July and has gone onto college. He did well because we allowed him to choose the subjects he was interested in and worked with the learning support department to tailor his curriculum to him rather than onto a general pathway. He wouldn’t have survived otherwise so I think you are doing the right thing trying to get a tailored curriculum.

He found the coursework of 3 coursework heavy subjects quite heavy. But don’t let that put you off. It was worth it for my DS.

Also, BTECs still have exams and so do NCfE. So no avoiding them there unfortunately.

We did manage to get him a laptop for (some) exams through the learning support department as well as the extra time. (I advise becoming best friends with your learning support department).

I think doing English language, maths, 2 of the sciences, art, DT and maybe something else practical or design based would work well for your DC.

Good luck.

@TeenDivided That sounds like a very good plan and it sounds as if she is making progress. Good luck to you both.

@Weekendslugs That is very interesting... I think your Head is probably right and so good to hear what a specialist school offers. It is frustrating as DS loves Geography (and History) but def good to focus on what we can get him through.

@StillNotWarm I wouldn't say good at maths, really struggles with the memory side but does get there with work (if/when we plug away). His current maths teacher is surprised how well he can grasp something but then have no recall the next day.

@Littlebluebird123 Thank you for such a detailed answer, really good to hear that your DD has found a path that suits her. Genuine interest in a topic really does help. I am def going to follow up with the teachers and see what they say.

@TeenDivided I didn't know that about Foundation level, and again that def helps.

@OrangeApples That is fantastic to hear about your DS - what a success story and just what I needed to read. What a great range of qualifications he has - you must be super proud. I think that learning from you all - three subjects with course work is probably the max he could manage. If I can get him to two sciences, it def would be good. I am also getting to know the LS team very well - they see a lot of DS over the next few years!

Op it sounds as if you are doing all the right things. Agree foundation science would be good, maybe also F maths.

Quite a bit of chat here about coursework - be aware if you are not already that very few GCSEs have any element of coursework now. Art fir sure and some in tech and drama but not really much else. GCSEs were massively changed in 2017/18 so anyone whose DC sat them before that may unintentionally be misleading you. My ds1 who sat in 2015, fir example, had a lot of coursework in MFL, eng lit, science. But ds2 I 2019, nothing.

Bte WOW at the language offering! Is this a private school? Latin AND Greek!

I used a laptop.
Just needed to prove that was my standard way of working. So in all lessons except maths I did everything on a laptop then emailed it to the teacher. Some then sent off as evidence for exam board

The level of writing needed for biology and physics GCSEs is similar these days - both will have 6 mark questions which can be answered in the form of a table, numbered steps etc (may not get you full marks but not 0 either). Foundation Physics, most of the equations will be given in the question, so there is less to memorize. For foundation, it's really only a few maths skills repeated, eg substitution into a formula, converting units, drawing a graph etc. For both physics and biology there would be a lot of new language to learn, though.

However, my concern would be that if he's going into a triple class for some lessons that it will mainly be all high flying students and the pace would be too fast for him. The pace for triple science is generally very high as there is a large amount of content to cover. He could sit foundation papers, but he likely wouldn't be taught at foundation level, which could really kill his confidence.

Geography might be done in a more mixed ability group which might suit him better.

My big worry with geography is the lack of good revision materials. Because they can pick their own case studies (?) not all the case studies are covered in the revision guides. I also found trying to work out what was core information that had to be learned v added extras really hard. Whereas for biology it was much more obvious.
This might just be me (science background) or the board/case studies DD's school used.

What worked for dyslexic Dd was taking single subjects one and two years early, statistics and English lit.
Anything with course work ICT, drama, art.
IGCSE English, designed for foreign language students, perfect for dyslexics.
Dropping all languages.
Biology and geography to keep it broad were doable but hard on that basis. Mainly B's one A* one C.
BTEC route to her photography degree was then more vital than the impossibility of A levels.
Good luck

Oh and art.
Anything we could do for her at home to take pressure off as she was so slow and so overloaded we did.

OK two things that may be relevant.

He might be better doing a level 3 art course instead of A Levels. For art / design courses it is your portfolio that is important.

At 14 he can legally transfer to a college and do a level 2 course alongside English and maths. If he is set on a design career this might be an option and he could progress to a level 3 course after 1 year.

I'm dyslexic and I have used both a scribe and dictation software at uni, using a scribe is something you need to learn how to do so it might be worth

It might be hard to do just English language and not literature, as many school teach them in an intertwined manner, with a single teacher/class, so it is hard to separate out which days they intend to do which work - sometimes it's obvious that they are studying a particular work for the lit exam, and he could do something else in those lessons, but other times, it's more general work on writing skills or language techniques or literary devices that might be useful for either paper. So he might end up going to all the lessons anyway just out of convenience. The school might allow him not to sit the literature exam, though, and then he'd know he didn't have to worry about revising the set works (or even working on them much when they were doing them in class). He might find that he likes the literature side of things - some children do find that they have lots of ideas about the set works and can do better in the literature exam.

Coudl be worth seeing if they can do the functional skills exams alongside - I think they have to be offered the chance to do GCSE, but I think it's possible for them to also be offered functional skills as a back-up.

Art seems to take huge amounts of time, so would be really helpful to make sure he is keeping on top of what needs to be done by when, and using any extra time from other lessons well to get homework/revision done, rather than just sort of wasting it - usually with good intentions, but student often don't use those extra lessons well. Trying to do his other work first before he does the art is good, because art seems to expand to fill the time available!! So if other work is done first, then he has to get the art done in whatever time is left, whether he thinks it's perfect or not, whether there is more that could be done, etc.

Seems unusual to offer such a range but not RS ( aka Philosophy and Ethics)

It's compulsory to study science at KS4 - although that's not to say that it's compulsory to take the exams at the end of it.
I think you need to talk to the school about what is best there - as others have said, the advantage of triple science is that he could sit the exam just for whichever he's best at, but he might be much the weakest in the class which could be problematic.

@clary I didn't realise that about coursework and v grateful for the insight. Eons ago I used to teach A Level and it just shows that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing . . . I think I need to get hold of the board details and do some reading. Yes, it's a private school - non selective and has a wide range of abilities. The Latin and Greek made me smile and I wonder just how many years they offer both. Especially now many preps are dropping Latin / not doing it for Common Entrance.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl Another thing I hadn't even considered, thank you so much!! You are bang on, triple science will be full of speedy learners and DS will have to work very hard just to keep up. It makes it a non-starter idea as getting him through GCSE with confidence relatively intact is the goal. 😂😂 Also good to know about answer structure and mark schemes. I wonder if learning language is something we could build on early. He really hates Chemistry and just doesn't understand it at all. Geography will def be more mixed ability. mmm, there is a lot to juggle.

@TeenDivided I've just been looking at Geography revision stuff and there is very little. I am going to get in touch with Oaka Books and see if they are planning anything. We used their materials for CE and they were amazing for DS. Pitched just right and very visual. I have a humanities background and do find that easier to relate to. I found it a real struggle trying to help him with his science - it was double dutch to me and did give me a bit of insight into how frustrating / infuriating it is not to 'get something'.

Thank you for your good wishes @stayathomegardener I hadn't thought about the IGCSE and the school offer it. That could be a much better fit. It sounds as if your daughter is doing really well - I think Photography is such a great thing to study. I don't know much about BTECs but have read a little and the structure sounds much more appealing than traditional A Levels. Re avoiding overloading, that is exactly what I'm planning to do at home - we help break it down as much as possible.

@sashh That is good to know about the art courses and also the diction / scribe. I can imagine that it takes a lot of practice as it's a different way of organising your thoughts. One of DS friends has just had a new EP report offering 50% extra time, a reader and scribe and the ability to take breaks - which seems amazing. But a whole shift. We haven't used it so far as were a little concerned that DS had to learn to cope with reading / writing for himself, but again, I think I need to open up my research and thinking.

@MapleLeafForever I hadn't realised that about English, but it makes sense and I can see the pull / attraction of the texts, pulling you in. Also as someone commented upthread, it does give you a back up on English. I don't know much about Functional Skills but will look into them. Your thoughts on art made me laugh as this is exactly what I used to do at school. Spend all my time on art and then not have enough time left to do other subjects justice. I'd forgotten all that.... Art as the relaxing treat subject....

@LIZS I totally agree that it's odd and I'm going to ask as it's such a good / interesting option. They still study is as a non-examined 'core' subject.

I just love Mumsnet - I have got so many new ideas and insights that hadn't occurred to me. Thank you everyone for all your brilliant input. 🙏

That's a really valid point, but I think he would be better off doing combined science with a class that roughly matches his ability. If he's in a triple class where most students are doing higher, and only attending some lessons because he's eg not doing chemistry, I think it will be a struggle.

If it's a truly mixed ability triple class, that's different, obviously. But in my experience, these are pretty rare in most schools.

I've taught triple classes before where there are mostly children aiming for grade 7+ and a few who may not get a 5. It can be really demoralising for the students at the bottom, and they often have to either sit through learning a lot of content they don't need/won't understand, or try to do consolidation work independently, which is a real challenge for some students. The pace of the class has to cater to fitting in all the content in for those at the top, and in biology this means less time is spent on consolidation and practice, which I find foundation students need.

It's different to true mixed ability teaching, which can work well.

Spending a lot of time in lessons where you are the weakest one is demoralising for most kids. And I think that's a bigger issue than the revision guides available. A good school will surely produce decent revision materials for their students anyway? It's really common for schools to provide their own knowledge organisers etc.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl

I agree that combined science (2 GCSEs) at Foundation is possibly easier than Biology on its own (taught with the top triple science pupils) plus ANOther hard content GCSE. My DD's school, I think, had a foundation level set doing triple. I'm not convinced combined is easier than just Biology though.

My point was more re Geography being hard to help with if quality of notes/organisation is poor. I don't know how widespread 'knowledge organisers' are I don't think the concept exists at DDs old school (I have only heard about them in a Michaela context). If the OP's school provides good quality organised notes then maybe Geography becomes more achievable.

We hardly used any of my eldest's own notes for GCSE revision because they weren't very usable. It would have been the case for DD2 too, except we would have had to try for Geography due to lack of other sources.

Hopefully though this has given the OP lots of useful things to think about and discuss with her school.

I also wonder whether psychologically combined can 'feel' more because of its 3 separate components and 6 exams? 3 different skills sets and core knowledge?

@Postapocalypticcowgirl I am going to ask them - I've made an appointment to see the Head of LS in November. I think it will be exactly like that in DS school as they are already in sets for Science. As well as nudging him through these exams, one of my main priorities is to keep his confidence up.

@TeenDivided You are going to roll your eyes, but I had never come across 'knowledge organisers' before. I've just been googling and I am fascinated. Organising of info for learning is one of the biggest challenges in our household - for us all! DS school notes do not support him and the revision notes are separate and not very organised / complete. It's tough when you do some work sheets, some writing and quite a lot on the laptop. It all ends up in different places. When I taught A Level economics I used to get my pupils to make 'revision ready notes' at the end of each topic. So a couple of beautiful sheets with all info on it, revision cards and questions - all in one part of their revision folder. I would give them a checklist. It saves so much time later and highlights any gaps. Most pupils didn't need this and my department head was worried that I was spoon-feeding. Looking back, it's probably because that is what my mind needs to learn. Anyway, I digress.... I am going to learn as much as possible about this. I've bought a Science KS3 for us to look together.

Can I ask another general question? DS started a new school this year, so I don't know them very well. But in general we seem to be squeaky wheels 😬😬 Any advice on how to get the most co-operation from schools? Ideally I'd really like to know what the scheme of work is - not to get ahead or anything, but just to support my kids. I like to know what they've been learning about so we can follow up with some museum visits / chats / I'm just interested. For DS, now he's a teen, he needs help consolidating his learning (to overcome poor working memory). Do you think this is ok to ask for? Anything else I should put on my list?

Thank you so much. 🙏

TeenDivided You are going to roll your eyes, but I had never come across 'knowledge organisers' before

I'm definitely not going to roll my eyes. I have only heard of them, never seen them. Summarising key stuff at the end of units sounds very sensible to me.

re your other question. Does your DS bring exercise books home or do they all stay in school?
I think in your case you could reasonably ask for schemes of work / 'important topics to be covered each term this year'. I would maybe stick to just asking for core subjects / those you think he'll keep on, because I find there are only so many subjects you can keep up asking about yourself anyway.
My DD's old school (used to) publish a cuurriculum booklet, I'll PM you a link for y9 for info.

I saw Business is one of the options on the list.

I have 2 children and have experience of Geography GCSE (twice) and Business GCSE (once). I would say Geography was a nightmare - the syllabus is HUGE and the case studies are a total nightmare. As someone said, each school choose different case studies and so they are not always in the revision guide. The case studies were really hard to learn even for a kid with a good memory. The syllabus options were just confusing and it was endless. The revision guide is large which sums it up. There are also 3 exam papers so adds to the stress.

Business however was syllabus light. The revision guide is half the size of that of Geography, there are no case studies to remember. A lot of it was common sense.

I’d drop Geography as well and look at the Business past papers and see if that is a better fit.

Thank you @TeenDivided that is really helpful. I think I'll LS if they have something similar and save my powder for his actual GCSE options next year (or hopefully, I may be in a groove with LS by then). He doesn't bring any books home but does bring his laptop.

@PuffDragon12 I hadn't thought about the size of syllabus - and yes, I think looking at book size is a very good gauge!! Thank you for your direct experience of them both. I am going to have a good look at business and keep reminding myself that it's all about tactics to maximise grades. I taught business for a while at A Level and found it somewhat oddly, to be very theoretical.