Can anyone help with this? Is there anything I can do?

[Radical0]

My DD started a BTEC in business in year 9, they do one qualification a year earlier in their school. She has worked so hard and managed to gain the top grade in all her coursework.

Yesterday we received the following email saying they are stopping the course and starting a new one which she will have to do alongside ten more. She has only got three months left to go! Is there anything I can do about this? Any advice really appreciated.

Email :

Currently your child is studying a BTEC course in Enterprise, which was started in Year 9. The intention was that this course would finish this year. Regrettably, this course is not included on the Department for Educations approved qualifications list for 2024, when our current Year 10s would be submitting all their qualifications. This is recent information to the school, and we are addressing it at the earliest opportunity.
Furthermore, the results to date on the exam modules and work submitted whilst encouraging for some are not at a standard that we would hope for when we started and as such completing this course this year will not provide the best outcome.
This provides us with an opportunity to address this, students are now being taught on an equivalent qualification NCFE Technical award in Business and Enterprise. This qualification carries same weighting/value as BTEC so Students will not be disadvantaged.

In order to gain this qualification at a higher grade this course will not complete this year and will continue into Year 11 with some additional lessons. We are making this switch to ensure the best possible outcomes.

Sorry but schoo that do GCSEs early are taking a bit of a punt with doing it early and ofsted don't like it. You could ask for her to be put in for the exam this year if there's still time but she would have to do the work in her own time. Sounds like she's out numbered with the amount of kids that would be able to complete the qualification.

I'm sorry this has happened OP and I'm not sure what to suggest as it sounds like a decision that's already been made but if you want some ammo for an email id start with the following two things taken from here qualifications.pearson.com/en/about-us/qualification-brands/btec/btec-information-hub/news-and-policy/performance-measures.html

1. This is a March 2022 update and clearly says that the qual won't count for 2024 and that there's a new version that will. Now starting in year 9 means they may not have known that at time of registration BUT they should still have noticed some 12 months ago which would have given time to address it (ie complete for 2023 certification?)

2. Why therefore aren't they trying to register the group on the 2022 version which does count in the performance tables? BTEC timelines are strict but in the circumstances if I was the head/teacher/exam officer I would want to approach the exam board and at least attempt to swap the registration, unless there were some major reason why I couldn't even begin the conversation.

Somebody has really messed up here and although it may not change the outcome I would be pressing for the school to get the kids into the 2022 version of the BTEC qual as that will be far less challenging for them, without looking I don't know for sure but it's likely to be small changes in the exam content or format and at worst a unit difference which is still far more doable than a whole new spec to learn and complete. And it will count on the perf tables so job done for the school as well. I would want to know for sure if they have tried this and precisely why it isn't the preferred option at this point.

Just rereading your OP and I see they were planning to cert in 2023 but count it in 2024, so they really should and do need to get the kids over onto the 2022 version of the same course rather than starting from scratch on something else. I can't see how doing that doesn't disadvantage students nor how it will improve outcomes.

Thank you so much, that is really helpful

@PensionPuzzle
I'm just coming back to say thanks so much! I sent an email saying basically everything you said here. They have agreed that DD and a couple of others who are doing extra GCSEs next year and are doing well on the course can complete it this year. Couldn't have done it without you!

Congratulations on getting that for your DD. That sounds like a good outcome for those who were doing well and will want to concentrate on their GCSEs next year. But it may be that some of the students on the course who haven't been doing so well would benefit more from having more time to study for a qualification next year.

I know the government is changing all the vocational qualifications, and I don't suppose they're funding schools and colleges to make the transition smoothly and so that students over the next year or two don't become guinea pigs for something that doesn't work.