Functional skills maths & Foundation level GCSE maths

[Lindy2]

Basically DD isn't coping with Secondary school. She's diagnosed ADHD and ASD and she's overwhelmed and school avoiding right now.

I'm scrambling to try and get her some form of education for year 11 next year. It's easier said than done but one possible option is a SEN school or vocational college where functional skills maths and English would be the focus.

DD is not academic but before everything went on a downward spiral she had a reasonable chance of a GCSE grade 4 at foundation level maths and English. Not guaranteed but a chance. At the moment there's no hope at all because she's missed so much learning and has lost all confidence.

My question is, if a pupil was taught for functional skills maths and English and reasonably capable at that level, if they also sat GCSE foundation level maths and English GCSE would they stand a chance or are the syllabuses too different?

I'm potentially thinking of going the functional skills route to give her some continued education but in a low pressure environment. Sitting GCSE maths and English too would simply be to see if she could pass as obviously it's a big step to no longer be doing any GCSEs. I know going back up to doing some GCSEs would also be an option for the future, but right now, I'm just trying to see how they compare.

GCSE foundation maths has a lot more topics than the functional skills does. But if she is good at all the basic arithmetic operations, fractions, percentages, problem solving with word questions etc, she could pick up a fairly decent number of marks on GCSE even without some of the algebra, geometry, trig etc topics. You can find lots of past papers online, and you could look at them to see whether the number of marks available for the sort of 'everyday' maths on them is enough to pass. I don't know the rules around who can enter for functional skills, but when I was looking for a friend's daughter a while ago, it was difficult to find a place that would offer it for someone under year 11, as the policy always seemed to be that they had to be given the chance to try GCSE. Possibly they would have been allowed to offer both FS and GCSE together to get around that, but nowhere was interested. However, a special school or a vocational college might be able to offer functional skills as an adapted curriculum. I believe the syllabus for functional skills changed in the last couple of years since I was looking at it, though, so it might all be a bit different now. I remember wishing that it was easier to find information on actual places that offered it!

I don't know about English. The basic skills of reading and writing are obviously fundamental, and English language doesn't have books that have to be prepared, so in that sense it's possible to do it regardless, but I think that there is often enough exam-specific and board-specific stuff in terms of how to approach the questions, what they are looking for, etc that it would be quite hard to do without having had a teacher familiar with the marking scheme go through the 'how to answer' side of things, even for someone whose reading, comprehension, writing, analysis etc skills are good.

I think English literature would be very difficult because wouldn't you have to have read the texts in order to be able to answer the questions?

Eng Lang GCSE is very specific in its expectations.
You have to know exactly what is needed for each question. The papers are very long too, especially if you qualify for extra time.

I'm hoping DD can do Functional Skills English next year.

Have a look at papers for the functional skills - there are different levels - I work in FE and we have a cohort of under 16s with us. I would only put a student on Entry 3 - which is quite basic - once they had passed this I would discuss the gcse option - either sitting over two years and making progress.
Functional skills at Level 1 and Level 2 (equivalent of GCSE grade 4) need the students to have a knowledge of how the world works. They are written for adults.

DD2 is now at a special school (independent). She has ASD and anxiety. She is doing Functional Skills in maths and English, followed by GCSE maths and English language.

Functional Skills English has three components. Reading, writing, and speaking & listening. They can be sat at any time and in any order. The candidates can repeat them as many times as necessary (obviously the paper changes though!). DD1 failed her reading first time but passed it second time. She passed her writing first time. Now we just have to get her to the point where she can do the speaking and listening because she can't cope with the thought of being videoed.

Reading involves looking at a set text, for example "The way the travel industry works" and answering key questions.

Speaking and listening involves doing a persuasive presentation on a subject of their choice and then having a discussion with someone else about a topic.

Government guidelines are that children should take GCSE. Also, if they do take GCSE and get a grade 3, the FE colleges are not allowed to offer functional skills because it is assumed that they will be able to boost to grade 4. If they take GCSE and get grade 1 or 2, they can be offered functional skills.

Thanks all. That's helpful information.

I'm still not sure what to do but at least I understand the choices a bit more.