Child entered for wrong exam so didn't attend

10 replies

GCSEEnglish · 13/09/2023 08:07

This is a bit of a complicated one.

My son went to a special school that didn't really cater for academic kids. He took his English language in October 2022 and got a 6. All good.

They wanted to enter him for functional English in the summer term too but he didn't want to do it, and I let them know in plenty of time. They entered him anyway and so he now has an x on his exam certificate that is not his fault.

He got really good results for all his other GCSEs and is now happily in a mainstream sixth form.

My question is, how much of a problem is that x likely to be for university admissions and is there anything at all that I can do about it now?

OP posts:

TeenDivided · 13/09/2023 09:44

You could ask the 6th for for advice?
They could put a sentence in their reference 'Was entered for FS English by previous school by mistake, hence the X'.

ReallychildisaidNO · 13/09/2023 21:27

He has a GCSE grade 6 in English. I would have thought this would outweigh the FS. Universities usually ask for GCSE not functional skills so should be alright.

Is the ‘x’ printed on a certificate or just on a results slip? If it’s just a results slip then I wouldn’t see it as a problem as it’s not an official certificate. If on a certificate then I echo what @TeenDivided says.

parietal · 13/09/2023 21:33

this is exactly the kind of thing that can be mentioned in a UCAS personal statement by the candidate.

ContractedHours · 14/09/2023 07:07

Have you got evidence that you asked them to remove him (email) so you could ask the school to get it rectified? By the way no idea if it is possible...but seems like a place to start.

noblegiraffe · 14/09/2023 09:25

I'm not convinced that he would have to put an X on UCAS as he didn't sit the exam so got no results. You do have to put Us.

DaisyChain16 · 14/09/2023 09:31

This is a non issue. Just don't put it anywhere. You won't get a certificate for an X

Original poster

GCSEEnglish · 14/09/2023 19:05

Thanks all. He didn't get any certificates, just a letter on headed paper from the school. Should I go back and ask for them? That school is not geared up at all for academic kids, so they just don't usually deal with this sort of thing. Most of them only do one or two GCSEs

OP posts:

noblegiraffe · 14/09/2023 19:06

Yes, he may need those certificates in the future.

TeenDivided · 14/09/2023 19:07

OP. The GCSE certificates will come out in November. The school should already have the Eng Lang one, but they may have been holding on to it to give with the summer ones.

Original poster

GCSEEnglish · 14/09/2023 19:13

Brilliant, thanks all so much. I know I got certificates but it is 100 years ago and he is our oldest.

OP posts:

Flip