Year 11 Child moved from Scotland to England and content to learn overwhelming - son doesn't want to even try

[Stressbucket1973]

I have a son in Year 11 - we moved from Scotland to England and the difference between National 5's and GCSE seems vast. He has so much content to learn before the exams. He has mocks in November and hasn't got a clue. He is so overwhelmed that he has just given up. He won't talk to us or even try. He is also dyslexic and the amount of work to get through is daunting. The school are trying to help and given us the areas he needs to focus on. but he has set his mind that he will fail so why bother. I can't get him to sit down and concentrate.

I feel like we are constantly harassing him to study or work or do anything... he just won't sit down and focus. He just want to game or go to the skate park and escape. He says he's thick and won't pass so why should he bother. He doesn't like school and is feeling totally overwhelmed.

The school allowed him to drop one subject but the issue is combined science being mandatory. He only had to do Physics in Scotland so he now has to catch up on chemistry and biology topics that others have been studying for over a year.

I'm at my wits end and my husband and I don't know what to do. We are trying to help and support but I feel all we are doing is making our son feel worse. I really don't know how to get him to want to try. There seems to be a lot going on for him and I'm wondering how we help him to try... I'm desperate and stressed out - any advice would be most welcome.

It doesn't even happen for non English speaking refigees, @Stroopwaffels , never mind someone from another place in the UK. Sadly.

How ridiculously inflexible then.

If going back a year is really not an option, then the only option is to concentrate solely on English and Maths and write this year off, making plans for next academic year.

OK, if you want to be pedantic it is very unlikely that a state school will allow him to repeat the academic year from age 14 to 15. I’m not saying it’s fair but I’m afraid it is the reality of the situation. It would be the same for an international student too.

You're right, there's no flexibility. Funding is cut to the bone. I think often people don't realise just how tight it is.

But is it a funding issue? How does it cost more to have a child in one year rather than the other?

I do think though Scotland appears to have a more flexible approach to this in general - deferral is common practice and widely accepted, we don't have "sixth form" as a concept so kids stay on at school as long as they want to be there, I know of a couple of kids whose parents chose not to defer them and realised a year later they'd made a mistake so agreed that they would repeat a year when they were 7 or 8. DS is 15 and has a child in his year who arrived about 18 months ago from Ukraine, that child is 16 already and "should" be in the year above but it was decided that he'd be better off with a younger group. It just seems that parents, teachers, head teachers have much more flexibility.

None of that helps the OP though. There are not online schools teaching Nat5s in the same way as there are for GCSE. The only one I know of is https://scholar.hw.ac.uk/ and even then, the boy would have to find a school/college where he could sit the exams as a private or external candidate.

Why is everyone talking about 'finishing Year 11 in Scotland' - there IS no year 11 in Scotland, secondary school is S1 to S4, and if he was at Nat 5 stage then presumably was in S4.

Which system do you suggest they both adopt?

I would try and get the school to put him back to year 10. Give him more time and a chance to settle before the ‘end’ ie exams.
i think some pp’s are being harsh.. sometimes life requires us to adapt in situations that aren’t ideal and I think he could be ok if he has more time to settle and reset. I’d try and relieve some pressure aswell and just focus on rebuilding friends and routine and settling in for a few months. Best of luck xxx

Not everyone knows the Scottish school years but obviously everyone means the equivalent of year 11 - or whatever year he would have been in Scotland had he not changed schools.

Scottish students don't have to do any sciences at Nat 5 level, they don't even have to do them in S3 if they don't want to/struggle with them! They also don't have to do a language past S3. Most schools will encourage able pupils to do at least one science at Nat 5 (and ideally as many as possible to S3). Language encouragement varies, as do the actual languages. They do have to do Maths and English - for Maths the more able pupils sit Nat 5 Mathematics in S4, the less able will do Nat 5 Applications of Maths or even Nat 4 Maths. If you don't attain Nat 5 Maths by the end of S4 (so have Applications or Nat 4 or nothing) you are encouraged to keep studying Maths with the idea of attaining a Maths qualification (ideally Nat 5 Mathematics) before finishing S5/6! They are not forced to do Higher Maths, but anyone who wants to go to Uni is encouraged to do Nat 5 English in S4 and Higher English in S5/6.

Switching schools in year 11 is a terrible move, especially to one with a different curriculum. Honestly I'd see if he can move back to Scotland, and stay with family to finish it off. Otherwise he's wasted all his school years, only to fail everything. If it's not possible to return him to Scottish education, I'd get him a private tutor and make sure he focuses on maths, English and science and forget everything else. Then he can apply for an nvq/apprenticeship after school.

We haven't provided a solution that's workable for @Stressbucket1973 perhaps

Unhelpful. I'm sure they had reasons and it wasn't on a whim 🤦🏼‍♀️

'The equivalent of year 11' is quite meaningless to many Scottish people too though.

My son was quite decent at science, but after doing two in S3 he decided only to do one in S4/Nat 5 level. He would have done fairly well in any of the sciences I think, but there were other subjects he enjoyed more/was better at/was predicted a very good grade in (and he did end up enjoying and getting a good very good grade, and is now doing Higher). If DS has exams to come, good luck to him, April comes round far too soon imho! 🙂

He needs to be moved to tear 10 but you should not have moved and should have at least left your son with family or a very close friend.

What a nightmare for your son. Best option would be to finish in Scotland and failing that, see if he can start in y10 so he can get the full GCSE years in.

@Stressbucket1973 sorry, if I missed it and it's been asked already - but do the old school have any suggestions regarding if he could continue with Nat 5 coursework and then sit those exams at an external centre somewhere? Obviously this might be harder for some of the practical subjects, but maybe they'd work for things like languages, maths, social subjects like geography etc? I am sure you didn't set out to disrupt your son's education and hadn't fully realised the impact, so please try not to take to heart all the judgemental comments.

On the science thing - doing all three at Nat 5 level in Scotland is very rare in my experience. Even for the kids who are looking towards applying for medicine or similar, most do chemistry and biology, not physics too.

It is really a very different system and moving between the two at other points would not cause these issues. All the bashing of the OP about why she moved and what was she thinking - probably fair to say she wasn't doing it for the shits and giggles.

Please don't make a statement like that without knowing the full story!

I know a lot of situations where they might do all 3 sciences to S3, but you are right, it is common to choose 2 or even 1 to do at Nat 5. Some Scottish schools do more Nat 5's at a time than others, so there's maybe the chance of doing more sciences if you are doing more subjects in total.

Are there online schools studying the Scottish curriculum? Can he follow this and then do Scottish exams before switching to the English system? If not I would say drop down a year group

Ask for him to move to Y10. I know a number of schools have allowed this, especially for children moving into mainstream schools from alternatives such as home education. Most have hugely benefited and not minded being a little older than their peers. Have a serious discussion with the school

I don't think the op is coming back

This thread is more a warning for others. Unless you have no other option and are in a situation which is completely untenable don't change your kids school once they start year 10 or the equivalent of

'unless you have no other option' - some of the comments here are assuming she did have other options, when none of us know that to be true.