Secondary schools asking kids to drop GCSE subjects

[lililililililili]

I have heard about this happening in a girls’ school nearby, wondered if it’s a common thing for schools to ask children to drop a 10th GCSE subject. Or not letting them choose one if the school deems child will not achieve good enough results. A tutor I know was not fond of that particular school for that reason.

Which schools are notorious for doing this? Should I look carefully and closely at the number of pupils vs grades reported? I would not want my child to be blocked by the school because DC will only get a 7 that is not great for the school.

We are in SW London.

I can't see this being a thing.

DD's comp is normally 10 GCSEs with one taken in Y10.

DD has a bespoke timetable due to SEN and is also taking a BTEC instead of 1 GCSE. It's been quite a faff sorting her timetable even with the school being 100% behind the changes as she's ended up with unsupervised periods... we had a number of solutions but ended up with her doing an extra PE session.

Schools really, really do not want the headache of trying to find something to do with kids to avoid the 'horror' of them getting a 6 or 7 (A and B in old money).

If they're likely to be coming out with a 3 or below, that will have been identified long before and action take (eg DD is severely dyslexic and can't spell in English - MFLs and even Latin were a painful process for everyone involved and the Dept were v happy to agree that it would not be a good idea for her to continue with them).

The three different secondaries my kids attended all allowed 9 GCSE's whether or not triple science was taken. Ds was allowed to drop one at my request that he was doing terribly at (he is autistic).

If a child is struggling to get enough Grade 4/5s then they may be advised to take fewer subjects in order to secure maths, English and science as a minimum.

i think it happens more in independent schools. More common with A level. I worked in an indie girls school in SW London. They wanted girls to drop A levels they were at risk of getting Bs and Cs in. They were an exam hot house though and their idea of what constituted mediocre was astounding. No winder exam anxiety was rife!

Word on the street is (ie something I read somewhere and I cannot know whether it is true or not) but some independent/fee paying schools can and do remove a child from their GCSE and enter them as an independent candiadate ie so their result will still stand but does not affect school performance. Child takes 10 GCSEs, not doing great in 2 of them so sits 8 under the school umbrella and sits 2 as an independent candidate like a home educated child would be, they still get the 10 GCSEs but only 8 reflect on the school.

In state schools even when children are not coping or not doing well academically there is a push back from the school. It causes problems with timetabling, where does the child go when they no longer study that subject? Unless there are other facilities available, some kind of hub, then the student still needs to be supervised somewhere. Plus it means other students see this and also want to start dropping subjects.

I've experienced the opposite of this with DD so I'm sure it's absolutely rife (at her school at least). The school seems highly focussed on getting good EBacc scores, so they're forcing the brighter kids into doing the subjects so that they qualify for EBacc and steering the lower achievers away from it. Seems they're more concerned with the schools EBacc scores than the individuals free choice.