Naive GCSE questions

[DadOfHisSon]

Disclaimer:
I am not a local and was born and raised in another country - and many of my questions may look trivial or naive - so I am sorry about this:)
Context:
Boy, y8, very good grammar school

Questions:
1. When GCSE are taking place?
I know it is somewhere at the end of year 11. But is it like May - July of year 11 or are those spread on a more wide interval?
Are these dates individual for a school or are the same for the subject across the whole country? When and how we will now these dates?

2. Where exams are taking place?
Is it at school facilities? What if we want to have an extra exam on foreign language - native for my son - will school organize it for him or we need to find where he can have this exam?

3. How students select exams they will take?
I've heard several times that they need to pick during year 8. The way I get it, most of the pupils supposed to take as many as possible, right?
It would be awkward to make really life-defining decisions at such age - so most of the students supposed to discard only obvious subjects - in our case, maybe art and music..
How this subjects selection process looks like? Is it something official they do at school? How to ensure my son consult with us before putting checkmarks on the list?

4. Can my son be "not allowed" to take a particular exam?
My son claims they were told at school that for one particular subject (DT) only 10% of pupils will be allowed to take GCSE.
From one hand - I can understand, that not every student will make career in this field at the end. From another hand - again, I think it is a bit awkward to make such decisions at such an early age. And keeping in mind it is top grammar - competition to get into these 10 percent might be tough. And if from year 8 it is clear the subject is not on their GCSE list - what's the motivation to study it further?
And if the school won't allow to take this exam - what are the options for us if he still wants to? Contact another school?

5. What is your "revision" advice?
There are lots of talks on how students revise for exams. This is the part I don't understand - if you are about to take 8-10 exams - are you revise those all?
Do you hire tutors for all of them? Isn't school on its own is just enough? What subjects you pick for revision and what is your strategy?

6. What results are important for?
For university - the way I get it - A-levels matters? Is it GCSE define which A-levels you're allowed to take or what?
Supposing we want to stay the same school for A-levels.

Thanks a lot for all your answers and thoughts in advance!

GCSEs are public exams usually taken in May/June of Y11. The exam timetable will be made public in about March of the same year. Some of those questions you will need to ask your school, eg where they will sit them (it will usually be in the school hall though). Our school allows students to take their native language as a GCSE, yours might too. In our school there are some subjects that can't accommodate everyone who requests them, and some where students are not allowed to because they are not at a high enough level (eg computer science only allows students who are reasonably good at maths).

1. May- June of yr11. Timetabling is national. Schools have no say. The timetable will be available beforehand, well in advance.
2. In the school hall/sports hall plus additional rooming as required. Please contact your head of MFL about native language requirements.
3. The school have an options process. This will not limit your child's future options, but do take advice from the staff in charge.
4. No, sounds like nonsense to me. They're not stopped from doing any exam.
5. They are guided through revision techniques and the school will make recommendations and provide appropriate materials.
6. GCSE s open the doors to college courses and A levels.

GCSE exams happen from the middle of may to the middle of June in Y11. The dates are the same across the whole country.

Exams happen at school. At my son's, native speakers sit exams in their language, arranged by the school, but they aren't taught anything - they would have to study at home (if they needed to). Not all schools offer this opportunity. If they don't I would ask their advice as to whether there's any other way to do it.

During Y9 (or 8 in some schools) they will be asked to pick their 'options'. Parents should be involved and probably get invited to an information evening and be sent an information pack. Everyone takes maths, English language and science (this can be combined - worth two GCSEs covering biology physics and chemistry, or separate biology physics and chemistry worth three GCSEs with a bit more content covered. School will advise which is suited to your child).

Then they choose another three or four subjects eg a language, humanities or music, art etc) The DT thing may be that they only have one teacher so can only offer it to 30 children?

Revision - school will advise on this and teach them how to revise, provide resources, do recap lessons, run revision sessions closer to the exams but they also need to revise at home. There are mock exams early in Y11 that help start off the revision process. Ask school for advice closer to the time. Shouldn't need a tutor in general but if struggling with English or maths then maybe wise.

GCSE results determine whether you can go on to do a levels or particular college courses. Passing maths and English is very important. Other courses or a levels will have necessary GCSE grades to allow entry. School should provide lots of information about this as it gets closer but you can ask for information sooner if it would help.

Sorry that should have said everyone takes English language AND literature.

4
There may only be one DT teacher, as @Techno56 says, but there might also only be one DT workshop with a limit on how many pupils can work in there at once.

Hi OP - nothing wrong with asking!

Questions:

1. When GCSE are taking place?

The bulk of the written exams run from early-mid May (not usually earlier than about 10 May) to end June - there is usually a contingency date for the last possible exams around 26 June. Many students will finish earlier than this - maybe 12-16 June depending on subjects taken. MFL speaking tests, art exams and other practical elements will take place earlier.

1. Where exams are taking place?

At school. If you want to organise for your son to sit his native language, speak to the school. They may be able to organise a speaking tutor and the written elements should be fine.

1. How students select exams they will take?

Students typically sit between 8 and 10 GCSEs, including a number of core compulsory subjects (english, maths, science) and then choices for the remainder. How much freedom of choice they get depends on the school - some will insist on history or geography plus MFL. Some schools choose in year 8, more do it in year 9. Your school should arrange an options meeting in spring term of the relevant year and you can discuss. Most schools also pull together an options booklet. Most students only drop things they are really not interested in (because of the core ones) - so my DC dropped (variously) art, drama, PE, tech, RE.

1. Can my son be "not allowed" to take a particular exam?

The 10% doing DT claim seems odd but I would check with the school. It may be that practical facilities are limited.

1. What is your "revision" advice?

There are lots of good threads on this board about how to revise - methods will vary. A key aspect is to revise as you go along, topic by topic, especially for subjects such as maths and MFL where practice is key.

1. What results are important for?

GCSE grades will point the way to A levels and most schools have a minimum GCSE grade to allow the A level to be taken (usually a grade 6 or 7). GCSEs are also looked at by unis as they are commonly the only actual results when applying. They will also be looked at by employers in that many jobs require a pass grade in GCSE maths and English (regardless of degree etc).

HTH

4.. There maybe timetabling constraints with teachers or rooms so for example you may not be able to take say Geography and History because they happen at the same time.

7.. Yes, if your GCSE results aren’t good enough you may not be able to do any A levels.

Are you in England?

1. When GCSE are taking place?

GCSEs are May-June at the end of Y11. Dates are set by exam boards. For example, if your DS is taking French Edexel, he will take it at exactly the same time and date as everyone else in the country. Those students taking French with AQA might take it a different time.

Exams take place at school. I resume there are opportunities to take extra ones elsewhere.

Students generally select their GCSE subjects while they are in Y9. Some schools do it in Y8.

The number of exams taken varies. My DD is taking 10. I believe that anywhere between 8 and 11 is common. Less is also an option if it's agreed by the school to be in the students best interest.

All schools I've heard of take time and give lots of advice and consultation sessions for students and parents.

Yes, it's possible that your DS will want to study a subject that isn't offered at his school.

My revision advice - a good plan with little and often revision. Use lots of resources and different revision methods. Yes, if they're taking 10 GCSEs they'll need to revise for all subjects.

All students are different. Some will benefit from tutors (in subjects they need the most support in). Others won't need tutoring.

A levels come Y12 and Y13. You choose them during Y11. Different subjects can be selected than those they took GCSEs in. But you won't, for instance, be able to do A Level French if they've not studied GCSE French. And they may need a particular mark to be able to do A level. eg a Grade 6 at Maths to be allowed to do A Level Maths.

For example, if your DS is taking French Edexel, he will take it at exactly the same time and date as everyone else in the country. Those students taking French with AQA might take it a different time.

Actually that's not true - pretty much everyone taking GCSE French/English/history etc will take it at the same time, regardless of board (the board is chosen by the school @DadOfHisSon ).

This is to avoid exam clashes as most schools will choose various boards for the different subjects (for example school may prefer AQA MFL but Edexcel maths).

The only exceptions to "all French GCEs are sat at the same time" is if a student is taking IGCSE (more commonly private schools or those who are home educated IME) which do sometimes have a slightly different timetable (eng lang IGCSE was really early last year for example, as a student of mine was sitting it).

Thank you very much everyone for your answers!
We are in England, yes.
(one tiny clarification - I probably was not super clear - I didn't mean my son to have all exams in his native language - obv all the subjects will be in english, speaking of his native language exam I meant to take it as an extra foreign language, in addition to French, Latin, Spanish etc)

Agree with @clary over timing, moreover it is to stop schools double entering kids for the same subject with different exam boards and ending up with the poor kids sitting a ridiculous number of exams.
OP the general pattern of the exam timetable is pretty consistent from year to year if you want to search for 2024s now, ie first Biology ( or biology component of combined) is (nearly always) on the second day of exams.

The number of subjects and combination they take will be somewhat dictated by the individual school’s timetabling. At my son’s school they all choose either citizenship or RE in Y8 and take the exam a year early in Y10, then choose the other options in Y9 - compulsory maths, English Lang and lit, dual award or triple science plus three options - dictated by timetabling into three blocks (advised to take a language, a humanity and an arts subject but popular subjects appeared in more than one block so you could do two languages, for example). So they take either 9 or 10 subjects, the top maths set also did Ad Maths which is a stepping stone to Alevel. The A levels you could take were to some extent dictated by GCSEs but it seems unlikely something you chose to drop you’d then want to take - for example you couldn’t take French Alevel without a decent grade at GCSE.
My siblings’ children are bilingual and I have two nieces who are taking a language GCSE privately in Y10 - the parents paid the exam fees and they’ll go to a local private exam centre. School might be prepared to invigilate if the exam is at the same time as another subject? If they are proficient in the language anyway I’d get that one out of the way early and take some pressure off in Y11. My nieces are both having private language tuition as being a fluent speaker is not the same as being prepped for the exam.

My nieces are both having private language tuition as being a fluent speaker is not the same as being prepped for the exam.

Yes this is a very good point from @Patchworksack. MFL is my subject; a native speaker, while likely to be able yo get a high grade, still needs to be able to tick the required boxes in the exam - things like giving opinions and reasons in speaking and writing, using a range of tenses etc. Worth investing in a couple of sessions with a tutor who knows the exam spec really well.

Which Grammar School ? I am probably your son’s maths teacher :)

@Pythag Wilson's :)