What would be the best way to sit GCSEs in Ireland?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

DD may be moving to the UK to attend a football academy next year, where she would also attend school and do A-levels. The person dealing with the school admission has asked that she do GCSEs in English and Maths so that they know what her academic level is as they are not experienced in dealing with Junior Cert (we're in Ireland). She has just started 5th year so doesn't have a huge amount of time available, it would have been easier to do it last academic year when she was in transition year.

I can't find anywhere that she can attend in person in Dublin, so I guess it would be online only. But there is also an issue of sitting the exams, which seems to be only available in the UK. Would she have to travel for the exams?

She could maybe go to a centre in the North, although I'm not sure how you'd arrange it. This sounds very tricky to manage, really - they can't demand it, though, can they? If she's legally resident in the UK she has to be provided with an education, I'd imagine, regardless of what she's done before. You could send them some JC sample papers so they can see what the level is like compared with GCSEs (and she'll have had a full year of LC work beyond that so she shouldn't have any trouble really).

Any decent school will have an entrance exam - needing her to take maths/english GCSEs is rubbish and would make me very wary of how good this academy actually is.

She could sit them under the CCEA exam board in NI as an independent candidate. The issue would be that English requires controlled assessment which a teacher (presumably from the north, experienced in the exam board) would have to mark. I highly doubt that you’d find one willing to do this for a variety of reasons. It’s a lot of hassle for a rather pointless exercise if your DD is already doing LC.

Any decent school should have experience of kids transferring from abroad and the rough comparisons between equivalent qualifications. There should be no reason she needs to sit those GCSEs unless perhaps she's taking maths/English for A Level?

So she will be moving half way through LC cycle? Or by next year do you mean January? Seems like a bad time for an interruption. But see attached for equivalency of qualifications. No way I’d be asking her to sit exams. Any decent establishment should be able to set their own exams to measure her ability.

www.qqi.ie/sites/default/files/2023-08/Qualifications%20Can%20Cross%20Boundaries-Aug-2023_0.pdf

That sounds odd. Are they implying the Irish education isn't as good as the English system? Would they do the same to a Scottish educated child who had done Nat5s rather than GCSEs?

I would reply to say that GCSE is not available in Ireland, so it's not possible. Don't get into travelling - there are three papers for maths, two for English, spread out across a period of about a month when she may well have exams in Ireland too.

Students who haven't got pass grades in English/maths GCSE have to continue studying them alongside A-levels. Presumably an equivalent qualification from another country would be enough - but you might need leaving certificate rather than just Junior Cert. If she hasn't got a GCSE equivalent, then she might have to do the GCSEs. If her maths is okay, she might just do the November resit; English might be a little more difficult as she might need to be taught what sort of thing is expected in the exam. As far as the school knowing what level she's currently working at, they can just throw her a GCSE paper to try. Then they'll have an idea of whether she could do the November resit or will need more teaching.

Yeah, I think it's not going to be possible. She's also going to be applying to other academies in the mean time so there will be a bit of travelling back and forth for trials sucking up time too.

My SIL sister has taught in both systems and GCSE maths was up until recently more or less the same level as JC maths however in fairness there has been a serious decline in the level at JC in recent years. But 5th year maths will more than equal that if she does ok especially if it is higher level.