How many GCSEs

[Itisaniceday]

DD is in year 9, has an EHCP due to a speech and language disorder; it is not severe but impacts the way she learns; she is making progress at school though.

How many subjects she needs to take for GCSE? And how much she needs to pass them. Not sure whether she will do A levels, BTec, technical, creative college. Just want her to have options

TIA

It is likely to be set by the school, though some will allow some students to drop one in favour of an option in learning support. DS1 has LD and he took eight plus the LS option. Most students take between eight and ten.

Ideally your DD will take maths, English lit and lang, two science and then two or three others that are of interest. If she can gain 4 or above in at least five GCSEs inc maths and one English, that will give her more options going forward. But ideally you need to speak to her school about her choices tbh.

Thank you. That’s helpful. I will reach out to the school. I am going to get her a science tutor so to good know it is 2 sciences. She already has a maths tutor

The school will probably want her to do at least 8 subjects, because progress 8 is the measure by which they are measured. That's why the majority of kids do 9-10 GCSEs, so the best results can be counted (your best English and maths count twice)
That's assuming it's a standard mainstream school!

The 'two science' will be the dual award which actually covers all 3 sciences.

Maths and Eng Lang are key as it is a right pain having to keep resitting them in college.

For a level 2 course at college she may only need grade 3s, and for a level 1 even less. There are always options.

Yes sorry thanks @TeenToTwenties thats what I meant - double science, covering all three sciences but leading to two GCSEs (less content than three single science GCSEs).

IME a number of schools now expect a max of eight GCSEs rather than 9 or 10 actually; I know at least two local to me where this is standard. So if you drop one you’re down to seven but that’s fine, even for P8 as done count double.

Thank you. That’s very helpful. It is a mainstream school

What do you make of this results? What will you choose: first column are her end of year assessment, second is class average. Year 8 final reports

Spanish: 84. 63

English: 53. 47

Maths: 57. 42

Science: 53. 63

Art: 54. 59

Geography: 22. 44

German: 61. 67

History. 63. 71

I honestly can’t really tell how she is doing. She tell me she is bottom sets; school said they don’t have sets but have some classes where there are more support staff.

I only hear from school once a year when they do the report for the LA with the EHCP, and they send the end of year report. There is 5 min with the teacher meeting once a year

We have got her a maths tutor, thinking of getting her an English and Science. Basically whatever it takes for her to pass and have some options.

The gateway qualifications are maths and english at a grade 4 as you have to retake if they are lower

The next barrier a lot of places put in is 5 gcses at grade 4 or above to go onto a level 3 course (this is A level, level)

Then individual subjects might have thier own entry, like French might say you have to get a 6 or btech health might say you need science at a 4

So I'd say aim for 5 gcses at grade 4 to keep doors open and include science in that if something health related might be of interest to her.

but don't worry if that's not achievable (it's way out my sons league) as there are lots of courses that are vocational at level 1 and 2 and let you retake maths and english alongside them, and then you go on to level 3 or work after

Do you have a parents evening?
I would ask a blunt question of every teacher "given how she is now, do you expect her to pass a gcse in this subject without intervention?". May be better to do parents evening without her. Teachers don't like saying unlikely to pass outright, you have time encourage them to be honest.

Have to encourage, not time.

It is not possible to tell how she is doing from the information you have posted.

If school are saying that they don't have sets but some classes have more support than others it is likely she is in either a nurture group or a mixed ability group that has the children with support needs concentrated there.

Both are possible.

You may find it helpful to ask the school what her gcse target grades are. Everyone in the school will have them. They are calculated from ks2 sats results using a formula.

If you are prepared to post your child's ks2 results I could give you an idea of her target grades.

In terms of GCSEs the most important ones are maths and English. If you don't pass those then you have to resit them at college/sixth form until you do pass them, and some colleges/sixth forms will not accept you if you haven't passed them,

If your child doesn't pass (get a 4) in maths and English they will still be able to keep studying but their options will be limited. So for example at my local college, my daughter studied catering. Because she had her maths and English she studied it at level 2. People who hadn't yet got their 4 had to study at level 1.

Beyond maths and English it very much depends on what her interests are. My son nearly failed his English and did badly in a couple of others but was great at maths and physics and that's what he went on to study.

If your child loves foreign languages, that's what she should do. Universities in general aren't really bothered about how many GCSEs and what grade unless you are talking Oxbridge. They're more interested in a level or btec results.

Parents evening are 5 min; you barely have time. I will ask more direct questions, thanks for the advice reg asking for targets.

I will look for the SAT results