Teachers - what alternatives to GCSEs in your school?

[Kungfufightingwithexperttiming]

Thinking ahead as DS (year 8) is so far behind his peers academically (SEN) and has never been able to access age related learning without significant support (has EHCP) but is in mainstream with standard national curriculum and standardised Academy testing. He’s functioning academically at around a year 2 level. The gap year on year between DS and peers gets bigger, although buffered now by being streamed with other kids who significantly struggle. We will continue to work at helping him at home, and via school, SENCO, EHCP reviews etc but my fear is that the system will conveyor belt him on to GCSEs with very little chance of him, even with significant support.

For those of you who teach secondary, do you have alternatives, functional skills courses etc for young people who you know won’t be able to access a GCSE curriculum? Or are they just put in for them with everyone else? I know the question will be why don’t we ask our school /SENCO, but when we’ve raised we’ve been told not to get ahead of ourselves and we’ll see when time comes.

Any feedback about alternatives and whether in your experience schools make these available to the lowest attainers would be gratefully received. I want to know there’s more than one path.

Please understand we aren’t “writing off” DS academically or setting him up to fail by wanting removing his opportunities for GCSEs - so please no comments telling me how important GCSEs are / how he’ll struggle without. I do understand the weight the education system places on them. It’s just that I want DS to be challenged in ways that he experiences success, rather than be working at a level where he cannot access even the basics of the GCSE curriculum.

If your ds is in mainstream school it's very unlikely that he will be given the opportunity to study anything other than GCSEs.

The way schools are measured/judged in school tables is by progress so even a grade 1 is worth more than a higher level vocational qualification. Because of this mainstream schools won't want to fund the types of courses it sounds like your son would benefit from.

Some FE colleges take students from age 14 for vocational qualifications which they do alongside English and Maths. This might be worth considering depending on your son's other needs.

My DDs school do BTECs alongside GCSEs. They are equal to GCSEs in performance statistics.

Unfortunately not something for Maths /English though.

We offer an alternative pathway in these cases. Other schools in my area do the same. We don’t expect them to do a language, unlike the majority and instead they choose from a range of BTEC courses

I would assume he was disapplied from SATS in Y6? If so, his outcomes won’t count in the school’s progress measures so there isn’t the same incentive to enter him for GCSE, if he won’t get a grade. Alternatives would be Entry Levels, Functional Skills, ASDAN and BTEC quals.

If he is working at Y2 you would have a case for getting him into a special school. You could ask for an emergency annual review and for them to consult - although there probably aren’t spaces. I work in special and our entry criteria is working at Y3 or below independently when they come to us in Y7.

HI @Kungfufightingwithexperttiming I hear you. One of my DC really struggled with GCSE. They were allowed to drop a subject and took a Btec as one of their options. But they still had to sit maths and English GCSEs (fabulously they passed maths) and had to retake English post-16. And this was on the old spec when there was coursework for English and IIRC a foundation level too. Thank goodness the post-16 setting also offered Functional Skills which was much more accessible and they achieved a pass at L2 which is equivalent level to GCSE grade 4. That has really helped.

So anyway. I imagine pretty much any school will insist they take maths and English GCSE, sorry. I do think it is so inappropriate for a small % of any cohort. When I was a classroom teacher there was a student I knew who struggled so much with English lit (unscaffolded analysis of Shakespeare, poetry, Victorian novel) that it was making them ill. I went to ask their Eng teacher and they said "they won't get a grade 1" - so why enter them? The school has to, is why. It’s rubbish IMHO. There isn’t even a foundation tier as the questions can be answered at any level (which is true to an extent – but an exam (esp Eng lang) with cloze tests, for example, would be more supportive than a blank page.

Sorry - that rant from me is not helpful to you! Please make sure your ds gets all the support that can be offered; my DC had a reader which really helped and a scribe (less useful for them but helpful for some). They were in a separate room which made the whole thing less daunting. Extra time, rest breaks, use of a laptop, may all be possible. They need to be your DS's normal way of working in the run-up to the exams tho so look at all this asap (I mean year 10 is plenty of time).

Schools often offer at least one Btec so that might be good for your DS – my old school offered a Btec in animal care which was very popular as well as H&S.

AQA project awards were on offer at my child’s school. Small projects tailored to the young persons strengths. Plus functional skills.

Depends on your school and number of EHCPs they've got as well as the support the child gets and their personality. In Y8 my DD had a reading age of 9 and was working at y3/4 maths, school got her to do entry level 3 maths and horticulture. By GCSEs she had improved so much she's on track to pass 8 GCSEs now, including being predicted an 8 in Art and 6 in drama.
The worst thing we ever did was move my DD to a special school. She lasted 1 term due to it not being appropriate socially but academically she regressed massively. They really feed off the other kids. Definitely explore options but don't discount how much they improve.

We offer Prince's Trust (King's trust now?) as a qualification equivalent to 2 GCSEs though in Northern Ireland so probably different to England.

I read recently that apprenticeships no longer require Maths and English GCSE which will help a lot of students.

Yes I saw there was a thread on that but not looked, so not sure what the consensus is – but it sounds like a good idea to me. A % of DC will not gain a 4 in maths and English (not everyone can pass after all) and if there is a productive way forward for those YP then that's excellent.

Where I worked the management was very vocal about alternative provision, but the truth was that you would have to be very very low ability to be allowed too take them and most of them would be of little or no use to the pupils.

If they make him do GCSEs ot will be completely disheartening and a waste of time.

Unless they can do functional skills and a range of other more suitable things I'd be looking at changing provision.

They choose a set of options like everyone else.
There are limited BTECs available. One option block is taken up with functional skills (so only 8 GCSE's) and the most relevant functional skills levels is taken alongside GCSE English and maths.

You probably need an ed psych recommendation that he study for qualifications at his level so that he can leave school with suitable qualifications. That might be ASDAN, entry level or functional skills. If you have a really excellent school this may be part of the offer already. Unfortunately some schools data managers don't like disapplying children from GCSE as even if they get a grade 1 this will contribute to progress 8 data whereas U or disapplied will bring the score down. Of course this takes no account of the child's emotional or psychological situation, sitting say in and say out in lessons that are if limited academic relevance.
It might help if you can find any local schools that have this offer AND an outstanding Ofsted and point this out...

Once he gets to sixth form it would be really helpful to look for a pathways type course that incorporates life skills, unless he is age appropriate or nearly so in this area.

You could look at what qualifications your local special schools offer.

At mainstream, but with resourced provision, here students can do BTec Home Cooking Skills at level 1 and level 2, have day release to college for a 14+ vocational course with a school LSA, and one is doing a bespoke GCSE that is not normally offered at his school. I doubt any of this would be available for non-RP students though, and I'm afraid I don't know how it works for students whose primary needs is learning support rather than autism.

In my DCs mainstream state academy they have a path of 9/10 GCSE's including a language, 8 GCSE's where they don't have to do a language and get extra maths and English instead; and then a 3rd stream where I think it's btec or functional skills and one of the options is animal care where they go off site to do it.
So yes I think there are different options but they will probably have to do the core subjects

I think you need to keep pushing with the school and not be fobbed off.
Email the Head of Year, SENCO and Deputy responsible for timetabling, asking to come in and discuss their provision for children like your DS who is working at yr2 level in yr8.

You are more likely to get provision by pushing for it early and involving key people. Read up on provision in other places such as medical x of Btec and GCSE.

In fully selective areas where there are Grammars and Secondsry Moderns, the latter tend to have students doing a mix of GXSE and Brecht as their cohort get better results this way. Lots can get decent result via Brec which is more coursework based and often better for those less good at exams.

If your school really can’t offer more suitable provision, id look at other local schools and see if any are more geared up for it. Some might have connections with colleges and vocational courses from 14. To get the best and suitable provision you might need to consider moving him.

Either way, unfortunately you’re probably going to have to push and keep pushing so he doesn’t slide through the gaps.

Enquire asking for precise info about the level kids have to be at to not be entered for GCSE but alternative qualifications.

Ensure his ECHP and any assessment and Ed psych reports are up to date and get going with these if not, as they will make a difference. Unfortunately schools are often not proactive enough with these and they are not in place by key decision points, so some students wind qualify for support or an appropriate curriculum. Look into disability discrimination. Depending on any diagnosis, inappropriate provision may have a case to answer for.

Best wishes. Fightcthe battl for your DS.

My DC’s school offer Prince’s Trust (I think to anyone on the SEN register), and a small number of btecs available to all. Afaik the only offer for maths and English is the GCSE, but I could be wrong

At a local good large school, year 9 pupils are about to choose the subjects they want to do in year 10. The school website shows details of all subjects that can be chosen (and they are not all GCSE, hairdressing, child care etc)
Perhaps, OP, it may come up on your school website if you look out for the information.

My dd (Y10) is on the alternative pathway. She is doing a handful of BTECs and GCSEs, but has dropped a couple and they have arranged for her to replace these with hair and beauty classes at a local college. They are being very supportive and flexible, which has been a nice surprise as they weren't flexible in her previous school years.

Most gcse subjects have entry level qualifications.

These are below gcse in level but do document where a student is performing at.

I am a retired maths teacher and most schools do AQA entry level maths.

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/mathematics/elc/mathematics-5930/specification

There are also entry levels in English, history, and other subjects.
Some GCSEs are more accessible to lower attaining students - catering etc has practical aspects to it and also is a useful life skill.

Some schools also offer BTECs but this is very school dependent.

ASDAN life skills is also quite popular in many schools as a gcse replacement.

BTECs

If your DC was disapplied from SATs they won’t count in the all-important GCSE data. If they did SATs they do GCSEs. I’m a former very experienced secondary SENCO who advocated ASDAN alongside age-appropriate Maths and Literacy teaching. I was told my expectations were too low. I eventually got fed up with the Progress 8/data obsession and moved into a totally different job.

Big upvote for ASDAN here.

DSD left mainstream secondary at the end of year 10. She doesn't have SEN but was really struggling with the GCSE curriculum and likely to fail several including maths and science.

She went to the local FE college and did level 2 animal care course, with foundation level maths and English GCSE. She ended up getting a 5 in her maths and a 6 in her English!

She is now at University after 3 years at college, which would never have happened in mainstream school with the standard GCSE curriculum.

I would definitely recommend speaking to the local colleges to see if they can offer anything more practical and suited to your son's interests.