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.

Our mainstream comp school is big. There is a whole range of more vocational options. Practical subjects leading to a trade etc. If that's not on offer is there another local school to look at?

Thank you so much to all posters for taking time to reply, teachers and also parents experiencing the same.

DS wasnt disapplied from SATS so did them. I’d had the conversation with primary who felt that he would do “better than you expect” with a reader and a scribe in maths and a scribe and support person to encourage him to tackle the reading in small sections. He didn’t do better than we expected and it upset him and cemented his view of being stupid. If I had a second child I’d be much more prepared for the system and strongly challenged/insisted he be disapplied.

in retrospect we would have looked for a provision that was specialist. In primary it would have worked much better for him. In secondary though he’s streamed with kids who also have significant struggles but the effect of that has been that he’s achieving socially, has a better self esteem (not through achievement but by being alongside other kids that don’t value that) and does have good relationships with key staff. If he hated school I’d move him in a heartbeat (or call an EHCP review to get that in motion) however he doesn’t, and I know the fight I’d have in our area to get him into a specialist provision via the EHCP process.

It’s good to hear that there are other options to GCSE’s and I’ll be more assertive in asking for the specifics of what’s in place in key stage 4 now. I know that the school references “when you are doing GCSEs” to the class DS is in (a class with low academic attainment) as he’s said “my GCSE results will be shocking”.

I think, as someone who got by in the top streamed class at school years ago, I thought that low attainers would do more basic work on the foundations of subjects to help them move and develop from their current level. It feels like a real lost opportunity to me that they are subject to the same Shakespeare / Algebra etc as it falls onto the curriculum because that’s they’ve reached the age that this is deemed appropriate schooling. I don’t know how teachers manage to keep going with the national curriculum with kids who developmentally can’t engage with it. It must take so much creativity to try and adapt it to much lower attainers than just to have the freedom to meet those kids where they are at!

Thank you again for your replies. I’m going to go through and note the alternatives mentioned and do more following up with school. We have an EHCP review in a couple of months so can formalise in that meeting also!

For English, you could look at Step Up to English. It can be co-taught alongside GCSE where necessary.

You raise good points OP. IMO maths option should be 'day to day functional maths' and embed core base skills. Dito English, no need for Eng Lit. More practical skills subjects that equip them to earn a decent wage.