GCSE options / possible error in report - to query with school?

[TweeBee]

Morning!
DS is choosing his options for GCSE. He had a parents evening before Christmas, great feedback from all, teachers saying they hoped he would do their subject for GCSE. Options evening was last week, again, all the teachers of the subjects he wanted to look at were keen for him to choose their subject.
We’ve just had a report from school - one with just grades and no comments. It marks him as a cause for concern and significantly below peers in geography. However geography is something he is keen to do at GCSE and, as above, the teacher has seemed very keen for him to do it.
i asked him if he’d had a test that had been difficult or maybe a piece of homework he’d misunderstood but he said he didn’t know.
Am I right to contact school and clarify? It’s generally difficult to get any response so I always feel like a pain but obviously this is important.
Thanks

Definitely contact them if you have a query..

I'd contact the goeography teacher rather than the school, but yes; query it.
Or ignore it, assume someone's fingers slipped, and shove Geography on the options form anyway.

Yes, I have GCSE age DC and I would contact the school in these circumstances to understand more about this.

Please go to the teacher first. It could be human error. As most schools ask you to do history or geography it’s highly unlikely he wouldn’t be allowed to do it, even if he has had a blip.

All teachers will encourage their students to take their subject. It's bums on seats and keeps department budgets healthy.

but hope your son can take the course!

Definitely contact school. Email Geography teacher directly, ccing HoY.

We had exactly this with A-level choices, and it turned out to be an error. We've just had similar with UCAS predictions, and it turned out to be correct, which has really lit a fire under dc's bum!

I don’t have any way to contact the teacher except going through the main office, which is frustrating but I’ll do that. Thanks

@ramonaquimby not massively; yes we need a decent class size to run but most school curricula are set up so across the year group there'll be enough students - there's not an oversupply of subjects. I'd rather encourage those with ability and interest.

Contact the teacher and ask as it's out of line with your expectations and previous feedback

We had something like this that we queried. Turned out it was an admin error.

I’d be wondering if your child’s details had been mixed up with another.

@TweeBee if you haven't already gone through the front office then my first step would be to encourage your DS to speak to his teacher and ask about the mark on his report. You could help him plan how to ask if he's uncertain.... "Mr./Ms. X, the mark on my report said Y and I don't understand why. Could you look at it with me?" It sounds like this is a teacher he gets on with in a subject he enjoys and he's at an age where taking on some of the communication with your support is a fantasic skill that will serve him well.

It does sound like this was likely an admin error and it can be resolved, but if not you can follow up on any issues later if needed. And if it it is indeed an admin error and your DS is able to get it resolved with a quick query he'll come out of it with something positive.

Yes, contact teacher through main office. Just mark it "Message for Mr Geography" or whatever. The office won't care and will just forward it on