Change A level in year 12

[Flippyfloppyflipflop]

Anyone's child done this or taught a child who's done this?
DC doing 3 A levels. Hates 1 and not doing well in that subject so has decided wants to change subjects. Will keep the other 2 (in which is doing well). For various reasons we are considering agreeing to this and school may assist.
Would appreciate any thoughts.

Are you saying that they will take up a new subject now and do that third A level content in one (and a bit?) years? What are their subjects? I seem to remember when DS was at college some students who were doing badly in a subject being allowed/forced to drop that and do a Sociology A level in one year? However they had no choice in the new subject and as it was a large 6th from college they could timetable extra sessions for that group to cover the content in a year. I don't know how it would work for a single student being thrown into a Year 13 class and having to make up a year's work on their own.

I suspect she’ll be asked to repeat year 12 to make it happen unless she is capable of teaching herself.

Thank you both. Yes DC would replace 1 A level with a different one and do all 3 in a year having been tutored over summer in the year 12 content of the new A level, which would be an essay-type subject rather than STEM, eg PRE, politics, history of art or something like that.
Wouldn't repeat Yr 12.

I’ve known a dc who did this , attended both years’ lessons in y13 to catch up. It was a subject related to other two so transferrable skills.

Thank you Lizs. Did they manage to get decent grades?

Think so but during Covid when grading was confused anyway,

I did this (though many years ago). Dropped a subject at end of year 12 and took an A-Level in 1 year in year 13 alongside my 2 other A-Levels. Got an A (likely to have got a D or E in the one I dropped).

It’s a how long is a piece of string type question!

It clearly is possible for a bright and motivated student, as unis go more than twice the A level pace (at least the good ones do)

But don’t underestimate how hard the challenge will be. They will effectively have to give up the summer holiday and replace it with 20 hours (at least) of study per week.

I’ve never heard of a school recommending it, but I am guessing it is a fee paying school and the subject is undersubscribed, so it will work well financially for the school.

@PlanningMayhem Thank you - good to know someone succeeded at what objectively seems a slightly mad decision!

Make sure your DC speaks to head of 6th asap to understand what they can offer… this might affect their decision making

DS took his maths A level after only a year as did everyone else also taking Further Maths which they did the following year.

I think it’s perfectly doable so long as DC has all the relevant notes, text books and PowerPoints of previous lessons etc

I think if the school is in favour of it and DC is prepared to cover a lot of work it might be possible in the scenario you describe (ie an essay subject, related to current choices?)

Be aware tho (well you will be) that we are talking less than 12 months, not a year and a bit. A levels start in early May and most schools will have covered all content by ? March/April time. So they have max 11 months to cover all the content.

I don't personally know anyone who has done that, though I have worked with a student who covered A level MFL from about March to May (ie 14 months). They were to some extent a native speaker but even so there is a lot of content to cover. They managed it well as they were happy to work hard.

Many thanks to all who have responded. It's a very difficult situation to which there is no easy answer so it's very useful to have some objective views.

Ultimately, it's a decision between the student and school, with some input from you. Things to think about would include:

What subject does your child want to take up? Is it something like geography where they may at least have done a GCSE in the subject or is it something completely new which they haven't studied or which is only offered at A level?

Do they know what they actually want to study – that's not clear from your posts? Is it something in which they have a genuine interest or are they just casting around for an alternative subject to replace the one that they are not enjoying? I'm assuming that there will also be timetable restrictions so they may be limited in their options , they need to be as certain as they can that they're not just exchanging one unsuitable subject for another.

Is your child the type of student who is actually going to knuckle down and do a lot of study on this new subject over summer? Are they going to be happy playing catch-up on their own?

You didn't sound certain in your initial post that school would agree to this subject change, have there been discussions with them? What specific support will they offer to your child? can they provide all of the course material given to students so far? Does your child have a friend studying this subject who takes good notes and would be willing to share?

Thank you Aloha. Yes those are all things feeding in to the decision. You hit the nail on the head with whether our neurodiverse DC can buckle down - Million dollar question!