Dropping GCSE language advice

[Abracadabra399]

My 15 yo DC is in year 10. She’s doing ok academically - she has never loved school and is being assessed for ADHD and anxiety but she does her homework and is predicted grades 5-6 with maybe more for maths and science. She’s a good kid and pretty sensitive.

But she is and has always been hopeless at French and it is getting her down to the point where she’s getting stomach pains in the morning and not wanting to go in. The school insisted on including a language GCSE choice and I’ve tried to help her but after almost four years of lessons she can barely get past Je m’appelle. She has always struggled with learning and recognising the words and if she has to repeat back a word she hears it’s unrecognisable. Despite trying she got 15% in last test.

So it’s making her anxious and she is going to get a poor grade and my notions of having a bilingual kid and us all decamping to Cannes have gone :) Her school is obsessed with kids achieving a language GCSE as I think they have some sort of baccalaureate quota they parade.

I pointed out to the French teacher that this is pointless as she isn’t going to get a good grade and isn’t learning any French so why not spend the time on one of her other nine GCSEs. The teacher is adamant that she will be streamed with the standard paper and “drilled to get a pass” and that achieving baccalaureate standard is important. French teacher tried to present this as a great life lesson about sticking at something even if you’re no good at it, which I think we have more than given a go. I also fundamentally think it’s a bit pointless to be drilled to try and scrape a pass in a language if you are not going to be able to order a loaf of bread at the bakery or ask where the post office is at the end of it which may be colouring my judgement!!

I’d love some advice please on whether (and how) I ask again for her to drop it - she is begging me every day to do this. Or whether the French teacher is right and she should suck it up and try and work hard enough to get a pass?

They want her to study French for their own statistics rather than her own benefit

They also want her in lessons so they don't have to supervise her elsewhere

Schools age very reluctant to let kids drop subjects. Guess they think if they let one do it everyone will then want to drop the subject they don’t fancy. I don’t know of any pupil in my dds state who were allowed to drop a subject. Maybe it’s different at a private school

It's very difficult to drop a subject in Year 10 - where would that child go during lessons, who is going to supervise them in that time? Best everyone just gets on board with her not doing very well in the exam and she just coasts along in class (this happens plenty - I'm an MFL teacher!)

I’m a former mfl teacher and that’s ridiculous
it’s true that if she passes it will help their ebacc score but it won’t at all if she fails and possibly to the detriment of her other subjects

some kids really struggle with mfl. Aty kids’ school it’s compulsory but in fact they do let a few kids off every year because it’s such a strugggle

I’d try and escalate it with the school, if all else fails then just tell your dd to concentrate on other subjects and just not worry about it.

She should stop working on it.

my child was similar. The teachers eventually accepted that they couldn’t drill him, it just didn’t work.

schools are usually reluctant to let students drop GCSEs as someone needs to supervise the students during that time, but many schools run extra English and maths support during MFL time - you could ask if there is something like that she could transfer into? Or by year 10 my son was allowed to sit in the SEN centre and just do his homework.

if it is making her so anxious that she is struggling to get into school you can say that she is starting to get into ebsa. This stands for emotionally based school avoidance and there is government guidance on this which includes offering a part time timetable.

What are the consequences of not turing up to the exams? I wish I hadn't sent DD2 in for hers as it's dragged her average score down so much that sixth form college have lower expectations of her than they should for A Level grades (I stupidly assumed they used the corresponding GCSE to work out expected A Level grades - maybe some schools do?).

@clary thought you could weigh in on this.

It can now be a timetabling issue. If she isn't in French where could she go instead? Is there any sort of room for quiet time usually used for children with SEN to decompress? I would possibly also try to speak to SENDCo at the school too.

She doesn't have to apply herself in this subject if she doesn't want to. You can lead a horse to water and all that. Although to be fair to the teacher MFL seems to be the one everyone talks about dropping. Mine used a language app with specific GCSE content to learn their language.

Oh that’s interesting! I hadn’t thought that the average score from GCSEs might be a thing. Her school doesn’t automatically allow students to stay for sixth form and has quite high grade requirements so there is a possibility she has to decamp to a sixth form college. God knows re not turning up to exams - I’m sure the school would claim there would be consequences but in reality what could they do? Make it harder for her to stay at sixth form? Charge for paper? I don’t know…

Exactly this! Zero learning or sense about it.

Thanks for advice, I’m going to ask…

I tried to do this for my DD too, but the school said no and that it wasn’t my decision, it was theirs. So she just stopped doing any work in it. She’s doing it as gcse now, this week in fact, and is actually quite happy to be doing it. She’s done absokutely no extra work for it at all, no revision, but thinks she’ll get a 6/7 anyway. Grammar school so it’s for their ‘100% of our pupils get 10GCSEs at 7 or above’ marketing as that’s all they’re interested in.

I take it French is the only option?
I ask because I hated it with a passion at school - luckily we weren't forced to study it, but I've dince discovered a love for German (a much more logical language)! It really does sound like they just want her to take it for their sake and not hers, and I'd be inclined to just ignore it at home/study time and tell her to do bare minimum in class. I feel for her, and you.

My dd really wanted to drop French and in year 10 struggled like your dc op, but she scrapped a c in the end, combination of a trip to France in the summer between year 10&11, her elder sister helping a bit (was doing a level French) and her babysitting French French’ kids though the latter may not have been that useful as they hated speaking French anyway and taught her swear words!

Is there a support class for kids with additional needs? I managed to get DD2 moved into that class in Year 9 for French. They weren’t sitting the GCSE but instead they learnt about French culture and did mini quizzes. There was no homework or exams, so it was fine. That was
only for a year though. She was allowed to drop in year 10.

I'm dyslexic, I wasn't diagnosed until I went to uni in my 30s.

I was hopeless at French, it made no sense to me. I was fortunate that my Art teacher said I could attend the art room when I was supposed to be in French.

I'm old so in my case I could argue that, "An O level is better than CSE", I was in the CSE class for French but I could do art O Level.

Id it is making her ill then the school has a duty of care to her, if she is found to have ADHD then they have a legal duty to make a 'reasonable adjustment' for her.

BTW tell her from me, being crap at French doesn't mean you are crap at all languages.

They have the power to drop a GCse , they did for my son
Just stress she will use those extras hours on other subjects x

Hi @Abracadabra399 I feel for your DD on this. MFL is my subject and I love it of course, but not everyone can get on with it.

Firstly as others say, the school is keen for students to take MFL so they can get a good ebacc score. That makes no difference to your DD tho. Having the ebacc will not ever matter. Even the highest-ranking unis don’t ask for MFL at GCSE (unless taking MFL further obvs).

I would push the school for her to be allowed to drop – but be aware that they may say no simply because she has to be somewhere, supervised, for those lessons and there may not be a place she can go. (SEN hub maybe?) - plus they may say, what will she do in that time?

If they won't let her drop, these are your options:

• She continues in lessons and tries her best in the exam. She will be taking F paper - take a look at some and you and she may be surprised as it is aimed at lower ability. She might still get a 2/3 grade.
• She doesn't make any effort, focuses on her other subjects, attends lessons and gets a very low grade or a U.
• She continues in lessons as above but doesn't make any extra effort and doesn't go to the exams. In that case she will get an X on her grade certificates.

She has to declare all her GCSE grades for UCAS but I cannot think it will matter and a 2 in French won't stop her going to uni if she fulfils other requirements.

Look at what the school asks for for sixth form – some do look at average GCSE grades but many do not. Certainly friends of DS2 who were made to take Spanish and got a 2/3 grade still went to the sixth form.

If she does want to improve her French, duolingo (tho not GCSE targeted as such) is a very good app. There are also vocab websites such as memrise which may be worth a look. Maybe break it right down to basic year 7 level – hobbies, family, what I am like, what I look like – could she manage that?

BBC Bitesize is also good for most subjects, if she does want to give it a go (I've looked at German mainly but most subjects are decent).

That’s ridiculous of her school. Our DS (Year 9) has asked to drop French as it’s his least good subject, I think he’d prob get a 5 or thereabouts. But they’ve been allowed to drop one so that’s his choice. And as far as I can tell other than saying he won’t achieve the Ebac dropping a language is fine.

DS is Y11, currently in the midst of GCSE's, he dropped Spanish last year. He's a 7/8 student but got a 4 in Spanish in Y10 end of year exams. I felt if he didn't have the necessary vocab by the end of Y10, there was no chance of him getting himself up to standard by GCSE's. School completely agreed with me and there were no issues with him dropping it and focusing on his other subjects which has been really positive. He's at a private school which might make a difference but they run 'study skills' classes for DC sitting fewer GCSE's and he went to those instead, which ran revision sessions and some extra maths/English/Science lessons.

I would really try and push for her to drop it if you can find a solution for where she will actually go during lesson time - can she go to the library and study for example? She'll be Y11 next year so I'd like to think they would trust her to sit quietly in the library for a few periods a week - it's not like leaving a Y7 to their own devices.

This is ridiculous. My DD is in Year 12 at one of the top state schools in London. When choosing GCSE subjects, the head said they didn’t need a language and should choose the subjects they enjoy.

Had the same problem with my dyslexic ds. I'm a former MFL teacher so I don't dismiss languages, but he just couldn't do it. They wouldn't let him drop it. He got a 1 at gcse.

Schools that try to insist students do subjects that for ebacc for their own records - just ugh.

My dyslexic son was allowed to give up French when he just couldn't get it. He was allowed to go to the learning support office and do homework or extra work on his English during the newly freed up periods.

In order to do well at a language at GCSE you need to want to do it. I used to tell parents not to force it if the kids weren't interested.

@Abracadabra399 - you have my sympathies. DS has ADHD, is at the end of Y9 and still can't remember things like the verb 'to go'. School does have an alternative to languages, a travel & tourism GCSE or maybe BTEC I think, but they only seem to offer it to kids they see as have lower general performance and they insist on DS going forward for French.

DS has started freezing up in school tests and I think a lot is to do with French stress.