Starting GCSE in Y9: pros, cons, still frowned upon by Ofsted?

[ParentOfOne]

We saw a state secondary school where they told us they start the GCSE curriculum one year earlier, in Y9, this way they dedicate most of Y11 just to revision.

Can you please help me understand how this works?

I have found a few threads where people said that Ofsted kind of put a stop to it because it didn't like it. Has this changed again, and does Ofsted now not mind? This school was rated outstanding and was last inspected 4 years ago.

Regardless of Ofsted's preferences, how does this work in practice? They must be compressing what would be the typical Y9 curriculum, but doesn't this create other problems, as in, isn't the Y9 curriculum the basis for the Y10 content? Maybe not in all subjects but at least in some?

From what I have read and heard, the pros can be that kids drop the subjects they don't like earlier and can proceed with the GCSE content at a more relaxed pace, the cons are that some feel choosing in Y8 is too soon, and dedicating too much time to revising can be stultifying .

Thoughts?

PS We have discarded the school which does this for other reasons.
We are trying to understand how our top 4 preferences (we get 6 choices) go about this as it wasn't mentioned at the open days.

My boys school do this. One is in Year 11 and one has just finished A levels. They covered the course content easily and as the course progressed focused more on exam technique but Y11 wasn’t just for revision so it wasn’t repetitive. They also has Integrated Studies where they rotated around other subjects e.g RE, PHSCE and subjects they weren’t taking exams in. The idea was to ensure a rounded education.

In terms of choosing too soon consider how much choice there really is. At this school they have six compulsory subjects (sciences, English language and literature and Maths). There is then a choice of one language from three choices, one humanity from three choices and then two further choices which could be another language, humanity or further choices. In some schools choice is restricted by ‘groups’ e.g. one subject from Group 1 and one from Group 2. My boys had clear ideas about what they wanted to study and were relieved to drop some subjects.

I’m not entirely sure how they structure the courses but they don’t lose any content as it builds year on year.

My sons school did this. I think it was great for him.

the main pros were behaviour improves as people are doing what they want; and more time to get through the curriculum. There didnt seem to be any issues around building on ks3.

Cons slightly narrower curriculum at an earlier stage But that didnt bother him..

@BridasShieldWall In terms of choosing too soon consider how much choice there really is.

That's true, actually.

I’m not entirely sure how they structure the courses but they don’t lose any content as it builds year on year.

That's the bit I don't get. Does your school start the Y10 GCSE content in Y9? Does this mean that they compress what would have normally been Y9 curriculum?

Mine started History in year 9, Ds1 in the last 6 weeks of year 9 then Ds2 in the last term, so 12 weeks. It did depend on the cohort. They also didn't hold back on science either, the cohort was ready, they were able to do more in depth content that helped them cement it as they had time. But science is in sets.

They didn't miss any year 9 content they just got through it quicker. It depends on the subject. Something like History or Geography is taken by pretty much everyone because they are told they have to take a humanity. The teacher in year 11 was teaching to grade 2s and 3s as well as grade 9s in the same class.

Something like Statistics is only chosen by those who love maths and they have to be at a certain attainment level to take it. Therefore the class love it, they usually get through the content in year 10 and then often take Further Maths in year 11.

Romeo and Juliet was studied in year 7 when it is also the GCSE Shakespeare text. That means they get the basics laid down early on.

I think most do this now? Y9 is a year that can be notoriously hard to keep them interested in otherwise. Being able to ease them into the workload and get a grip on vocab. I don't think I know any around my way that don't start in Y9 tbh.

Thinking back the end of year exams for Y9 were also at GCSE level so they could be set properly for Y10.

I think if they do IGCSEs the content is very broad anyway, so it allows for this and extra reading. They can also have time to go over any topics that pupils are finding hard.

Thank you all for your comments. So what I had read in older threads, that Ofsted doesn't like it, is no longer true?

I don’t know and the kids wouldn’t know what was Y9 vs Y10 content. I think they cover Y9 content in Y9 and may start Y10 at the end of that year. They can’t miss it out as it builds on it in each subject. One of the English teachers explained it but I can’t remember precisely. Something about developing the themes for GCSE work in the Y9 curriculum. It’s a question for the schools.

Some of the schools around me compress the option subjects into one year. For instance PE is taught in one year to both Y10 and Y11 students and they all take the exam at the end of the year. They take three subjects at the end of Y10 and the rest as normal in Y11. The aim is to have a breadth of curriculum in smaller schools. The point is there isn’t one way of managing it,

DS has just gone into year 9 at a selective independent which usually gets good results.
He has narrowed down his subjects and by doing this they are starting on the GCSE curriculum.
They all do English, maths, 3 science, and a modern language for GCSE. His chosen language is German. He could do 2 languages if he chose.
He continues History, Geography, R/S, PD, games in year 9.
He’s dropped music and art.
He’s continued Latin, DT and computer science.
He will chose his options Dec/ Jan and at the moment intends to choose Latin, History and Computer Science.

I’m not a fan of beginning in year 9. My DS will not choose to take art, DT, music or performing arts at GCSE, but I think it’s a shame to stop learning so early. If you’re not taking a language then you’ve maybe only spent a couple of years learning a MFL. It all seems a bit limiting.
Having said that, my DC’s are predicted 8s and 9s. If they were predicted 4s and 5s I might feel that the extra year of prep is worth more than the breadth of study.

My girls grammar school do this. It’s because they work so much faster as a group due to the whole class academic ability from year 7 onwards, so are totally ready for it come year 9. It’s nice come year 11 as they do revision for most of it. 30% grade 9s.

It’s awful.
ofsted don’t like it but it’s so horrendously narrowing - in English kids end up studying Macbeth for over a year for example.
revision dull as anything. Why anyone would love learning after that i have no ide

It is funny though if you think about it. They say levels are improving but can they really say that if a 2 yr course is now taken over 3? Surely all of our grades in the 90's would be better if we had had an extra year!

My kids school does this, they compress KS3 into 2 years (y7&8 and would have been taught in y9). So they then have 3 years for the gcse syllabus and plenty of revision. They also can delve more deeply into the subjects that they want to take for A Level.

My main gripe with it is that kids narrow down section really early, as someone said upthread.

My DC’s school did this but the flip side is that they do more GCSEs, so they narrow the curriculum a year early but not by as much. It suited mine, they both liked keeping more breadth to the end of Y11. They take some exams in Y10 so that exam season isn’t a complete nightmare with the extra subjects. (This is in Wales though, so not managed by Ofsted.)

Ours do this a form of this too - it is good for option subjects that haven’t been studied before (eg Sociology for DS1) so they can give them a good grounding before they start focusing on the course specific stuff. Then they take English Lit a year early so can focus on language in yr11.
I’d be a bit worried if all of yr11 is planned to be revision in all subjects though - that does sound kind of dull.

DD's school does this for science only (reading their curriculum guides).
Which makes sense as everyone has to take science in some form, and there's A LOT of content, so they start some of the GCSE content in Y9. They don't do it for any of the other subjects though.

Ofsted don’t like it.

the last school I worked at did this.

it doesn’t impact maths English or science as they are compulsory but it does mean the year 9 curriculum is less broad than it otherwise would be.

it won’t stop a school getting outstanding on it’s own though.

Interesting that most people are saying it's high performing schools that do this as the one near us that did it is definitely not high performing. I thought they made them choose early to accommodate poor attendance and behaviour so needed 3 years to do the 2 year course. In the last couple of years they have gone back to doing 2 years though. I agree with others saying it's a shame to narrow the curriculum so early particularly for non academic subjects, or ones you would do if you you had more options.

At dd1's grammar school, they all do triple science and they start that curriculum in Y9 as apparently there is so much to get through but everything else is in Y10. Interestingly at another local school, they don't decide who's going to do triple science until the start of Y11. They all do the same until then, and then the strongest students do triple and do 10 GCSEs while the rest do combined.

I’m Head of English at a comprehensive and I’d never work in a school that did this. Year 9 should be a broad and balanced curriculum that introduces and builds the skills they need for GCSE, not the content. I love teaching Romeo and Juliet but no class needs to hammer it for three years.

I wonder if the 3 year thing is how so many more are doing 10-12 though. Dd is going 10 and I know most of her friends are, with several doing 12. I can see there would be time for that with the extra year and not as much pressure.

At Dd's they did R&J as one of the books in Y9 but they are doing Macbeth for GCSE, so I think it's more about using the same themes and learning what is expected at the exam, just with wider reading. They deliberately didn't tell them which Shakespeare they were doing with the aim of keeping them interested.

That sounds like a good approach. I bet that HoD hates the three year KS4 too 😂

DD's school did this and for us it was perfect as she had very firm likes and dislikes and was delighted to be able to specialise early.

They publish the curriculum for each year group on the subject pages on the website if you wanted to see how it works in practice (Kingsdale).

From what I could tell, it wasn't that they started GCSE in the way you would if it was a 2 year course, but everything was a bit more spread out and extra things studied, but you ended up with the course content all complete by Christmas of Y11 and then time could be spent on exam technique and practise papers from Jan onwards so it was less rushed and stressful.

The school had Maths, English x 2 and Science as compulsory.
Then 1 language from French, German, Spanish or Latin
One of Geography or History
One of RE or Citizenship (taken early in Y10)
One visual or performing art from Fine Art, Graphics, Textiles, Photography, DT, Drama, Music or BTEC Creative Media Production
Free choice from all the above plus things like Psychology, Classical Civ, Food Tech, CS, PE etc

So they tried to keep a very balanced curriculum, plus a huge choice of extra curriculars so if you didn't take a subject you could probably still find a club or activity that meant you could carry on.

Wouldn't suit every child but for those with very specific interests it works well NOT having to slog through another year of something you hate.