Year 10 2026-27 Also Rans - for those with DCs who aren't sitting any or many GCSEs

[drspouse]

I have a DS who is about to enter year 10 in a school that is doing very little to push him and who has quite a few additional needs. We feel he's capable of more than they are saying, but he really needs speech therapy which they aren't yet organising (even though it's on his EHCP) and I just KNOW that all his friends from primary and nursery will be taking 65 million GCSEs and aiming for Oxford.
So here's a thread for me to counteract that - if your DCs are more likely to sit Functional Skills or possibly even nothing, or life is just a bit uncertain at the moment, and you are fed up of the high flyers talking about finishing aaaall their important GCSEs in Y9, join us and let's celebrate our lovely DCs and moan about everything else.

Not quite in the same situation but can empathise. I have twins. Both with EHCPs, both now in specialist. One twin is going into year 11 in Sept - he went to specialist for year 7, has had a very positive experience, is on track for 6 or 7 GCSEs and is aiming for A levels/BTEC at local mainstream college (if he can focus enough to get the grades - he's autistic and inattentive ADHD)
Other twin went to mainstream secondary with two or his closest friends from primary. At the time all 3 were 'high flyers' and did well at primary in both academics and sport. Midway through year 7 my son went into total burnout. Long story short turns out he's also autistic, been masking for years, never managed to get back into mainstream secondary, dropped by his friends and was in a very bad place for quite some time. Got diagnosis, EHCP, and moved to specialist in March - went back a year as he'd missed so much so goes into year 10 in September. He will hopefully also get 6 or 7 GCSEs if we manage the pressure and workload carefully to avoid further burnout. He's very able but can become paralysed with anxiety. His primary friends will likely get 10 or 11 GCSEs at A/A* and will definitely be aiming for Oxbridge. I know it doesn't matter, and that my son's mental health is the biggest priority and I'm thankful he's made it through the burnout and back to more or less his old self but it's so hard not to compare or to feel sad that he's been through so much and I still cant speak to the mums of his two primary friends as I'm fuming that they just dropped him when he wasn't able to attend school any more :-(

You may have just wanted a rant but if you were looking for some advice - make a formal complaint to the LA about the lack of speech therapy - it's ultimately their legal responsibility to deliver the provision in the EHCP and they should not be allowed to get away with not doing so.

Thanks - I'd actually like an ongoing support thread, as we'll face very different challenges - less revision and more "what the heck can you do with entry level and how do we get our DCs up to an employable level".
Lucky the LEA has agreed to 2 hours of speech therapy per week to make up for missed time but we have a feeling this will be up to the school to deliver and they are well known for making excuses.
I wish we had access to specialist schools that do 6 or 7 GCSEs!

My daughter , who is autistic , with learning difficulties but also low speed processing going into year 10.

when she did her mocks in year 9, and got very low marks in all of them my heart broke for her , she had worked so hard and studied so hard but just can’t retain the information.
iv told her that aslong as she carries on with what she’s doing that’s all i can ask for .

Aww bless her.
I'm glad at least that we didn't have to deal with mocks with DS.

Anyone keeping up with the news on these additional pre GCSE qualifications?
What's the difference between these and Functional Skills???