DD's school and early GCSEs - we don't want them early....

[McBitchy]

DD is a lovely girl
Bright and very very lazy. She is at a very 'good' but imo annoying school . They seem to want to push boundaries in education all the time

DD is year 10 and did 2 short course GCSEs in year 9
This year she is doing 3 FULL GCSE's in summer along with 2 modules in each science and one module each in History and Geography.

Tonight she told me she is doing the full Maths GCSE ( no modules?????) in November.

She is now up to it and I feel that this system is not the best one for her...what can I say or do? Can we ask for her NOT to do them early - but then the teaching will all be timed inappropriately

We cannot move her school - ALL the local and slightly less local schools oversubscribed

We feel overwhelmed and worried that a bright girl will be unable to achieve her potential

Any advice welcome

She is NOT up to it !

What were her Year 9 results?

There is an argument for truncating KS3 for the brighter ones and getting them started on the GCSEs early. It's nothing new - dh did 3 O levels early back in 1976 I think.

They won't have put her in for the GCSEs unless she has been taught all the syllabus, so presumably they started teaching her in year 9 for some of this?

Ds does his IGCSE French next year and some of his year will be doing it this year (Year 9) and will do A/S next year.

hmmm

ds did one early ut by choice but literally half of them early? That seems unusual to me

What will she do in year 11 if she's done most of her GCSEs already? Broader stuff or A/S level maths etc? Or no maths for a year?

the most bizarre array of AS levels and iMedia ( my pet hate) ' learn how to use a digital slr to get the perfect shot' - nothing relevant ....nothing that compensates for across the board drop in grades due to hurrying through exams imo

That seems an awful lot of early stuff McBitchy, I thought that Universities like to see a decent number of GCSEs taken in one go to show that kids can balance their workload. How many will she have left for year 11?

Not sure what you can do about it if the school does so much early, does she have the option of resitting anything in year 11 (when she is a bit more mature/gets how important they are) if her results are not what she's capable of?

Thanks webwiz.Yes she does have the chance to re sit but I just feel it is putting a lit of pressure on her and also quite demoralising

Her projected grades were A/A* but they look increasingly unattainable as she does less than well in dribs and drabs of modules

I agree- in the 'sister' boys school they do 9 or 10 gcses in year 11 - end of.

Originally she was supposed to take 14 0r 15 GCSEs although a couple were short course. We asked for her not to sit the media exam as she would rather concentrate on normal english - but the final tally is still ridiculously high.

She is old for the year but physically still very young ( for which she is seeing consultant) she does not have maturity to take them all so soon. It is not a decision She has made the school are just making her year the 'guinea pigs'

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great Ellen...

I do wonder with dd if she 'moves on' a bit physically she may mature a bit and knuckle down.

Hope your ds does well

I sympathise McBitchy DD1 was bright but lazy and I was able to force persuade her to revise once she got to Easter in year 11 but I couldn't have done it over loads of early stuff. DD2 is bright and hardworking but she would have heaped loads of stress on herself if she had that much stuff in year 10, she did take one GCSE early and various modules but that was enough.

After having two go through GCSEs the more convinced I am that the time leading up to them should be spent covering the material in the syllabus thoroughly, learning to write essays, reports and write up practicals properly and perhaps occasionally learning some things just because they are interesting. Starting GCSEs in year 9 just starts the exam treadmill earlier and I hope that DS who is in year 8 does nothing next year other than his internal school exams.

If you get the chance McBitchy I would query with the school what the rational behind heaps of GCSEs is when the top universities just want a nice batch of 8 or 9 with good grades.

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we have said that before webwiz but they argue that the girls are so bright that they want to broaden horizons etc....

Hmm. This is an interesting one. Where I teach, all the Yr 11s took English and Maths in November this year. Those who were satisfied with their grades (ie C or above, and not likely to get higher) in English now spend extra time doing English Lit (classes were re-jigged) in order to get the highest grade possible. Those who got good grades for English AND Maths no longer do maths, and the timetables and classes have been re-done to allow those students to spend more time on Science or their option subjects. It was complex, but, in theory, it seems to be working. Obviously the real proof will be in the final results. We're not a terribly high achieving school, so I guess it fits.

As far as I can see, though, forcing students to sit exams early in order to fit more subjects in seems a bit pointless - it won't necessarily benefit the students, though, of course, will be something for the school to brag about. When I was in VI Form (early 90s) there was one school in our town where everyone came out with 12 or 13 GCSEs rather than the standard 9. No one could figure out why. IIRC, it didn't give those kids the edge over the rest of us.

thanks evil twins - maybe i could feel optimistic that it seems to be working for your school !

dd would benefit from a strong basic knowledge in 9 gcses - not struggle with15

Call me cynical but do you think the high number of GCSEs that the school is pushing her to do is more to do with their 5 A*-C rate at GCSE than their wish to do what is best for your DD.

Sounds v much like the tale of one of my colleagues whose DD attends a mixed ability school where they know some children won't attain 5 A* - C, so seem to be pushing those that can to take more subjects / exams than they want to, perhaps to push up overall attainment levels and therefore bump up the school averages.

For example, if a school had 100 pupils, only 50 of which were expected to get 5 A-C at GCSE, if the top 25 each pass 12 exams (yielding 300 A-C), and the next 25 pass 8 exams each (yielding 200 A-C) = 500 exams passed at A - C
500 exams passes divided between 100 pupils could give the (wrong) impression that each pupils has attained 5 A* - C

LadyL - it doesn't work like that. The figures are a percentage of the entrants who got the A*-C - it's not possible to bump up figures by making clever students take more.

EvilTwins - Can I just ask you - do universities get to see if pupil has done module resits or do they only know the final grade? Is it different for GSCE'S AND A-LEVELS?

I think that universities only get to see the final grade. That's all that goes on the form, AFAIK. The date the exam was sat, and the grade. So if a student did maths in 2009 and got a C, then did it again in 2010 and got a B, the 2010 B grade would go on the form.

Thank you !

As a teacher I don't like the current trend for moving GCSEs younger and younger. You might be able to cover the syllabus but there's no compensating for the increase in maturity which takes place between Yr9 and Yr11. Also the loss of freedom for the children who are pushed onto the public exam treadmill so young. I would make an appointment with the head or another relevant person to discuss your concerns as I agree it sounds like this set up could adversely affect your daughter's results.

MY DSs are at a grammar school.They don't do any GCSEs early .They all do 10/11 in one sitting in Y11.They think 10 GCSEs at A/A* in one sitting says more about a students ability than 15 done over 3 years.they begin A level material when the kids thoroughly know GCSE stuff.

kingprawntikka, the A level module results don't go on the UCAS form (unless mentioned by the school or in the personal statement I guess), but a few universities at least do require the information, so I presume have access to it somehow for verification. Cambridge request all module results before making offers and Imperial are known for making offers (in maths and Engineering) that specify that all maths module results have to be an 'A' with no resits for example. It's probably only those very competitive universities/courses that look at the info though.

As far as I know universities will be completely unaware of GCSE module resits.

Thank you Snorkie, I have one child doing AS-levels and the other doing GCSE, and a lot of courses seem to be modular now.