Teaching your own child a language GCSE

[Sid]

My ds is in Year 8 and I am contemplating teaching him German myself at home, so that he can continue with French and Spanish at his secondary school and take all three languages to GCSE. I am German, his father is English and my son's spoken German is OK, although he has no knowledge of grammar, which is a big deal in German. I would use the same textbooks they have at school to guide me. Has anyone done this with their own children? Was it manageable, or will it be too much work? (I have younger children too) Any tips and advice are greatly appreciated.

We home educate and I am teaching my own 3 French and Spanish. They will take GCSE when they are ready. (Eldest is only 12.) You could approach the school about sitting the exam there, I would hope that they would be happy to.

Although I am not a 'native speaker', I am also a languages teacher so am familiar with the exam requirements. It would definitely be worth reading through the exam guidelines so that you know what he will need to do. The only issue might be coursework and speaking assessments as they have just changed the way they are done!! But I'm sure you can get the school on board with that.

We have a teacher who speaks Italian and who put 2 Italian children through GCSE even though it's not a language we usually do. We've also organised other languages.

Hi Sid! Grammar is not a major issue in German GCSE these days - dumbing down and all that!

If your son has fairly good spoken German and understanding, he could probably take his GCSE much sooner.

Have a long at some past papers here
here (though the spec has just changed)

Then go and have a chat in school and ask about whether they would consider him for early entry. If his comprehension and oral work is good, and you can teach him to write adequately, then I reckon he should be able to do the exam in yr9. (Has he been studying German at school?)

On that link you have to click on "Question papers and markschemes", then select a year. eg 2009.

I've been a bit astonished tbh at how easy they are.

A girl in my school took GCSE German alongside my class: she was the year below me but her Mum was German. She'd never had a German lesson in school and got an A*.

Hi
My daughter took GCSE Dutch in the first year of secondary school. We had lived in the Netherlands for 5 years and she attended the local primary school. This level plus lots of exam practice was sufficient to get her a grade A.

So my advice would be to check out the different exam boards and find the one that will suit best (there wasnt a choice for Dutch). Get lots of past papers plus any listening CDs etc plus the examiners mark schemes etc. Then go for it. A good grade can be achieved and good exam technique is vital.

Oh & try to make sure that your son looks both way when crossing the road - my daft daughter manged to step in front of a car a couple of weeks before the exam and so had to do it on crutches which may have been distracting!

Contact the school and make sure they are happy to enter him into the exam - ours was more than helpful. The only thing is that if your son takes the exam early then he will be out of the normal school communication loop so you may need to be proactive to ensure that he is aware of when/where to go on the day.

Daughter is now 14 and has just sat the AS level. We got a tutor for this - simply a native Dutch speaker happy to help. Again lots of focus on the exam paper and mark scheme. I know this is teaching to the test but as the whole of each tutor session in in Dutch I think that it is a satisfactory compromise.

Succes!

Hallo!
It should be feasible but the Gcse has changed. This year is last of 'legacy' papers and the trouble in Yr 10 now is that there are various controlled assessments. Some you get an hour to prepare for and then a week to revise before writing it up. There are very complex rules for the oral and writing so do have a look at ocr , aqa , and edxcel specs or maybe go for an IGCSE intead. When I have prepared kids early it can be difficult as they need to write speak about work experience, A Level plans etc so they can be limited by some of thr question contexts. As to the grammar ..well if he gets full or near full marks on the reading and listening and for the oral then you can lose a few marks for inaccuracy and still get an A*(or just make sure he only uses the dative plural and you can't go wrong!). The new specification has reverted to English questioning so for those who can't even work out whther it is wer/was/wie/wo it is now easier than before. Let us know how it goes.

To get the structure, how about looking at one of the distance courses? That way your son could get the best of both worlds - a structured course and your active support.