Head says RE GCSE results this yr will be so bad, not to count them in.

[mumblechum]

Just had a mail from the headmaster, first of all explaining why RE teaching has been lousy over the last two years (hod on TWO sets of maternity leave - the mind doth boggle!) so a temp teacher was in who, until half way through the course was teaching them the wrong curriculum.

The head is therefore saying that on the first day of Sept term, we can see what the results are and if we don't like them, we can not "cash them in", ie they don't get counted in at all. That will leave the pupils with just 11 subjects. Apparently, for some reason I don't understand, that would be preferable to having, say, a C or D when hopefully most other results will be A or B.

So, anyhow, in yr9 ds took the first half, did no revision and scraped a C. Last month he did virtually no revision so I can't see him getting better than a C overall.

Does anyone know whethr it would be better to not cash in such a poor result or to count it in on the basis that a D is better than nothing?

"after all, universities will only see the bad grade and not the reasons why."

all UCAS references should DEFINITELY include a statement about any extenuating circumstances regarding low grades.

Yes, but is it staying the same school for his 'A' levels? Not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but was he not going on to a 6th form college for his 'A' levels? In which case, they may not know / be as inclined to write about it on his UCAS application?

He's planning to go onto sixth form. It's a grammar so obviously they have high standards of entry for sixth form, but I'm not overly worried.

The email from the head said that we have a window of time from 1st to 20th September to decide whether to "cash in" the GCSE and if we decide not to then the info is held only internally and not accessible to UCAS.

This is all v new territory to me.

Thanks to everyone for your helpful replies. In view of his likely other grades, unless he by some miracle (pun) gets a B in RE he won't be cashing it in.

Sixth form of current school that is

Helokitty - IMO any college that is not inclined to explain 'anomalous' grades on a UCAS form is not doing their job properly. That said I agree that in practice this might happen a lot.

mumblechum - are you really saying that this process will be guided by a vote? Seems completely wronge that sone students might not be allowed to cash in a respectable grade because others had voted against. Can you get back to us after the meeting as I would be really interested to know if this is allowed.

Muddle, no, I thought that initially but on re reading the mail it says that individual pupils/parents can vote whether to count that pupil's result. I think vote was the wrong word, he should have said decide.

"IMO any college that is not inclined to explain 'anomalous' grades on a UCAS form is not doing their job properly. That said I agree that in practice this might happen a lot."

Totally agree with you - it should not happen, but it does . Hence, the comment that it is best to protect the interest of the student.

Not all universiies look at GCSE results, They look at A levels, DD2 didn't have to say what her GCSE grdes were and DD1 only had to have aGCSE in a science subject as she was doing zoology.

I am under the impression you MUST cash mention ALL certificated Exams, hence I must include my B in GCSE Latin (Straight As otherwise)