Choices for yr 10 Senco doesn't know what ds is capable of/advice please.

[supermum98]

We have to make yr 10 choices in March, my ds will be roughly level 4 by end of ks3, in most subjects, although maths no where near. Senco didn't seem to have a clue what level a child needs to be to access foundation level GCSE.
She mentioned ASDAN, also Vision to learn and AQA Preparation for working life.
Seemed surprised that ICT teacher thought he would be capable of GCSE/ICT.
Has anyone any experiences of these courses? I feel a sense that he has been academically written off, yet he enjoys learning and I feel frustrated that they seem to have such low expectation of him when up until now key issues that affect his access to the curriculum ie. need for enlarged print have not been attended to. I'm not an intellectual snob and am quite happy to consider non-academic routes, if that is what he wants and they are deemed his only option, but up until now his needs have not been met academically and I feel it is premature to rule him out of GCSE at this stage. Is there anything below GCSE in traditional subjects?

Functional skills qualifications ? Is this something he could do instead? At ds's school , I think some kids do this before gcse's and some do them instead of.
Ds is doing btec pe .He didn't take Pe , hates it and isn't doing the short course.. But apparently is doing a btec qualification.
Ds is also doing gcse ict ... He seems to be doing ok ... It's actually worth 2 gcses . It's been a good choice for him. He's found it less stressful than a lot of his other options and its very well organised.

Before we had to choose options for DS, there was a parents evening held. So we had the opportunity to go around and meet each subject teacher individually,who advised whether or not DS would be capable of doing their GCSE subject.
Will they be doing anything similar at your DSs school?

Done a bit of googling and looks like entry level qualifications can be done in most subjects, by OCR/EDEXCEL and AQA, which lead into GCSE's, maybe this is the best option for him in some of the academic subjects he likes like Science and History. Just a case now as to whether he can do this level at his school.
Thanx for post.

Done a bit of googling and looks like entry level qualifications can be done in most subjects, by OCR/EDEXCEL and AQA, which lead into GCSE's, maybe this is the best option for him in some of the academic subjects he likes like Science and History. Just a case now as to whether he can do this level at his school.
Thanx for post.

Thanx bigbluebus yes I think they do, but I want to understand what is out there and get ideas together well in advance. Cheers

Level 4's can do GCSE's with support. My DD is. Her grades won't all be stellar, but in some subjects she is surprising us.

Science for example. Level 4 at end of KS3. Half a term into Y10, getting C's in most things, D in physics (bit too heavy on the Maths, that she has difficulties with).

Catering GCSE (where she wants to head for a career), she is currently getting A's in practical, C's in theory.

Her Maths isn't great, she is currently working on pushing that up to an E, but that is an area she has struggled with her whole life.

English is hovering at about a D right now.

She has been given an extra 25% time in all exams and tests, and a reader to read the questions out to her in exams and tests.

DD's school test every pupil at the end of Y9 to see if they need additional support in their GCSE's, like a scribe, extra time, a laptop or a reader, but I don't know if every school do that routinely on all pupils.

She didn't want to do life skills or ACE, the vocational training programme, as her school doesn't offer the ACE in Catering, and the option open to her were unsuitable.

The only other option was traditional GCSE's.

So, she won't get a clutch of A's. but for every damn grade she has got, she will have worked twice as hard as some A* students!