Difference between Core/Additional/Double/Triple Science - Confused!!!

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We are about to apply for Secondary School place for dd1 and the schools in our area list their Science differently. Our Catchment school lists the Science they offer as:-

"Year 9 (KS3), Science: Double Award (KS4) and AS/A2 levels."

Other schools list their science classes as:-

"Additoinal Science and Triple Aware Science"

I think the Science offered to the higher ability group is Triple Award Science but is Double Award Science not as good? If dd1 wants to go onto study medicine (not that I'm saying she will but will it leave more options open to her) would it be better to study Triple Science. For Triple Science would you get three separate GCSEs, Physics, Biology and Chemistry?

Thanks

Additional science is the same as double award science. There is "core science" which covers enough of all 3 sciences to give 1 GCSE. Then there is "double award" or "additional science" which covers enough material in all 3 sciences to give a pupil 2 GCSE grades. "triple award science" covers enough material to give a pupil 3 GCSEs, so a pupil is basically doing the 3 separate sciences. The pupil can either get 3 separate GCSEs in chemistry, physics and biology, or they can sit core, additional and triple award, to get their 3 GCSEs. (Please correct me if I'm wrong someone!). Some schools only offer double award to everyone, so a university won't discriminate if your child only has double award science. The 2 GCSE's they get are just as good as the 3 GCSEs you get from doing triple award, it's just that there will be one less GCSE listed. Some schools do triple award with the top sets, and basically squash an extra GCSE into the time normally given over for 2 GCSEs, so they do have to be clever to keep up. If she wants to do medicine, then it is science heavy, so she needs to be the type who enjoys science anyway, and would therefore want to do triple science if it was on offer (all being equal between the schools you're looking at).

Thanks DriftingOff. Our catchment school only offer additional science, not triple science. Can you clarify, will universities discriminate if our catchment school only offer additional science for GCSE. The school do offer 3 separate sciences at A-level. We are more impressed with the second school which is out of our catchment which offers the triple Science. Our catchment school also only offers maths, not maths additional at GCSE but do offer Further Maths a A level! Will universities be aware that the triple science was not on offer at the school and take this into account? The out of catchment school tends to send a lot more children to universities to study medicine than our catchment school and I am wondering if this is why!

Thanks for your advice :)

They shouldn't discriminate, for the very reason that some schools don't offer triple science, so they'd be discriminating against whole groups of students who haven't had a choice in the matter. And if they then go on to get 3 or 4 A*s in science/maths subjects at A-level, I can't see them being in the slightest bit bothered as to whether a candidate has double or triple award at GCSE. Someone may come on here with anecdotal evidence to suggest otherwise though...I've taught a lot of wannabe medics, but I've only ever taught in schools where triple science was on offer. Your best bet is to ring the school that only does double award, ask to speak to the Head of Science, (or Head of Chemistry - almost all medics have to do chemistry at A-level), and ask them if pupils have got into medical school with only double award science at GCSE. I would then also check the admissions criteria for medicine at a couple of local universities (might be on their website), or ring up the admissions tutors and find out whether double award science is acceptable. Or repost this somewhere where doctors themselves might see it, and someone might come on here to say that they got in to medical school with only double award science.

Dont worry about it, by the time your child gets to take GCSE there will only be the options of combined science (old double) or triple science...due to changes in the curriculum taking place over the next couple of years

Dd's teacher told me yesterday that with triple science the different sciences are marked separately. So as dd is good at physics but not so good at chemistry she could still get a really good mark for physics.

Whereas with dual science you get one grade which is an average of the three subjects.

So I think dd might be better doing triple. Getting good marks at physics and biology and scraping a pass in chemistry.

I wouldn't worry about it, I was thinking the same. I took dual award science at school, it was a pretty crappy school who also didn't teach the higher tier of maths GCSE. So I came out with AA science and B maths, did A-levels and came out with A Chem and A Biology, B maths though (when A* for A-level wasn't a thing).

My best friend at college got an A* GCSE maths due to coaching and came out with an E A-Level, it's all a different ball game.