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GCSE Subjects

Daddy

Dear all, 

My son, aged 14 years,  who has ASD will be starting GCSE's next academic year. He is in mainstream secondary education, has a Education & Health Care Plan, with school receiving funding for additional support.  This year, he had to make his selections for topics. We had requested additional time for the school so we can work with our son to make the right selection, so he is not set to fail. It is very difficult to work with him, as he says "yes" to everything when asked what subjects he enjoys most. We had parents meetings, and discussed suitable subjects (lots of teachers after giving positive feedback about his progress, were saying he is not suitable for this or that subject e.g. Geography, History etc). We submitted the subject selections (it had preference 1, preference 2), after working hard with our son, playing youtube videos of subjects, to really get to understand his passions.  I had discussed all of this with the SENCo Lead at the school. We were advised that he should drop one subject option, so he has additional support for English, which we agreed to. We want our son to progress to further education, like T-levels or BTEC, once we understand what he wants to do in the future. 

Now about the concerns: 

1. I had requested careers adviser, to help understand his aspirations, and to help set a goal for his future - I was told that priority is GCSE students towards the end of their academic year, and would be offered once priority children completed. None was offered. 

2. On his last day at school, my son showed us the letter from the school on subjects allocated to him. To our absolute shock, most of the subjects allocated when none we had selected e.g. Health & Social Care and Citizenship, he did not select these. I am so angry and frustrated with the school, and it feels like they just allocated subjects based on spaces, rather than his subject selection.  It really does feel that he will be set for failure if he does subjects he did not select. 

I sent school an e-mail, and there was an out of office reply, saying they broke up for summer holidays. It is appalling they landed this on us on the last day of school, not allowing any consultation, and us being worried about him throughout the summer holidays. 

Any advice please on how else I should proceed, other than the e-mail I have already sent to the school.

Thank you and much appreciated. 

Regards

Wajid

Parents

  • How really frustrating for you to have worked so hard with your son - to then find apparently more arbitrary subjects were allocated to him for September (without more sensitive and consultative communication with your Family).

    That said, unfortunately, I believe both of those subject areas are mandatory national curriculum at age 14 plus.  So, maybe the next line of enquiry with the School might be to gain assurance that the materials and resources will be suitably SEN appropriate to your son's support and communication needs.

    Health & Social Care is a mandatory subject at secondary school age.  I don't know that there is a GCSE in this subject.  Some Exam Boards do offer a Level 1 and Level 2 Award / Certificate in the subjects (worth checking with your son's school).  In similar context you may hear people refer to the compulsory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum.  There is extra guidance available to Schools to ensure their RSE materials and resources are suited to SEN pupils: "For pupils who already have an EHC plan, specific consideration of their RSE needs may helpfully be provided at annual review.".

    Citizenship is also a statutory subject.  Citizenship is a required subject in the National Curriculum at key stage 3 (age 11-14) and 4 (age 11-16), so must be taught in all maintained schools in England.  There is a GCSE in Citizenship Studies available "to recognise pupil achievement" (but I don't think it is mandatory to sit that GCSE exam - so that might also be worth checking with your son's School).

Reply

  • How really frustrating for you to have worked so hard with your son - to then find apparently more arbitrary subjects were allocated to him for September (without more sensitive and consultative communication with your Family).

    That said, unfortunately, I believe both of those subject areas are mandatory national curriculum at age 14 plus.  So, maybe the next line of enquiry with the School might be to gain assurance that the materials and resources will be suitably SEN appropriate to your son's support and communication needs.

    Health & Social Care is a mandatory subject at secondary school age.  I don't know that there is a GCSE in this subject.  Some Exam Boards do offer a Level 1 and Level 2 Award / Certificate in the subjects (worth checking with your son's school).  In similar context you may hear people refer to the compulsory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum.  There is extra guidance available to Schools to ensure their RSE materials and resources are suited to SEN pupils: "For pupils who already have an EHC plan, specific consideration of their RSE needs may helpfully be provided at annual review.".

    Citizenship is also a statutory subject.  Citizenship is a required subject in the National Curriculum at key stage 3 (age 11-14) and 4 (age 11-16), so must be taught in all maintained schools in England.  There is a GCSE in Citizenship Studies available "to recognise pupil achievement" (but I don't think it is mandatory to sit that GCSE exam - so that might also be worth checking with your son's School).

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