• Replies 11 replies
  • Subscribers 65 subscribers
  • Views 4406 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

GCSE options dilemma. Higher tier vesus lower tier?

Supercrumpet

My 13 year old Son has Aspergers and ADHD and is in mainstream school. He has to pick his options this month and the dilemma we face is that he excels in Science (level 7) and is good at Math (level 6a) and he really wants to do the triple Science award. His Science teacher is all for it and said he should sail through, but, he has been allocated the lower tier GCSE band and that means he cannot do triple science.

We have spoken to all of his teachers and they feel that he would cope in higher tier, his German teacher was the exception, he said that although he was top of the class at the moment (my Son is in set 3 of 6 sets in his year 9) he didnt feel he would cope at GCSE level. We went to the Deputy Head to discuss whether he could do higher tier so that he could do triple science but the Dep Head was just awful, so patronising and had no real interest in helping. He told our Son that it would involve extra work after school and that he wouldn't cope.The new English Baccalaureate is also being introduced so the school have told us that higher tier pupils MUST take a language and a humanity

We've worked hard to make sure our Son has the same chances as the other kids, we're just heartbroken to fall at the GCSE hurdle. We appreciate that our child may not achieve as well in all of his subjects as he will in Science and Maths but I'm at a loss as to how to challenge the schools belief that he shouldn't even be given the chance to shine at the subjects he is genuinely good at.

Has anyone else had this problem? Does he have to take the full set of GCSE's or can he drop some? I feel that fewer good exam results would be better than a higher number but with weaker results.

Parents

  • Bit more info on my Son; He does pretty well in exams so we aren't trying to push him into something he won't cope with. He has been asked his opinion, if he had said he was happy with lower tier we wouldn't be concerned but he REALLY wants to do triple science. He has asked us for a computer based german course to make sure he's up to scratch for September so he's more than willing to put the effort in. The teachers can indeed decide at a later date whether the individual child goes in for the higher or foundation GCSE, which I feel actually validates our desire to let him attempt the higher tier work. Just to clarify, he can ONLY do the triple science award at higher tier, lower tier is double science.

    We just really want him to enjoy school, there seems to be so much emphasis put on how well the school performs in the league tables that they just don't want to rock the boat with regards to SEN kids. My Son doesn't socialise well and has just a couple of friends both of whom are also ASD children, his primary interest with school is science, he loves it and is, without being biased, very good at it.

    I'm not even going to think about A levels, university and futher education. We've always taken it one step at a time. He's always going to be a square peg in a round hole and we'll eventually find something that works for him and that he enjoys. Primarily we want him to be happy at school and to be happy he needs to be doing the subjects he loves.

    If anyone else has been through this I would love to hear about your experiences.

Reply

  • Bit more info on my Son; He does pretty well in exams so we aren't trying to push him into something he won't cope with. He has been asked his opinion, if he had said he was happy with lower tier we wouldn't be concerned but he REALLY wants to do triple science. He has asked us for a computer based german course to make sure he's up to scratch for September so he's more than willing to put the effort in. The teachers can indeed decide at a later date whether the individual child goes in for the higher or foundation GCSE, which I feel actually validates our desire to let him attempt the higher tier work. Just to clarify, he can ONLY do the triple science award at higher tier, lower tier is double science.

    We just really want him to enjoy school, there seems to be so much emphasis put on how well the school performs in the league tables that they just don't want to rock the boat with regards to SEN kids. My Son doesn't socialise well and has just a couple of friends both of whom are also ASD children, his primary interest with school is science, he loves it and is, without being biased, very good at it.

    I'm not even going to think about A levels, university and futher education. We've always taken it one step at a time. He's always going to be a square peg in a round hole and we'll eventually find something that works for him and that he enjoys. Primarily we want him to be happy at school and to be happy he needs to be doing the subjects he loves.

    If anyone else has been through this I would love to hear about your experiences.

Children
No Data