11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi
I guess this has already been asked before but I couldn't it in my searches of the threads .
Have any of got experiecne of pros/cons of this ?

I just found out DS year will be first at his grammar school to do this so would like some opinions.

DD who has just started year 10 thinks it would be good as GCSE's less rushed and year 9 was just a revision year for SATS (now at least thats gone!) but I wonder about choosing options in year 8 it seems awfully early!
Thanks Pensby

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I owuld have agreed with you last year that the GCSEs are such a low standard that there is not much point in taking too long over them.

But - DH now teaches at a sixth form college where the prevailing view is that it is a shame when a child who should have got A* only gets A because of a curtailed KS3. This really impacts on applications to decent universities all of whom want to see a clutch of A*s.

At my daughters school th etop maths set were a year ahead inmaterial (ie y9 work in year8), but took their GCSEs at normal time, the thinking being, as magwich said, they wanted A /A* not a lower grade earlier. It worked.

There have been quite a few discussions on the pros/cons. I'm sure you;ll get plenty of replies1

Hi Pensby,

Do you know if this is the whole year or just certain sets?

My daughter has been told that their set will be taking GCSE maths a year early, not sure how I feel about this yet I'm looking in to it. This is the first I've heard about the boys. Where did you hear about this? From the school?

Thanks for the posts so far!Keep them coming !!

Scatshouse-have sent you a PM

Pensby

My son has done KS3 in 2 years....achieved well and has started his GCSE courses in Year 9.
He was more than certain what subjects he wanted to do and which ones he didn't.
He is more focused now as he enjoys most of the subjects he is doing (except English, and that's compulsory ). He will also benefit from having 3 years to cover the 'foreign language' curriculum....as he struggles slightly with this subject.
The school has stipulated that they do not push students to take GCSE a year early but will let those who they consider will achieve an A* do so.
They are also of the opinion that it would be a shame for a student to miss out on an A* by taking the GCSE early.

Hi Pensby,

Thanks for that. I think I understand better now. They will have 3 years instead of 2 to work on their GCSE subjects. It probably gives them a chance to make sure they've made the right choices as well. If they decide to change any subject they'll still have 2 years.

Scatshouse

As a teacher and parent the two year KS3 is an appalling idea - most children are not mature enough to 'drop' things (and that includes languages in some schools). The ideal is starting GCSE after the May half-term in Year 9 and increasing numbers of schools are doing this.