Year 9 GCSE

Discussion and advice on GCSEs

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lala
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:27 am

Year 9 GCSE

Post by lala »

Hi
anyone know children take Year 9 GCSE????????????
information pls.
Thanks

lala
Warks mum
Posts: 538
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:30 am
Location: Warwickshire

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by Warks mum »

At DD's school they do some 'out of hours' GCSEs which are offered across several years so some of the younger ones take the GCSE in year 9. As far as I'm aware, this year these include geology and performing arts.
tiredmum
Posts: 1161
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:51 am

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by tiredmum »

my dd took foundation science and half of her RE in year 9 :)
hermanmunster
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Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by hermanmunster »

DD is doing ICT this year or maybe engineering ... oh I am confused
marigold
Posts: 656
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:14 pm
Location: essex

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by marigold »

DD doing ICT and DS doing French GCSEs in year9

His school has started a new system where they do their first language intensively for the first three years, 8 lessons a fortnight and then a GCSE at the end of year 9.

Years 10 and 11 can either be spent doing an AS in that language or taking a GCSE in a different one.
magwich2
Posts: 866
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 pm

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by magwich2 »

With DD1 we were enthusiastic about the after-school early GCSEs and she did law and latin. BUT that was in the old days before every man and his dog were doing the same thing!
With DD2 we will not be bothering because now that DD1 is applying to a popular university we now realise that what they want to see are a good number of GCSEs in proper subjects taken at the same time and resulting in a row of A*s. We are even having to ask the school to deal with her one "A" as they "had a number of problems" with the teacher (who has left the school). It really is that bad out there.
In conclusion, I would not allow any child of mine to do a GCSE early unless they were virtually guaranteed an A* and even then it is probably not worth it because it does not show they are especially bright 'cos everyone has got on the bandwagon!
dinah
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:25 pm

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by dinah »

It may have been true that when the first year of students who took exams a year early looked good it doesn't necessarily apply now.Whic is madness.
If you take maths in year 10 and get an A* when you only have one exam to concentrate on , it can, on the face of it seem very impressive.If you go on to get 10 A*s the next year that would make 11.If ,on the other hand, you take 11 at the same time and get all A*s , are we saying that this child will have an advantage because they were under pressure to gain more top results at the same time? This is crazy. I refuse to believe that the system is that nonsensical. What have we come to when we are picking over results like this? I cling to the fact that my children's hearts have always been more important to me than their heads even though they have very good heads.
moved
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Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:42 pm
Location: Chelmsford and pleased

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by moved »

DS will take German and 1/2 RE GCSEs this year. He is in year 9. The jury is out on the German, they start coursework in year 8, two pieces already completed and many children got C and B grades.
silverkaylah
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:02 pm

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by silverkaylah »

My DS started GCSE Science in year 8, his school is very good at picking out potential students. His final Y8 exam result was a B which we were thrilled at.
Now in Y9 he is also doing Art GCSE, Maths GCSE and Geography GCSE. The Geography teacher explained to me that in her subject particularly it made a massive learning difference as it meant that in Y11 when others would be busy in class, the early GCSE class would be doing more field work which gives the children a more hands on learning experience which they seem to enjoy.

:D
P's mum
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:56 am

Re: Year 9 GCSE

Post by P's mum »

I think that an issue to consider is what do the children do next? Just clocking up endless GCSEs is perhaps not a very good use of time. My daughter goes to a specialist language school and the top sets do their first language (one german set two french sets) in year 9. Then the german and, I think, one french set go on to do AS in year 10 and A level in year 11. (They do their second language GSCE in year 11, having started it in year 8 and have an option to do a third language started in year 10).

There is method in this madness, because having done A level before getting into the sixth form (and studied their humanities in this subject) they then have a very strong second language. The sixth form only offer the IB, which requires a second language but this can also be done as a second 'first' language i.e. the syllabus is as for native speakers but with less literature (which will have been covered in their first, first language!). The children who take two 'first' languages (language A subjects) are then awarded a bilingual diploma.

Not so sure about the idea of taking subjects early and just replacing them with others.

P's Mum
P's mum
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