Short Courses

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Bexley Mum 2
Posts: 851
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:55 pm
Location: Bexley

Short Courses

Post by Bexley Mum 2 »

At my sons' school they do what they refer to as "short courses" in ICT and RE at the end of Year 10. They're included in the school's GCSE results tables, but presumably they don't count as much as full GCSEs? Can anybody advise?
yoyo123
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Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Post by yoyo123 »

yes, they do these at my son and daughters schools, they count as 1/2 a GCSE and don;t go into so much detail.
solimum
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Joined: Wed May 09, 2007 3:09 pm
Location: Solihull, West Midlands

Post by solimum »

This has been fairly standard in my DDs school for a while now, the reasoning seems to be that as all pupils have to study RE and ICT as part of the National Curriculum they might as well gain some credit for it. They can usually extend to a full GCSE (or even a double in ICT) if they want as one of the options. My daughter has already taken modules in some of these in Yr 9 (more successfully in RE than IT I fear)
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

They don't count as much - half the points of a full GCSE -
Bexley Mum 2
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Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:55 pm
Location: Bexley

Post by Bexley Mum 2 »

Yoyo123/Guest 55 - I'm not sure I quite understand the point in short courses being classed as half a GCSE. If you did say 9 full GCSEs and two "halves", would you then say you had 10 GCSEs? Or if you needed 5 Bs to do A Levels and had 4 Bs in full GCSEs plus 2 Bs in half GCSEs, would that count as 5?

Eldest child is in Y9 so I'm trying to get to grips with the next part of the curriculum! In my day you did 9 "O'Levels" in years 10 and 11 (or 4 and 5 as I knew them), then did 3 A'Levels and one more O'level in the sixth form. My Y9 boy seems to have started work on his ICT and DT GCSE's, will do his Maths GCSE next year, has to choose 2 options in year 10, one more in year 11 and is expected to do at least one AS level before he goes into the sixth form. I'm horribly confused!!
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

So many questions!

Yes I would say 9 full plus two half GCSEs is 10 GCSEs.

However, look carefully at the entry requirements for Sixth Form as different schools do different things abour what 'counts' -

Yes it is much more complicated nowadays ... 'personalised learning' at its best or not ....
reginaphalangie
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Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: North West Kent

Post by reginaphalangie »

Its all to do with the points system for doing A level's rather than the point of a half GCSE....the short course will add to your point system as will BTEC or GNVQ's that some schools do in IT or PE...also Music grades at the higher levels (grade 6 plus i think) can add UCAS points too.
solimum
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Joined: Wed May 09, 2007 3:09 pm
Location: Solihull, West Midlands

Post by solimum »

In most cases they are just "extras" - don't do any harm (and as previous posters have said, will add to the overall GCSE total) but probably not of any great importance, unless perhaps a pupil tips into the magic "5 A*-C" by virtue of a couple of short courses.... I really wouldn't start worrying about accumulating UCAS points at this stage, many of the more selective universities still look at actual A level grades anyway and half a GCSE here or there won't make any difference...
reginaphalangie
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 11:31 pm
Location: North West Kent

Post by reginaphalangie »

hi solimum - i didn't mean it (reference to UCAS points) in reference to GCSE's it was just something that popped up into my head to let people know that ABRSM music grades (and all the other boards) can give you UCAS points when applying for Uni - apparantly a grade 8 (according to my year 13's in practical and theory) is the equivalent of an AS :) :)

Yes short courses are just generally fillers to boost the schools GCSE numbers
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by Guest55 »

They are not fillers!!

Most Sixth Form look at the best 8 GCSEs only - it makes more sense to take a half GCSE in RS when everyone has to study the subject.
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