11 Plus Exams Forum

I read the thread about the limited numbers for GCSE triple science at WGGS.
Does anyone know what the system is for year 9 students? Are all year 9 students still doing 3 sciences? Or if they are in 3 sciences does it mean that they will be taking 3 for GCSE?
Thank you

This term's timetables are available on SLG. Are you able to tell from that? My daughter is only in Y8, so still has this to come, but my second son is going into Y10, and his timetable code for each science starts with T1 (triple science set 1) so you might be able to tell from the codes on her timetable.

My Y9 DD has the sciences listed separately on her timetable. e.g Tues Chemistry, Weds Biology &c. It's on SLG. Don't think this means much for GCSE at this point though.

Just seen. The answer to the OP is that no, not all year 9s will be doing triple science for GCSE, as all year 9s were always taught 3 sciences separately. They'll get chosen for sets at the end of year 9, based on performance in the year and in the end of year tests.

My dd in year 10 has now been put in a triple set but there is no clue on the timetable - it just has teacher's initials and classroom location. You will be told explicitly once the decision's been made but you can't guess at this stage in Year 9 - they won't decide till next July!

The school seems to have revised its policy on triple science as my dd was one of those initially put into combined despite getting very high marks on end-of-year tests and she has now been put back into a triple set. I'm not sure what proportion of the year (Year 10) is now doing triple but it seems to be similar to the proportions that have always historically done it at the school, at least half of the year but maybe more, I'm not sure.

Has there been any notification by the school or has this just happened? DG

Pupils were contacted near the end of the holidays and asked if they'd like to do triple - though my dd didn't check her email so didn't find out till she got back to school. The new head did reply to my email.

So on the whole, I'm entirely happy. Any school can make mistakes but what matters is that they listened to feedback from parents (which many schools, eg QE, do not do) and changed their policy back to a more appropriate one. I'm pleased that the school is listening to parental concerns and taking them into account.

DD is thrilled!

Thank you Rosetta for the helpful answer! My DD seemed to think that everything was going to be determined from last year's end of exams- but this didn't seem right to me.
Unfortunately- she has already decided that her chemistry teacher is boring...shame as that is her favourite subject.

my dd was in exactly same situation as Rosetta. she was offered combined science but got an email at end of holidays ( which she did not read) offering her triple. she accepted, but i know that one of her classmates decided to stick with the combined.