french gcse private candidate

[dengu]

My dd in yr 10 would like to sit for french GCSE this year (old syllabus), her school does not allow any children to take early GCSE but her french teacher thinks she can do them early. Can anybody please guide how can she sit for the french GCSE privately?

[Guest55]

Please don't do this - the grade she gets will be on her record and she will have to declare it. If she wants to take it again it will count as a resit and some universities don't like that.

[Daogroupie]

There is a reason why her school does not do it and it is as G55 says, Universities want to see if you can cope with taking lots of subjects at once and doing well in them.

If you take French early then it wont be counted.

Do it at the right time and concentrate on the exam format and doing well in that.

There is no advantage, only disadvantages to taking it early. She will then have to do something in the time she was taking French lessons instead of working on raising her grade. DG

[KB]

This is her teacher at school or a private tutor?
If it's the former then I would be unimpressed that they are not presenting a tougher line in why you should stick to the school's policy.
This is not in your DC's interest so why is the teacher not making this very clear?

[dengu]

Thanks for the advice G55 and DG. This is the teacher at school who thinks she can do it earlier.

[Daogroupie]

Then this teacher needs to get educated about University Admissions.

This was a ruse that lots of schools used to have. Do some GCSEs early so that the Y11 round was easier. But the Universities got wise and now discount them if they are not taken at the same time.

Extraordinary that a teacher at the GCSE level was unaware of this and why the school had their policy and was actually recommending for you to sit it privately. As Y11 are required to be in education your dd would then need to continue attending the French lessons even though she had taken the exam so what would be the point of doing it early and probably missing a higher grade. DG

[scary mum]

I agree with what you say about taking subjects early DG (one of our local grammar schools still does it, which I find strange), but why would they have to continue with French?

[Daogroupie]

They would have to do something during that timetabled lesson. It would not need to be French but they would have to be "educated" during that lesson and also need supervision.

They can't just roam around the school or go home.

Perhaps they could go to the library and be under the supervision of the library staff

When the whole classes took a GCSE early then in Y11 they would start working towards the A level. But if an individual takes it early privately then it becomes the parent's problem not the schools. In this case I would expect the school to keep her in the class instead of having to make other arrangements for her to be supervised.

A student in education has to be somewhere doing something upto Y11. In the sixth form it is a different ball game. DG

[Amber]

Why do you want her to do it early?

[dengu]

I had similar concerns about what she will do in school during the French classes in year 11. DD wants to do it earlier because the teacher recommended. However, after reading comments I don't think it is wise for her to do it early. Thanks all for the help.