Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Do you think they realised a mistake had been made when no one handed the forms in at the beginning of term!

pinkhebe wrote:Do you think they realised a mistake had been made when no one handed the forms in at the beginning of term!

Who knows! Bit aggrieved that we now only have the leave weekend before the forms are due back to discuss options with our ds!

Following on from recent comment on this thread about when choices are made, I've been interested in today's announcement of details for the new 'GSCE (England)'. According to the proposed timetable:

The changes are scheduled to be introduced for the start of the 2015 school year in the eight core subjects of English, maths, physics, chemistry, biology, double science, history and geography, with the first exams in 2017. Other GCSE subjects will have to wait to be reformed, which means students in 2017 and beyond would sit a mixture of old and new GCSEs.

This seems to indicate that the new GCSEs will be taught over two years - so presumably in 2014 pupils will not be able to make their choices at the end of the 3rd form but will have to wait a further year until the new syllabus is launched. This raises a question of how the new timetable will impact on subjects still studied for the 'old GCSE', which in many schools including CH are currently taught over three years...

I'm just grateful that my children are already past this stage (even if they are saddled with 'discredited' qualifications!); I don't envy the pupils or the teachers who have to make sense of Michael Gove's untested reforms!

I suspect they will stick with the iGCSE options and perhaps move more subjects down that route?

I was under the impression that cgse's at CH are taught over 2 years, not 3. Even though the gcse's are chosen 3 years ahead of the exams, they don't start the gcse syllabuses themselves until UF.

I was under the impression that cgse's at CH are taught over 2 years, not 3. Even though the gcse's are chosen 3 years ahead of the exams, they don't start the gcse syllabuses themselves until UF.

Really? I didn't know that (obviously I don't pay enough attention!). That will certainly make it easier for CH to assimilate the new GCSEs into their current arrangements if appropriate - and whatever they do at the moment certainly seems to be working in terms of excellent results!

They always used to do the GCSE's over 3 years as it allowed the staff to step outside the syllabus and provide a broader approach rather than slavishly following the prescribed one set by the examining board.