The New GCSE spec - any comments

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paulears
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The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by paulears »

With the first people now being through the new GCSE specification with less practical content, has anyone discovered how this has impacted? My local college are quite concerned that the 3 minutes of 'acting' won't work very well for them once they get down to serious script work?
islandofsodor
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by islandofsodor »

The first cohort hasn't been through yet apart from English and maths. My daughter will be in the first cohort of students to take new new GCSE's next year.

She didn't like the look of the new drama spec so chose not to do GCSE drama.
lawn
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by lawn »

My daughter will go into yr10 in September. Her school does a 3yr GCSE course, so she chose her options at the end of yr8. They were more limiting than in previous years, she was on one of 4 'pathways' and had to take a language and either history or geography, which left her with 2 choices. If she'd been selected to do triple science this would have taken up one of her choices.

This is unlike her brother, who is 3 years older and attended same school, he wasn't required to do a language or humanities subject and had 4 choices. Triple science that he was selected to do was just time tabled on as was some IT skills. DD has a lot of non examination subjects to do such as ethics and philosophy and learn to learn.

Though she got a wide choice of subjects to chose from, this hasn't been the case at a lot of other of the town's secondary schools. One of DD's friends who wants to study muisc at Uni, was only able to get it at her school in a combined performing arts/music/art BTEC. Now the school has said they aren't continuing the music part. We are limited here for what DD can do for sixth form.She doesn't want to do A levels I looked up the course requirements for the most favoured place and it asked for 'Btec performing arts or gcse drama' DD's school offerred both. She took some advice from a few school drama teachers who told her to do performing arts if she wanted to perform, drama if she wanted to know how to improve. DD thought she got enough performance at a higher level than school could offer at her drama group, and therefore wanted the theory behind it. She hasn't enjoyed it but she didn't like the teacher who has now left. I'd put her dislike down to the teacher, I hadn't considered it might be the course content, but it's a means to an end, she just needs the qualification to get on to the next bit of education.
paulears
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by paulears »

Dropped a clanger here - the school was on the pilot, and I didn't realise!

I've also got a suspicion about the A Levels too, having for the first time ever, to lose a student I took on for the summer to work in professional theatre before he goes to uni. He got good grades, but in my humble opinion, is totally out of his depth when he starts at uni compared to the things we talk about here that clearly are being done in some parts of the country. He has a passion (I quote) for performing arts, but in the four weeks he worked with my people, they avoided doing anything with him, because it meant they did it while he watched - and really simple stuff he just wasn't able to do. In fact, he was actually dangerous to work with, as one other 18yr old found out. In previous years I have needed 6 people - this year, with him, I needed 7 because so many times he just had to sit and watch, and not join in. He will be studying stage management in September and I find that scary.

If GCSE is not going to stretch the pre-16s, and 16-18 adds little, then 18-21 will also be eroded. I'm selfish because I end up employing the 20+group for 3 months a year, sometimes 4, and I have no time for training them. I realise that GCSE is really just a taster, and that 16-18 is a pre-degree pep-up, but being very honest here, if somebody like this fella can get good grades at Level 3, something is wrong. Frankly, he should have got a D, or below based on my assessment of his knowledge, skill set and understanding of all things theatrical.

For all those talented people you all have on this forum, it's imply not good to have a lowered standard and weakened content - the unis will spend more time on the basics, which your kids have known for years, making the courses weaker and more dull. Loads of 18+ theatre skilled under grads get so bored in year one because it's the catch up year that many consider quitting. That's bad.
pg
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by pg »

It's a pity if there's not much practical content - but I wouldn't be concerned in terms of drama school entry (unless it's the only drama a student has access to).

Amateur drama, youth drama, drama clubs - I think all these are far more useful.

DS went to RADA- and the drama at his school at that time was very poor. He did almost all his acting out of school (very, very little of it was professional work- and the two occasions I can think of taught him much less than the amateur work).

There was no drama GCSE option at all at my dd's school - she still went on to a drama A level at the next school she went to.

Also: the work my son (and I) did at drama school bore practically NO relationship to anything my children studied at school.

Drama schools (straight acting) train actors for the profession. They don't teach drama or theatre studies.

University courses may well be very different, which is why it's so important to consider the course content - and contact time.
islandofsodor
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by islandofsodor »

DD decided her time would be better spent doing triple science instead of double (she likes to have scientific knowledge especially in relation to how the body works) and to continue with LAMDA exams rather than GCSE drama.

Her school (a vocational school) have decided to drop GCSE dance as an option because "our students already dance for 18 plus hours per week and take examinations well above the GCSE standard in this subject"
lawn
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by lawn »

islandofsodor wrote:DD decided her time would be better spent doing triple science instead of double (she likes to have scientific knowledge especially in relation to how the body works) and to continue with LAMDA exams rather than GCSE drama.

Her school (a vocational school) have decided to drop GCSE dance as an option because "our students already dance for 18 plus hours per week and take examinations well above the GCSE standard in this subject"
Did she get a choice re Science? At my DD's school you can't do triple science unless you're selected to do so and if you were and wished to do double instead, I suspect you would have a 'fight' on your hands with the school over it.

I do think both drama (acting) and dancing are taught at a higher standard out of school. My DD was doing Lamda, but though she was going up the grades with distinction, I noticed at a festival earlier this year she had fallen behind compared to to others. I've since got her private lessons with a very elderly 'old school' teacher, whose emphasis is on speech and communication.
islandofsodor
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by islandofsodor »

Yes, she got a choice. Triple science is an option block so everyone does maths, English Lang, English lit, double science then they pick 4 options (one of which has to be either history, geography or French to fulfil Progress 8 requirements) dd chose French, RS, music and triple science as her 4 options.

I would guess that if someone with poor science results opted for triple science the school would perhaps advise them that they may be better off picking a different subject instead in the same way that if someone with zero musical aptitude had opted for GCSE music (or in my dd's case art!) but all the higher ability students had a completely free choice.
Gatesheadangel
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by Gatesheadangel »

The school my kids go to is dropping GCSE for a number of non ebac subjects and replacing them with Btecs.
lyndahill
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by lyndahill »

Can't comment on the spec but my DD gained 3 GCSE's this year in Year 10 - 2 A*'s and and A - very, very happy and proud of her. :D :D
paulears
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by paulears »

My niece is a teacher, and even the staff cannot find out what new grade really equates to the C everyone needs to get - it seems to have changed twice already, so they're pretty in the dark, and they're teaching it!
islandofsodor
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by islandofsodor »

As an employer, this is what we have been sent !!!!

As the new GCSE qualifications start to be awarded with number grades rather
than letters, you may want to review your advertising campaigns and update any
relevant recruitment materials, training and practices in preparation. The new GCSE
grade 4 is broadly equivalent to a low/medium grade C, the standard for a level 2
qualification. If grade C is your current requirement for applicants, then a grade 4 is
a reasonable expectation to ask for under the new system, unless you have made a
deliberate decision to raise the entry bar.
The Department for Education recognises grade 4 and above as a ‘standard pass’; this
is the minimum level that students in England need to reach in English and maths,
otherwise they will need to continue to study these subjects as part of their post-16
education. A grade 5 and above indicates a ‘strong pass’ and the DfE will be using
this in its headline measures of school performance; a benchmark comparable with
the strongest performing education systems.
paulears
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Re: The New GCSE spec - any comments

Post by paulears »

My nieces HoD wants the 5 to be their standard for a C, the other departments, with a slightly lower results record are clinging to the 4. It does occur to me that all that fudging when we started adding stars to A grades has now gone, because you just add in a new top number so "I got a 9!!" can be "I got a 10" in a few years when we make them different again.
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