IGCSE

[CrosswordAddict]

I am unsure what will happen in schools which are doing IGCSE in one, two or all subjects. Does this mean those pupils will never get EBACC?
Also how would this affect their applications for jobs/universities? Is IGCSE automatically worth more than a straight GCSE?
I know this makes me sound vague and woolly but I'd like some facts please.

[Decentdragon]

Ebac will cover students taking GCSE?s, but not IGCSE?s as far as I know. (this may change)

Average job employers probably won?t know the difference, academic one's will.

Any student with that group of IGCSE?s shouldn?t be too worried that they have a higher equivalent of an Ebac, if they?re looking at graduate type jobs.

Son?s going to end up with 5 science GCSE/ IGCSE?s and 3 in maths, as well as 2 IGCSE's in English, 1 in history, and 1 geography. He?ll have no MFL qualification at 16, but a basic grasp of two MFL?s. I?m not that convinced not having an Ebac?s going to matter, unless of course he flunks at A level and can't go to uni.

IGCSE's are considered much more rigorous exams by academic uni's, especially the very popular one's in London (who are currently not interested in Ebac or not.)

The reason the previous government was anti them is because it creates a two tier exam system.

[Decentdragon]

Any student with that group of IGCSE?s shouldn?t be too worried that they have a higher equivalent of an Ebac, if they?re looking at graduate type jobs. Sorry, that's assuming they then did A level's and a degree.

[CrosswordAddict]

Thanks for that Decent. Sounds as if your son is at a specialist science school or college? I follow what you are saying and am with you more or less.I can foresee difficulty for pupils who fail at A Level but that's a long way ahead for our two DTDs as they are still in Year 8.
They will be doing English x2 Maths Sciences x3 an MFL plus whatever else they opt for, which might be RS Classical Civilisation or Economics or Hist/Geog.They start GCSE science in September 2011 - Year 9 so need to be thinking ahead now.
Looking to the future, we'd need a crystal ball to work out what will happen if there is another change of government. Would they move the goal posts again?

[AMumInScotland]

Any college or university will have a range of qualifications that they accept for particular courses, so if your DC have IGCSEs instead of GCSEs it won't cause them any problems, as the admissions people there will understand about the qualifications and will be able to judge if they meet the expectations with what they have.

The situation with jobs is different, as employers won't always know what the qualifications mean, but tbh employers already have to work out what a wide range of qualifications mean and will only use them as a starting point - if your DC have a range of decent-looking grades in IGCSEs then they'll be in with as good a chance of an interview as anyone else.

[Decentdragon]

Crossword, ?specialist science school or college? I wish! :o No he's home ed and we've ended up with whatever we can get.
(He?s SEN and LEA declared he probably couldn?t learn any more than he had by yr 8.)

Your school?s offering IGCSE?s and Classical Civilisation or Economics, and in Yr 9, which sounds like an excellent school to me (You wouldn?t get any of those in any year where we are) and the core subjects are a good solid base, so hopefully they're more bothered about quality of education than league tables.

Our goal posts have been about as moved as they can, up, down, sideways and invisible!
Diploma (= 6 good GCSE?s,) 'GCSE?s would no longer exist by 2011.?
Potential ?higher diploma' (= 3 good A levels as A levels definitely being scrapped) would open the doors of all uni?s. (It was scrapped without being run)
Then ?art therapy? to replace exam classes to supposedly help cope with the effects of serious bullying. (Life skills cert now more important than exams.)
?NVQ 1 certificate of personal competence.? = 4 good GCSE?s.

I think the Ebac's meant to sort out this sort of skewed best interests of the school approach.

When LEA delivered their coup de grace, we went for H/ed worried he wouldn?t have the ?right? (or any!) bits of paper for anything and started looking at just getting an all round education as best as we could.

Following your gut instincts in what is and isn?t worth your child/ren having regardless of politics, fashions and spin, and listening carefully to which uni?s say what, is probably everyone's best bet.