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Why not make Maths a double GCSE? Science has up to 3, English 2, MFL any number. You can argue that along with English, Maths is the most important qualfication for the modern workplace and yet it only gets one, pretty basic GCSE. We really need to start aiming our qualifications for the more able rather than the least. The more I think about it the more sense it seems to be to return to the Maths/Additional Maths courses we had. That sets one exam with a syllabus where it is reasonable to expect the majority of the population to get a reasonable grade, and another at a level more appropriate for people wanting to study numerate subjects. I would certainly like to see a lot more statistics covered at GCSE level given how many stats we are bombarded with on a daily basis and how little most people seem to understand them. Your comments about the unitised exams are interesting - you could say that that encourages/enforces ability in all of the syllabus. I am sure in the O Levels I did you could have got an A based on little more than half the syllabus as there was enough choice on the "B" questions that you could avoid those on areas you don't know.

I had a conversation with the Maths teacher at Cruckton a couple of years ago and she was talking about them piloting a double maths GCSE and I assumed the AQA one was that - but a bit of googling (other search engines are available) shows that that is not the case - I guess that idea has now been dropped in the light of the new 1-9 GCSE. Looking at the new format GCSE it does seem a lot bigger than the previous version, as well as having 4 grades that can only be achieved from the Higher tier. That is already a great improvement over the old ones and seems to be returning closer to the O Level /' CSE split of my school days. However the corollary of that is that making it harder means that you are having to do much more work to get your 9 than you would for many of the easier subjects which might further put people off the subject. That is one reason I like the idea of the double Maths - give people recognition for the amount of work they aredoing.

One of the advantages with the iGCSE is that they are comparatively free from political interference and are widely available and understood. Many of the schools we are considering for DS2 (NT) are independent who prefer the IGCSE - but also seem to include some GCSEs - it will be interesting to see what happens there. I am not sure that IGCSEs will follow GCSE over to the 1-9 marking scheme but if not it will make it even more confusing. There has certainly be a massive problem with governments pushing attainment in terms of grades with rampant grade inflation happening over the years. This allows them to say that the education system is getting better and better as the results keep getting better, as a result people who would have got a C when I sat A Levels would now get an A. To my mind that totally undermines the point of A Levels - if all the best students get straight As then they aren't much use as an indicator of ability. What you are saying about being able to get a B through foundation only fits with that - clear dumbing down to the extent that it would appear even getting an A is not evidence of having a good grasp of maths (particularly when you factor in the different exam bodies). However I do think Gove has realised there is a serious issue and is beginning to move in the right direction. Cue 10 more years of chaos until another left wing government gets in and decides to give everyone one 5 As at GCSE just for turning up Looking through the AQA qualifications (that my mathematically-gifted ASD son will do) I see they do 4 different GCSEs. plus statistics - that now includes a "double maths" option. I suppose that is not dissimilar to the Science where you can get one, two or three GCSEs depending what course you follow.

In some ways I have a lot of respect for Michael Gove and his changes. He seems to be the first politician for a generation who has been prepared to acknowledge the mess our exam system has got into (largely through the interference of successive governments). It is clear to anyone who takes any form of interest that the whole GCSE system was not fit for purpose. We are discussing some of the nonsense in the Maths on this thread - and the example of English GCSE that arose a year or two back showed that that qualification was basically meaningless. I think radical change was essential and Gove has come up with radical changes - whether they are the right ones or not is a different matter. I think the real problem with the changes to Maths GCSE in particular is making C grade the target for (almost) everyone. As soon as you set C at a level where everyone could pass then the bands get so wide as to be almost meaningless. I think when I did O Levels a CSE 1 was equivalent to a GCE 'C' and there were 4 more "pass" grades below that. It may be the new grading helps to sort that out If as your post suiggests the additional/further maths is being abolished I see that as a backward step. A course that is appropriate for basic numeracy is really not going to be an appropriate foundation for a student who might be studying Maths or Physics at university. That all implies that we are dumbing down GCSE which has to have a knock on impact to A Level and degree.

I hesitate to reply to a thread like this because I am really not qualified to give relationship advice (I know that because my other half tells me so) Have you tried talking about the issues? Ask her to explain how she is feeling any why. Ask her how she feels about the diagnosis and if she thinks it has made any difference to your relationship. Talk about any issues that arise - but remember that feelings aren't wrong and there should be no sense of blame on either side. Even without the DX being apart during the week can be hard, and telling your wife it "very fulfilling" could cause issues, particularly if she finds her job less fulfilling.

Sounds as if you have some education to do. Depends a lot on your current relationship with the school and what sort of support he is getting. How about arranging a meeting with SENCO to discuss the problems he is facing across the board, then you can include his problems with noise as part of that without it being seen as an attack on the teacher. You can mention specific examples of how he finds noise difficult and ask what they recommend to help. I am very surprised they don't let him wear ear defenders - that is pretty much standard for ASD children - suggests they don't really understand the condition and the challenges he faces

There must be someone who thinks this mess is a good idea but I can't understand their thinking. It certainly seems that to have a GCSE in Maths gives no guarantee of knowing much more than your 2 times table - but from the employers point of view I am not sure that matters. There is not much in any of the GCSE syllabuses that will be of relevance to most people's jobs - after all when was the last time you needed to evaluate a definite integral as part of your day to day job I would suspect any employer looking for more than basic numeracy would need to look for a higher qualification than GCSE, or look in more detail at the topics covered. Perhaps what we need is a basic school leavers certificate the covers basic numeracy and literacy and return the Maths course to something vaguely resembling proper Maths

What is the alternative? Do they accompany you to the restaurant but just not eat? I suppose they must organise their own mealtimes around not having to eat when they are being paid to support you so that would not be as much of a hardship as I would originally thought.

Just shows how complicated the whole thing is - and how confusing the qualifications have become, seems we now have basic foundation maths GCSE, additional foundation maths GCSE, higher maths GCSE, additional/further maths GCSE (not sure if that still exists), IGCSE Maths, IGCSE further maths, Level 2 further maths, AS Maths, AS Further Maths, A Level maths, A Level further maths. And that is before you get on to Statistics and the other variants My comments on the syllabus related to the Additional/Further maths level - so Cambridge 0606 and AQA was indeed the Level 2 certificate. I would have imagined the "Level 2 Certificate" was superior to the iGCSE but that was clearly not the case - adding further to the confusion.

I had a quick look at syllabuses for iGCSE(Cambridge) and GCSE(AQA) and the IGCSE seems well beyond the GCSE. Includes topics like integration, set theory and the like. I thought I had seen one that included more probability too but can't see that now. I'm afraid I don't have personal experience of O Levels in the 60s,When I did mine in the late 70s the syllabus looked very similar - although the style of the questions now seem much easier / more accessible than the ones I remember I looked at an AQA Further Maths GCSE paper and a Cambridge Further Maths iGCSE. The former I am pretty confident I could rattle off very quickly and get them all right (other than silly slips) the second I would have found much more taxing - predominately because it assumes you have memoriised more formulae that I am sure I knew 30 years ago but can't call to mind now. it seems to me we really need three forms of maths a) Basic numeracy - the sort of maths everyone needs for day-to-day life. Arithmetic, Mensuration,Fractions, Percentages - this is probably what the Foundation GCSE is aimed at Maths - probably roughly equivalent to current GCSE - appropriate to most school pupils c) More Maths (Further/Additional) aimed at people who need it to support their further study. I see further maths primarily as an enabling course - covering aspects such as Calculus that will be needed for e.g. Maths or Physics A level. I can understand that employers may not value it particularly because you would expect almost anyone who needs it to have a further qualification that supersedes it - but you could see universities for example not accepting someone on a physics degree who didn't have further maths. I have never really understood the purpose of AS Levels - they have always seemed to me rather like O Levels taken a year later and put in to compensate for the dumbing down of the GCSE (now there is another controversial topic). But on the Maths side I would not say that taking the Further maths syllabus as an AS level would really be a sufficient introduction to A Level maths because it detracts from what you can cover in the A Level syllabus. Even when I was at school it was the norm to do the Ordinary Maths O level in the 4th Form to allow Further maths to be taken in the 5th Form and that is a pattern that still seems common (I expect my ASD son to take GCSE in Yr 10 at the latest, maybe even Yr 9) You could argue that the Numeracy part of the Maths should routinely be taken around Yr 7 or 8 for able pupils to get it out of the way and allow them to move on earlier to more exciting work. Both my sons (one ASD one NT) find their respective maths very boring because it is so easy!

In what way do you think the diagnosis is causing you problems? Surely if it is not helpful to you you can just ignore it. I am not sure there are any situations in which you would have to divulge it to anyone or that it would disadvantage you if yo did. ASD diagnosis is not really black or white - it is about the degree in which you have certain aspects of personality and behaviour that are common in many of the population and when these get above certain arbitrary limits you get the label ASD. To some extent our social behaviour is a combination of instinct and learned behaviour. I think bright people can learn more to compensate for areas that don't come naturally, the same way we all do in many aspects of our life. So it seems to me that a child who at the age of 6-10 may show symptoms capable of being diagnosed as ASD can develop in such a way that they would not be diagnosed as such once more mature. There is no reason why you cannot be reassessed now but I don't know that you will be able to get ti done on the NHS. You would need to find a private clinical psychologist and ask them to run the diagnostic tests (educational psychologists and speach and language therapists can also do many of the tests).

IGCSE and GCSE are very different beasts. Many of the best schools in the country now do IGCSE (only) because they think GCSE does not stretch pupils enough. Certainly looking at the syllabus for GCSE it contains much less than I did at O Level (showing my age ). My (autistic) son took a GCSE mock in Yr 5 and achieved a grade C - on nothing more than primary level maths. Realistically we do need a qualification that shows that someone has the basics of arithmetic (I won't flatter it with the name Maths) that covers basic sums, fractions, percentages, area, charts - which as I understand it is all there is in basic maths these days. But doing that is not an adequate basis for A Level Maths - or indeed any numerate discipline at A Level and above (science and engineering) so there is also a clear need for a more advanced qualification at GCSE level for those who need it. There is a further maths GCSE that looks closer to what we did at O Level (e.g. geometry/circle theorems, differentiation and so on). I have just looked up the syllabus for IGCSE maths (and further maths) and that looks pretty similar to what we did for the equivalent O levels - certainly a much better course than the equivalent GCSE.

A bit of a late reply but I have not dropped into this Forum recently - sorry if it is too late Given your location the 2 Priory schools (Southlands and Grateley House) are worth a look, Southlands has just started admitting girls but Grateley has being doing so for some time. Both are highly regarded as ASD schools. I was about to mention Stanbridge Earls with a massive caveat - but notice that that has closed! Wow!

Surely that depends on what you think the purpose of Maths GCSE is? The problem is the Government has a target of ensuring that every 16 year old gets to the level of C in GCSE Maths - or to put it another way has the target of reducing the standards of GCSE Maths so that every 16 year old is capable of getting a C. I started looking at the syllabus a few weeks ago in the context of my son (Yr7) and think the basic GCSE very lacking in content, but there is an "Additional Maths" that may be better. As for calculators - yes I think the idea of allowing them in one exam and not in the other is sensible. You need to test the pupils' ability to do basic calculations in situations where calculators are available (most real world situations) but also test their ability to do mental arithmetic as necessary

I know how you feel - but it pays to have a thick skin on most internet forums. Electronic communication is always tricky as you tend to abbreviate what you are trying to say, and without the non-verbal cues it is easy to misinterpret what people say - even if they do read the postings carefully (and many don't). Best just to forget it - if you get annoyed they win.

Another article on the news today about just how dominant social media is in the lives of teenagers these days. AS children are probably less motivated by the forces that make social media so popular but if they don't participate then that seems to be one more way in which they are being divided from their NT peers. In addition the nature of on line communication is that it is all about words and the problems that AS children have with non-verbal communication will be much reduced (or at least shared by NT children). Also it seems to me that getting involved on line could be good training for communication skills. So is there a way of getting children involved in social media? Thinking both in terms of them being safe on line and getting involved with an appropriate community of peers.

I can entirely sympathise with our dilemma. It really exemplifies the problems educating an AS child. Our son is also gifted in some areas but really struggles with school.and at present is achieving well below his potential. Pretty much all of the "best" AS schools are small and have a significant proportion of pupils residential - typically they are around 40-70 pupils with no more than 6 in any one class and high staff ratios (e.g. a teacher and 2TAs per class). If you haven't seen them then I would recommend going to visit a few. Even if they are not right for your son you will begin to get a feel for what AS / ASD provision is like and that will help you in thinking about how best to support your son. In the south look at the schools run by Priory Group and Cambian. NAS also have a school in Kent "Helen Allison" , but I think they have comparatively few boarding/residential students.

when is the next annual review due? That would be the nornal way to get a change of school. You need the right to go to tribunal and the easiest way to get that is after the annual review.

Does he have a diagnosis of ASD? Note that if it is a maintained school then the LA ought to give you a placement there if he meets the criteria, it is not the same as applying for an (expensive) independent school so you should need less evidence than you would for a independent. Given the timescales involved you won't get a report before the review. I would suggest you go into the review asking for your preferred school and get a SALT report should you need it for an appeal if they refuse. It sounds as if there is agreement that the current placement is not working so there is a good chance they will offer you your preferred school if there is space.

I was meaning being in sole control of a bank account at 17 - most banks don't allow that. My concern over involving benefits people is that it may do more harm than good

this is a tricky area, especially as you are 17. Up until the age of 18 you need an "adult" signatory on your bank account so you can't really stop her accessing it. She is also probably correct saying that the DLA is hers to control - but that is not the same as saying she can spend it on what she wants. If she is providing some of the care then she is entitled to some of the money. It is worth talking to your bank to see if they can help - but it may be difficult until you turn 18

for dla you get the payments pro-rata for the days they are at home - I guess pip will be the same but I don't know

That's the downside of social media. Best (only) thing to do is just ignore it. There is little point getting into heated discussions on a forum - you won't change anyone's mind and you will only get wound up and upset. I prefer forums with an "ignore poster" option and I will "ignore" anyone who is deliberately offensive.

In most cases his bad behaviour will be a reaction to some other needs that are not being addressed. Applying sanctions for such behaviour is unlikely to work and in fact is likely to be counterproductive. You probably need a two-part approach. Firstly teach him to recognise and deal with the feelings that lead to this behaviour. Then start identifying his needs and doing what you can to address those. Sounds likely that he is in the wrong school - you should get a statement and start looking around for a more appropriate environment

On the whole I think the dyslexia schools are very good, even for ASD children if they are not too autistic. They also have the benefit that they tend to be cheap and so it may be more cost effective for the LA to send her there than to provide additional support in mainstream