REpeating yr 11 with different electives

DS1 has really struggled this year with the electives he chose and after a really hard weekend, with lots of tears and sadness he's decided that he wants to redo year 11 instead of going into yr 12 and change his electives.

He's chosen a degree course to do when he finally finishes yr 12 and needs completely different electives to the ones he's currently doing. I'm hoping the school will accept his reasons for redoing yr 11 and will let him start afresh next year.

Anyone elses kids done this? As yr 11 is only 3 semesters and they go into yr 12 after October what did your child do for that semester?

Thanks,

Out of curiosity, what does he want to do when he finishes year 12 and what electives does he want to do?
Is there a reason his struggled this year? ie. didn't mix well with teachers or work too hard etc??

No experience but I wish I had done the same. I struggled on doing maths & science when I should have done humanities subjects. I didnt do as well as I should have and made a number of career mistakes as a result.

Good on him for making that choice now and following his heart rather than keeping on doing something that doesnt work for him.

He's currently doing 4 IT based electives but he's decided he wants to do a Bachelor of Science with combined majors in Archeology and Paleoanthropology (sp!!) so he needs to do Chemistry and Biology and wants to do Ancient History as well.

Forgot to say!! He's really struggled as his hearts just not in it and he's finding Business Studies really difficult to get his head around.

When I was at school, a girl in year 11 above me did it - not for the same reasons that your son is doing it, but she knew she partied a bit too hard and would fail the year. So she just repeated and changed a few subjects and did really well.

How old is he now??? Can he work for the rest of this year and start again at the begining of the year?? (I realise this may not be possible if his under 17...)
Are there any pre requistes for the course?? What else is he going to do??

There is program in schools (I think its called pathways) where you can do some subjects one year and others the next. Could he do something like that and maybe finish English (and maybe another couple of units if they are ones he likes/etc) and do the other electives next year??? Maybe talk to the careers advisor school and see what else they can offer.

He's only 16 and won't be 17 till next year so he's a year ahead of himself really.

He's going to see his yr advisor tomorrow and talk to her but he's got loads of questions I can't answer at the moment as I've no idea how the school system works over here!!

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He's only 16 and won't be 17 till next year so he's a year ahead of himself really.

He's going to see his yr advisor tomorrow and talk to her but he's got loads of questions I can't answer at the moment as I've no idea how the school system works over here!!

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He really needs to be talking with the careers advisor as well. The year advisor really works with welfare based issues and while they can be good for guidence, the careers advisor (or transition advisor if he goes to a catholic school) is the person he needs to be talking to regarding subject selections and how this will help with getting into courses. That's what their job is.
If you have any questions, PM me ( i work in the area so can help you out a bit :) )

Thanks for that - I'll get him to talk to the Careers Advisor first.

I'm really hoping they'll say it's ok - otherwise he's going to be devastated.

In my experience some school's career advisors are really hopeless. Hopefully your son has a good one but it's worth contacting university admissions people directly if he has any questions about prerequisites etc.

He's checked the requirements for the degree course and he needs an ATAR of 72.55 with Maths, Chemistry and Biology but he's not doing any ATAR courses and isn't doing any sciences do he has to change his electives.

Hopefully he can get it sorted without me having to go down as I'd really like him to have the boost to his self confidence that he did it all himself.

I would recommened he study subjects he enjoys. That way he will fall into a degree he will hopefully enjoy. A different school may also help, if he feels like his mates are ahead of him or thinks ppl may tease him if he chooses to repeat.

Not much help to you, but I've never understood how they are supposed to choose electives in year 10 that basically set their path to uni. Talk about stressful! I think having the opportunity to change his course now is a good idea and I hope he gets some good answers.

Sounds like a really wise decision to me.

Can he just change his electives for year 12? I know I'm in WA and finished school 12 years ago (sheesh!) but I changed at the end of year 11 because I wanted to take a different path. It was tough at first but because I loved the new subjects I didn't mind working harder.

Also will there be an option for a foundation/bridging unit in his first year at uni if he doesn't do the right subjects at school? I know my hubby bombed out in maths in year 12 and instead of choosing elective units in his first year of uni he did a foundation/bridging unit. I had friends who did science degrees that had to do the same. It seemed like a normal thing to do. Perhaps speak to the prospective students department of the uni he wants to go to and even the Course Coordinator. I've done that a few times to ask specific questions about courses and units.

Is he away at boarding school? If do that is tougher, both DH and I went to boarding school. Its hard being away from family in that last bit of schooling. Good luck I hope he finds something he is happy with. The thing to remember is that while his is all important as long as you can get into uni at all there are then so many more pathways to get to the degree or course you want. It might take a little longer but he can still get there even if things don't all go to plan at the beginning. It did for me!


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Getting soooo confused!! He IS doing ATAR courses after all just not in any of the right per-requisite subjects.

I've looked at the course booklet he was given last year (finally found something the dog hadn't eaten!!) and there's no way he'd manage the yr 12 content in his science courses without doing the preliminary yr 11 courses.

He's not bothered about redoing yr 11 and is really excited starting again with his chosen courses. He's in a public school so I don't have to worry tab out huge fees for him repeating a yr. He's very much the sort of boy who wants to get things right and wants to do things the right way so is determined to do the subjects required at HSC rather than doing a foundation course at Uni. He's also a very young 16 so I'm happier for him to stay in school an extra yr rather than going off to Uni at just 18.

Just wanted to follow up on this. DS spoke to his yr advisor who has said its not a problem for him to repeat yr 11 next year. He just has to speak to the principal before the end of next semester as she'll give him the paperwork.

He also spoke to the careers advisor and told him what he was doing and why and he thought it was a better idea to repeat yr 11 than change electives and carry on into yr 12.

I had a call this morning from the yr advisor checking I was ok with it so I was able to reassure her that I know what he's doing and fully support him. Still no idea what will happen in October though when the rest of his yr go into yr 12!! Hopefully the deputy principal will be able to tell him that tomorrow.

Sounds like a great idea. Science subjects can really open a lot of doors at uni. He sounds like a determined young man - you must be proud!