Year 9 options..anyone heard of this before

[tantrumsandballoons]

My dd is taking her options this year, option evening Thursday. They had been told they have to pick either French or German, so my dd pretty much decided on French, until we got a letter home today saying top set students can do both languages but will have to have lessons after school 2 days a week. This means they will do 12 GCSE instead of 11 but there will be a lot of extra homework/ revision.

My dd really wants to do both as she loves languages and I think it's a good idea but I wondered if anyone had any experience of this, any advice whether it is too much work, too much pressure or if it is a positive experience.

Any advice or opinions would be really helpful.

[mumof4sons]

My DS1 did both French and German at GCSE. His classes were timetable during the school day. Half French / half German - they did have to work at a faster pace, but if she is good at languages and is interested - why not? (BTW my DS got As in both subjects and a D in English - explain that one - lol)

DS2 did Russian and Latin at GCSE, so can be done.

Much better for them to choose options they are interested in.

[bruffin]

The after school courses are called twilight classes. Dcs school offered a twilight language 2 years ago when Ds was in yr9,but it not available this year for dd.

[mybrainsthinkingfuckyouagain]

As a pupil I did French, German and Russian and it was fine - the latter was due to lessons before and after school and at lunchtime, it was fun.

As a teacher I have taught German after school and as it is 'their' time I found it to be really rewarding - as the kids were there voluntarily they were very keen and it was like sixth form i.e. we had quite a relaxed atmosphere, I allowed snacks/drink breaks. Twas very sociable.

12 GCSEs is only too much if the coursework quotient is a nightmare. If it is blocks of assignments/exams spread over y10/11 then it should be doable.
Find out if the langs are doing the same or different syllabus/exam board - advantage of same is kids know exactly what they need to do, disadvantage is having deadlines at same time.

Tend not to have vocab crossover ime as Frech flows and German is very dental/gutteral

[mybrainsthinkingfuckyouagain]

French!!!!! Was für eine Frechheit!

[tantrumsandballoons]

Thanks for the help everyone, we are going to find out about coursework etc at options evening but I think dd will probably do both.

[scaryteacher]

I taught twilight RE two nights a week, and agree with mybrain, they worked because it was their time; the lure of Twix and a hot chocolate might have helped as well.

[Yellowtip]

DS1 took Latin as a twelfth GCSE taught once a week in a 90 minute twilight session.

Quite a commitment but it worked very well - for the whole class I think.

12 GCSEs all taken in one go without modules is a lot of work though, for sure.

[bruffin]

I taught twilight RE two nights a week, and agree with mybrain, they worked because it was their time; the lure of Twix and a hot chocolate might have helped as well.

They tried to lure DS with hot chocolate to twilight RE. Is it an RE teacher thing?

[supernannyisace]

Yes. My friend says her son is taking an extra language - but his lesson will be held at 8.00am - instead of after school. Only those best at languages were offered the opportunity to take the extra GCSE language option.

My son will be doing an extra GCSE in Maths. He attends a 'selective entry' grammar - and is in the top set for Maths. Therefore he will be taking his regular Maths GCSE at the end of year 10 - followed by the Statistics GCSE and a Further Maths at the end of year 11.

Total of 13 GCSEs ( I think, we only just sent in the options form).

Idon't think school would offer the choice if they thought it would be too much for the students.

[PotteringAlong]

:o

I'm an RE teacher - I give my twilight pupils hot chocolate! It really must be our thing!