Dropping Spanish GCSE in yr 11?

[DeloresDeSyn]

DS would like to drop his Spanish gcse. He struggles with it and doesn't think he will get a C, so can't see the point in doing it.

It is a languages school and therefore he had to take a language in his options-he definitely wouldn't have given the choice.

His teacher is great, obviously works very hard and is keen to get the best from them. Because of this, and because DS is bright in his other subjects, she is not happy with what she gets from him and feels he could do much better, this means DS is quite scared of her. She is right, I am sure if he wanted to he could do better at it and probably pass well, but he hates it and I'm not sure where to go with that.

He is good at all his other subjects, likely A or A*, and is fairly mature and conscientious, but also disorganised and a bit lazy.

My gut reaction when he asked was no, that's a bad idea and DH thinks it's silly to give it up. The more I think about it though, the more I'm not sure of my motives.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Will it have an effect on college/university? Is it more normal to drop a subject than it was in 'my day'? If I encourage him to drop it am I helping him or teaching him that giving up is how you deal with tricky things? If I encourage him not to am I just subjecting him to unnecessary stress?

He wants to be a teacher...

[DeloresDeSyn]

Bump, anyone?

[Luvvies]

My DS dropped it quite late on in year 11, was heading for a C/B in a high achieving super selective grammar. Left him to focus on other subjects (which he then still got a couple of Bs, oops, but rest were better). Wants to do science at Uni, we don't think it will affect him.

[oddsocksmostly]

I think in the future he will regret it, especially as jobs are so competitive now. I think even if he just gets the bare bones of a language, it's there to build on when he is older.

[Hatice]

My DS took his GCSE's last summer. He is bright but lazy and disorganised.
He is stubborn and will not work if he does not like a subject.

He really did not like French and detested the speaking element. However in his school a modern foreign language was compulsory. As he had studied ! French since year 7 this was his GCSE option.

His teacher was fantastic even organising sixth form mentors for him and working so hard to help him. He rejected the lot and I got to the point where I so wished he could give up French.

He got a D in his French spoken exam. Somehow he muddled through. I expected the worst when he opened his GCSE results. To my surprise he got a B overall in French.

On reflection I am glad he could not give up French. As he is lazy he would not have used the extra time to study his other subjects.

[LadybirdsEverywhere]

I think your son just needs to get his head down and do the work. Don't let him give up something just because it is difficult. If he is an all rounder and expecting A/A* grades, he has the intelligence to do a modern language GCSE.
Time to pop along to the teacher to ask what he needs to do to get a good grade and then do it.

[eatyourveg]

ds1 dropped it at the end of the autumn term in Y11 and would have had to put in a lot more effort than any other subject just to get a C so as he was doing 10 other GCSEs (including french) and not particularly enjoying spanish, we were happy to let him drop it to concentrate on getting top grades in other subjects.

[DeloresDeSyn]

Thanks everyone for your answers, a fairly mixed bag and I can still see both sides.

Hatice it sounds like our sons are similar and in very similar situations too. I didn't think DS school would allow him to give it up for all the reasons you and others mention, but according to DS (hmmm) the idea has come from his mentor. I have yet to speak to him- his take on it will be interesting.

Coolas that is food for thought re the baccalaureate.

Ladybirds, that's my gut reaction, but I have spoken a lot to the teacher, he is getting a weekly extra tuition and has two after school sessions with his mentor each week which can also be devoted to it (the mentor isn't a Spanish teacher though so not sure how useful this is). His teacher of course says he is capable of better, but like Hatice, I was beginning to wonder whether it's worth all the stress- you can lead a horse to water and all that

Eatyour and luvvies, did your DS regret it in any way?

[eatyourveg]

ds now knocking 21 didn't regret it at all until last year when he started going out with a Peruvian girl but he quickly remembered it and knows much more now than he did back then. Giving up in the middle of Y11 meant he effectively only missed a few months more teaching and had been doing it for 4 years already at that point

[Luvvies]

Not yet, only in year 12 now.

[merlehaggard]

My nephew nearly dropped if but then continued with a private tutor helping and got a C. My sister wouldn't have minded though and I'm sure it wouldn't have affected him one way or the other. He's now at a top uni studying sciences and I'm sure it didn't really matter to them. On the other hand, One of the top London unis my daughter considered applying to, did ask for a language. Can't remember if UCL or Kings.

[skylark2]

Your DS needs to consider that unis are going to think it's pretty odd that someone at a languages school doesn't have a language GCSE, and may assume he was far less competent than he actually is.

Also, do they have free periods at his school at all? If not, he isn't going to be allowed to drop anything because there simply won't be anywhere for him to be.

[eatyourveg]

I was happy for ds to give up only because he was also taking French - I would have been very reluctant otherwise

Sorry had assumed French was still in the equation. I think in the future more and more places will be asking for ebacc subjects so think carefully.

In your position I would have a long chat with the spanish teacher and tell her that your ds is feeling too pressurised so can she cut him some slack rather than risk burn out.