DD is in year 9 and the school are starting to discuss GCSE options with them. DD is bright enough but not interested in academics. She's maintained a steady "acceptable" level for the last couple of years- last end of year exams had a couple of As, remaining Bs and Cs. This is with minimal effort.
She's been struggling a lot recently and grades fallen, alongside some big emotional problems. The psychiatrist we saw thinks she has undiagnosed ADHD which in fact makes a huge amount of sense. She's never still, plays 4 sports well, huge issues with focus, concentration and emotional regulation. She's started on low dose ADHD medicine this week and we will see how it goes.
Her school usually suggest 9 GCSEs with the most able doing 10. They have offered her the option to do 8, with the remaining 3 hours a week spent in the learning support centre getting extra tuition as needed and help with learning and revision. My first question is - how bad is it to only do 8? Will it limit her chances of getting into a good sixth form or university?
Secondly she doesn't want to do a language. She's little facility with them plus the amount of memorising vocab/ verbs etc really doesn't suit her.
She'd like to do English Lang and Lit, RE, Sports studies, Maths, biology, history, geography (8 gcse) or chemistry if she does 9. Is it really bad not to have a language?
Im trying to balance what's best for her now with what might be best for her later, especially if she responds well to the medication or finally finds some motivation. Her last lot of termly test results were uninspiring Bs and Cs BUT this was with her usual minimal effort, no medication plus it appears that the school are teaching at GCSE level for most subjects now so the questions were from previous GCSE papers. For example she got a C in maths but her teacher told me he had her tracking for a 7 which I think is a high B? This shows me that there might be some more potential there- but I don't want to force her down an academic route if she's going to be really unhappy.
Does anyone have any advice?
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Secondary education
How many GCSEs
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Seasonaldisorder · 17/01/2020 14:29
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