GCSE options help.

As a teacher - EB is a heap of ill-thought-through nonsense - don't worry about it in the least.

I'd say your DD has been well advised by the school - 2 humanities is a lot of work - is the performing arts course a GCSE or a vocational course? It would provide some balance and give her some different skills, practical ones to compliment her academic qualifications.

I beg to differ. Our local sixth form providers publish the fact that they take into account the EB in their offer of places.

The school might well consider the EB to be contrived, but they are doing their students and their parents a disservice by not telling them about it and they need to be honest if they have made a decision to 'opt out' of the EB.

Maybe the school considers the EB to be (yet another) contrived way of measuring performance and they feel that their students' best interests are served by them doing subjects that interest them, and allow them to get the best grades possible.

The EB is NOT a qualification - universities do NOT look at it. Neither do 6th form colleges. The latter usually require 5 x A-C's and the former will look at A2 predictions first, then AS results, then GCSEs. The absense of a humanity is unlikely to raise huge red flags.

The OP's dd seems to want to do 2 humanities anyway plus a Language, ICT and Business. Which looks like a well balanced combination that will not restrict her ALevel choices, whichin turn will not restrict her degree choices. Assuming she is potentially an A or A* student these choices would be managable I'd have thought.

Interesting. I am girding my loins for options night today - will come back afterwards! Atm my (v bright) dd is thinking History and Textiles for definate. She is torn bewteen French and German and between Art and Drama. I think we're going to struggle with this...

I personally think the English Bacc is rubbish!
The Government has been critised over it and it looks unlikely that a certificate will ever be awarded - this was published by the House of Commons on the 1st November as part of the "The English Baccalaureate:
Government Response to the Committee's Fifth Report" : The English Baccalaureate is not a qualification and is not intended to drive universities? application procedures. It provides information on how schools are performing in subjects which we know lead young people to A Level study and equip them well for entry onto competitive university courses. It was already the
case that pupils who studied these subjects were more likely to progress on to further study and the publication of EBacc information means that this is now known more widely.

Are you in the UK OP? If so, this is another thread where I'm baffled that the school isn't telling you about the English Baccalaureate, which is what has been used to measure school performance for the past year.

This means that students who gain A* - C in English Language, Maths., Core Science, one language and either History or Geography, will be awarded the EB. Sixth forms and universities are using this as a measure of all-round academic attainment. Most schools are allocating 'pathways' at the options stage and in effect are not giving their brighter pupils many options. For the 'top' pathway, they must choose a Modern Foreign Language and History or Geography, leaving them with typically only two 'free choice' options. For the brightest students, this is normally Triple Science (one option) plus one other.

It is essential that your DD chooses subjects that will lead to the EB. The teacher you spoke to is giving blatantly misleading advice, because if your DD doesn't take a Humanities subject (History/Geography) she could be severely disadvantaged in the future. She might want to take ICT or Business studies as her other option, but do make sure she's chosen the EB subjects.

Thats 5 options and, at our school, the triple science students only get three. Is she allowed to do them all to start with?

Then the choice - all relatively academic and I'd advise a fun subject. However, she may think of ICT in that way, especially if its nt GCSE but a vocational course.

I would say it is too much but thats because of the apparant lack of fun plus the number chosen, which is 2 more than our school would allow.

Hi. My DD is at the same stage. Got to do Maths (x2), English (x2), OCR in ICT. Wants to do triple sciences, music, Spanish. She has 1 choice left - looking at Product design, Electronics, Art or Geography. I favour the latter! She is very bright but doesn't like subjects that involve a lot of writing. Does anyone know how much work is involved in Geography? Universities seem to prefer 9 GCSEs with good grades rather than more but with lower grades.

Where's English in this? Surely that's compulsory?