Can we have an options thread for parents of 'average' children?

Balance in choices is important and to be encouraged. It shouldn't be that there is total free choice, as this doesn't help kids later. Colleges like a range. If someone can do a language, it is good to have one. They should have a humanity too.
The people who might not go for this balance are those for whom it is beyond them and for whom doing a vocational course is more suitable.
If your child has a chance of passing a decent number of GCSEs, doing 3 lots of DT is not a good idea.

Well, he didn't exactly pull the stops out for any of his GCSEs I'm afraid. Didn't seem to be a particularly heavy workload (as there is for art, for example), but my ds wouldn't be someone you'd want your ds to model himself upon in terms of "hours spent on homework"
A lot was practical, but there were also write ups and designs and plans to get in too.

Thank you for that backforGood! Did he have to do a lot of homework and do you know if there was a lot of revision to be done for the exams or was a lot of it practical?

RussianBlu - my ds did Res Mat. He's never been a particularly 'practical' or 'hands on' person - dh isn't a DIYer either, we always have to 'get a man in' to get anything fixed, but he really enjoyed his res mat. He found the lesson a 'break' from the more traditional, academic GCSEs. I know also have a lovely coffee table he made me for his project. He didn't want to take it (the way the options were blocked, he didn't want to do any of the options in that 4th block) but ended up really enjoying it. they learnt different techniques and also had to go through the process of planning, doing, and reviewing.

DS1 is good at Maths, Science, History, essay subjects.

Very little aptitude for Art, Tech or languages.

Compulsory subjects: Maths, English x2, Science x3, German
Options he has chosen: History, Classical Civilisation, Latin (will possibly be the only person from the lower Latin set continuing it to GCSE )
Reserves: RS Ethics & Philosophy, ICT (dislikes both but not as much as he dislikes Art etc).

In our school, all students, even the most academic, have to choose a DT subject; awkward for dd who is academically bright but had joint trouble. Never put it to the test though as she was ill for most of the last three years of secondary and ended up dropping all subjects except the core.

My average(? - anticipating Cs and Bs) DD1 is in year 10 so did all this last year. I think she is dyspraxic so all the tech subjects were out before we started choosing.

My comments:

• Double science is a lot of learning but huge chunks are more factual than scientific. Our science department seems to demand more off the pupils than other subjects, so she has spent ages more time on revising for science tests than eg history.
• No idea what happens really in English but she has done 2 controlled assessments so far, and good preparation really helps
• So glad she is doing drama as she isn't so far getting homework for it which lightens the load a bit

Make sure you look at the syllabus/revision guide for things like business. It looks quite mathematical to me.
ICT syllabuses (syllabi?) vary a lot so check this also!

Our school would let a child choose 3xDT subjects if they wanted (must have 1 x EBacc subject, too). School might advise against 3 x DT items, but it's the kid's choice ultimately.

RussianBlu my understanding is that dcs can only choose one DT option so your child would have to choose either Food Tech or Resistant Materials.
My dd would love to take Graphics as her DT option, but this isn't offered at her school so she's trying to decide whether to take Art and Design or DT Product Design instead. She is also trying to decide between ICT (Edexcel Cert Digital applications) and Computer Science OCR GCSE as 2 of her options.

Can anyone tell me what resistant materials actually entails??? I am struggling with a fairly lazy disinterested, not terribly academic child at the moment, just starting to chose options. Would P.E, food tech, drama and resistant materials (or history) be a really awful combination? They feel like fairly pathetic choices to me. Music is another option. Any guidance would be most appreciated, thank you.

I have thought about a Maths tutor; the daft thing is I am very good at Maths myself, and could easily "tutor" him, but he won't really accept it from me. The school do a Maths Clinic, but it all requires DS to want to put the effort in, which currently he doesn't.

He's soooo different from me, that's for sure.

Gossamer, ds1 has filled 2of the large exercise books on the American West alone, his essays have included looking at 2how successful was the treaty of Laramie"
In Ds1's words, the subject is good but the amount of work is just WRONG!
He has just started on the history of medicine

my ds is halfway through his first yr GCSE History, German, Drama.

History involves a huge amount of writing, ds loves history but the amount of homework, essay writing etc is huge.
German, he is really enjoying & taken to it much easier than he did French
Drama he loves, a good balance of practical & written skills needed.

I would say, let him pick the subjects he is going to enjoy the most. The way the subjects are grouped together means that they end up picking a good balance of subjects anyway.
As long as it isn't a chore they'll put the effort in so go for the subjects they enjoy.

Would you consider getting a Maths tutor or is the school able to offer a bit of extra Maths support? My DS got some school support for his English last year.

Great thread.

DS is very much Mr Middle-of-the-Road; he's a bright boy with a good memory who picks things up quickly, but doesn't focus enough at the moment to do as well as he should. He is also quite hopeless at Music, Art, DT and so on, so will by default end up doing mainly academic GCSEs.

They all do Maths, English and double Science; so far he has chosen French, and PE (best subject by a country mile ), and is currently deliberating whether to do History, Geography or IT (has to do two of these).

His main challenge is writing - he is full of opinions in class discussions but struggles to get anything onto paper. Essays are a major challenge.

I'm also desperate to pull up his Maths, which has gone downhill over the last two years. He risks going into the lower sets who do only Foundation level (max grade C). Any suggestions welcome!

Computer science teacher at DS school really laid it on thick about it being hard work & problem solving (puzzles). Fine if you've got the right kind of mind, but I know many wouldn't.

the advice I would give is for students to be aware of the essay skills that are needed in a lot of subjects. Whilst the content of the subject may seem very interesting the end result depends on their basic skills in writing.

For example, in Business students need to know the content, have good general knowledge, and also be able to write these down in correct English, giving both sides of the argument and to give an evaluation if they ever want to access anything higher than a D grade its not the easy subject that most MN's think it is

It is also imperative that they are aware of the workload requirements. For Art there is a massive workload in addition to classwork, same goes for the majority of practical subjects. Other subjects also require some workload outside of classroom/homework in order to achieve good marks in the CA - again, talking from my subjects business will require students to research a small business in order to write up their CA.
ICT will need students to send a lot of time sourcing information/images/sounds etc in order for them to use in their coursework

What about coding / computer science? He might be good at that if he likes maths.

@GossamerHailfilter

Have you looked at D&T:Graphics? This has been good for my DS who is interested in D&T but not practical with his hands - the work is nearly all done on computer.

He is also good at maths and coursework and Geography has been great for this looking at flow rates in rivers: not sure anything in History would have captured his interest (although that depends on what project the school does I suppose - he just struck lucky).

They are all branches of the Design and Technology GCSE, you can only do one of them (well I suppose you could do more than one with different boards but it could not be counted as more than one GCSE qualification).

They seem a bit tech mad at his school. They offer graphics, resistant materials, electronics, textiles and Food all as separate subjects. I think he needs to give it a bit more thought...although these rolls are delicious.