Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Scotland: S3 Options time for National 5s

32 replies

myotherusernameisbetter · 03/01/2015 20:53

Just looking at the timetable we've been given for the Options programme and it says that parents attend the S3 senior Phase Options Interviews but at this point it doesn't say if that's during the day or evening. We've still to have an information evening in a couple of weeks time so I am sure we will find that out then but it would be handy to know earlier so I can try to arrange time of work if I need to - anyone had any experience? I realise I can phone and ask but feel that they will just have me badged as problem parent :o

Anyone else in the same boat with a child about to make their options who wants to share their hopes, fears and issues? :)

OP posts:
Original poster
myotherusernameisbetter · 05/01/2015 23:06

Tutoring wont be happening I don't think - I agree with you, to me it's something that you would maybe do short term if they they needed a subject and were struggling or had missed stuff and needed to get back on a level with the class, otherwise they are on their own and will need to find what they are good at and stick with it! I have this to do all over again next year for DS2 as he is only 13 months younger.

OP posts:
ttlshiwwya · 05/01/2015 22:03

My DCs school do give an rough indication of progress in reports - usually just level 4 secure etc. and at parents night usually indicate whether this is at the top level of the set. However it's not a high performing school and being in the top sets is no guarantee of success.

I'm no fan of tutoring - several of my friends at uni had umpteen tutors all through secondary but struggled at uni without the extra help and ended up with thirds. I can understand getting a tutor for illness or if you are really bad at a particular subject and just need a C to get on a course and will never need to use the subject again. Even in my area it's common amongst the wealthy parents with some having tutors for 4+ subjects for national 5s. Scary.

Original poster
myotherusernameisbetter · 04/01/2015 20:53

I wish I'd watched him put his answers in, but I figured he would be more honest or at least be forced to answer himself without prompting from me if I left him to do it himself. I wonder if I can go back in and see what he answered? It said his secondary lot of skills or whatever it was were all about Motivation etc but he doesn't speak to people at all so I'm wondering just how that would work!

OP posts:
Original poster
myotherusernameisbetter · 04/01/2015 20:50

Very interesting! I am hoping that they give us a better idea of his likely results in his last report and parents evening which are squashed in between the meeting for parents and the options interviews. Every report we've had so far only tells us how hard he works, which is good but not that helpful when he himself tells us virtually nothing! He was top in his primary school (but wasn't an academic group really and not a feeder school for his current high school) and his Reading level was 3-4 years above his age when he was 10/11ish. so I am thinking he is reasonably bright based on that really. He attends a high achieving school but i had heard that a lot of that is down to wealthy parents paying for tutors.

He loves Art and his teacher thinks he is great but he hasn't so far picked it so I'm not sure if there has been any influence at hand....on the other had his registration teacher teaches French.

All his teachers seem to say he is hard working, but I don't see much evidence of it, homework is rattled off in 5/10 minutes. He is very very compliant though, and quiet which will either make him popular with teachers or maybe invisible. It would be good to be able to see into the future to help them make the right choices.

I think with the National 5s being so new, it is maybe harder for the teachers to predict likely grades though? Who knows!

OP posts:
ttlshiwwya · 04/01/2015 20:38

I too was surprised by my son's mock option choices. He has never had any interest in French however selected this instead of physics (like your son he has enjoyed building and dismantling things since he was little). Apparently he finds French easy as you just need to memorise stuff and regurgitate. He has a good memory and it very outgoing e.g. Did his last oral french exam in the style of Joey Barton to entertain his classmates. I would have liked him to select physics to keep the engineering type options open. I wonder whether your son's teachers might persuade him to select his stronger subjects. I remember my DS1 wanting to select PE as a higher and being persuaded by his PSE teacher to choose another subject he was more likely to do better in and would be more useful for his future career plans. My husband had suggested similar but he only took heed of his teacher. I also remember getting "predicted standard grades" for my DS1 which helped him make his choices. Also I'm going to ask to see the recent exam results by subject for the school and compared to other schools (less popular subjects are taught in multilevel classes and I'm not convinced they are well taught - I was surprised that no-one got an A at national 5 in computing last year especially as some of the same children got As in national 5 maths).

We tried the "my strengths" questionnaire yesterday as well. I watched him answer the questions and thought he answered truthfully but I'm not sure I agree with the summary - they had him high on wanting to help others etc whereas I think he lacks compassion etc. Maybe others have found this more useful.

Original poster
myotherusernameisbetter · 04/01/2015 16:35

Thanks for that ttlshiwwya.

DS1 is very quiet and always loved making things and as far as I am aware is a clever all rounder (they only get marked on effort so I am not really sure!). The only subjects he hasn't enjoyed are Social and we have had some crises when he has had to make presentations in English and French class. DH and I kind of had him marked out to do engineering or something of that ilk. His Tech teacher says he is talented in tech drawing and his art teacher says that he has a talent but he also did well in a Maths competition etc. However, when he did a mock choice selection he chose Modern Studies, Business Admin and French along with Maths, English, Chemistry and Computer Science. No Engineering Science, No Graph Comm, No Physics, No Art. he doesn't like to speak in English so we are particularly puzzled by the French and with a dislike of Social the Modern Studies and Business admin were also a bit of a surprise.

He says he thinks he'd like to do something with computers.

We went on this today
www.myworldofwork.co.uk/

and he did the My Strengths quiz - god knows what he answered as apparently he is high on Decision making - you could wait forever for him to express any opinion on anything and his general response to a choice is "I don't know" Confused

Anyway - it will be interesting to see what the actual finished option papers look like - they get to choose 7 subjects and move into the senior phase at the beginning of May to accommodate the extra subject hours required.

OP posts:
ttlshiwwya · 04/01/2015 16:07

My DCs school has the general info event in the evening followed by a parents evening a couple of weeks later and then individual option interviews a couple of weeks afterwards. Dates and times are in the calendar on the website. I remember with my DS1 that appointments were available during the day as well as evening but mainly evening. I wouldn't be afraid to ask - I find the pupil support teachers the most approachable - the office staff not so much!

This is my second time around with my DS2 however I am more anxious this time with my DS2 as he is smart but very lazy. So far he has coasted along in the top sets doing the minimum of work. However he has decided that he would like to be a doctor which is hardly the career choice for the lazy. I'm hoping that when he does some relevant work experience he will realise this and either step it up or think about other possibilities. I am going to try and persuade him to keep his options as open as possible which is quite difficult as his school only does a maximum of 6 national 5s. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else had tried to influence their teenagers choices and whether they regretted this in the long term.