Options in year 8

At my DD school they start all the GCSE courses at the beginning of year 9 but still pick their options half way through year 9 (she is now in year 10). this way they've started all the courses without limiting their options and get a taste of what the courses are like before making final decisions. i think this is a good approach however after having picked her options she found it annoying that they still got tested and got lots of homework on the subjects they were dropping as to her this seemed like a waste of time. I even thought this after their May end of year exams. for the last half term she seemed to continue to get homework and essays from the subjects she was dropping even though she was never going to be tested on them again

Also, I guess it would make it harder to continue with a subject at A-level if you took the GCSE in it at the end of year 9, so 2 years of not studying (If I've understood you correctly)

One of the reasons we chose DD1's school was that the other one we looked at chooses options in Year 8 and I think that's too early to narrow things down and close off potential options. Really hoping that the new head they now have doesn't change the system as a lot of schools seem to be doing this now.

I wod have another reservation, troutsprout- my understanding is that some further and higher education establishments want GCSEs to be taken in the same sitting. Doing them over 3 years
if I understand correctly might put her at a disadvantage.....

Ds is in year 7 in a state school. She will take 2 options at the end of year 8. So she will do 2 gcse exams in the summer of year 9 , 2 in year 10 and then a final 2 ( plus the core subjects) in year 11.
I have reservations.

1. They do a lot of their chosen 2 subjects .. But then if it's a subject she loves, it's a shame that she won't do it once the year is over ( 2 years for language)
2. As others have said, only the first result counts ... Can't help thinking that a year or 2 years later would mean a better grade ( although I'm told that is not the case)

I'm on the fence about this, because I can see the drawbacks for many children whilst seeing the benefits for my DDs. DD1 picked her options last year in Yr8 and the change in her has been tremendous - she is more focused, more engaged, working harder because she's doing the subjects she loves and has dropped the ones she hated. She misses art and drama, but has expanded what she does at home in those subjects, and she has upped her extracurricular sports activities to make up for less PE - it works for her. The quality of her work is scary, in history she is producing essays that would get decent grades on the A level course and she's only Yr8 - because she has a real passion for the subject. The same applies in English, biology and RE.

DD2 has just started Yr7 and already has her options lined up.

However, I can see how narrowing the curriculum early won't work for many.

dingit - With Ds, the art department and him were mutually glad to see the back of each other - same here

OP if she picks stuff up easily and enjoys it, she should do 2 languages. The way it is taught now means that there is a huge amount of scope for students to widen their learning from what they do in school IYSWIM!

Happened to my two. With Ds, the art department and him were mutually glad to see the back of each other . He knew his options clearly, Spanish, food tech, geography. Sadly he didn't get Spanish because of a clash, and is now stuck doing French, which he hates

My dd is Y9 and although they don't chose their options until the end of this school year, they seem to be working towards GCSE level in at least some subjects, eg in Maths and sciences the end of term exams were all GCSE questions.
In History, there is much more emphasis on understanding and assessing the historical sources.
For English lit, they read Of Mice and Men then answered GCSE questions for homework.
I think thus is a good compromise because they still have the full range of subjects, but are being introduced to the GCSE standard syllabus.

18: I would be very disappointed in the quality of teaching in a school if pupils were bored stupid in lessons. There's more to education than just covering the curriculum and exam technique to get grades.

ds1 got all A*s for GCSE, but rarely described any of his lessons as boring.

all I can find about when they take their GCSEs is here; it describes plans that resits wouldn't count in league tables, it doesn't say that GCSEs could only be completed at end of yr11. Was this later changed to say that GCSEs could only be completed at end of yr11 for some yr groups?

This says early entry has fallen but not disappeared completely (still were 490,000 early entries in 2014).

18 I would have thought the only thing in favour of this stupid yr8 entry thing is that to allows time to teach the syllabus and exam prep AND do some broader, wider, deeper stuff as well.

Why would she be bored rigid?

Can she not do both? DD is doing 2 and regretting it!

I dunno, 18years, I would have thought she picks the language she thinks she likes best (and the one that fits in timetable), whether she just started or did it last year too. Is it really so tough to figure out which language feels nicer?

18, I think only some of the subjects started on the actual GCSE syllabus in Y9. Others (art, for example) did preparation work I think. But if she is super-bright, maybe she would be able to take some early or take some additional ones?

I really know very little about this, apart from affecting certain parent's choice, are there financial or other penalties from being relatively lower in the government tables?

Do you have a link for that, Hakluyt? I thought that the big change was that resit results didn't count in league tables, and that all exams had to be end of yr (couldn't do parts in January, etc). Could still do their final exams in May-June of yr9 or yr10.

Not that everyone had to take all exams at end of yr11.

Will be horrid if we are stuck with the worst possible system after all.

My understanding is that DD only has to decide one year at a time (which is how my school did it). I wasn't happy when I thought she'd have to decide yr11 options 2.5 yrs in advance.

Absolutely, summerends- that's how it works. I wish.