Dd in tears over gcse options.

I have dd at same stage as you. Our option forms were in blocks and since they drop a subject the following year the blocks for these were also shown. This makes life much more sensible IMO. I would agree with humanities or computing. I think drama or music would be really hard work and a bit hit or miss if you have no interest in them. I think unless you are a natural at languages they are also relatively hard work in terms of memorising vocabulary.
My dd is doing art and graphic design purely because she likes them both, so I feel really bad for your dd. Our school has a partnership arrangement with the local FE college for some subjects and I wondered if this was an option you could explore through the school or as an extra curricular course?

Please forgive the grammatical errors!

Really, really do not do 3 art or graphics based subjects. Do not think about doing one as a twilight. She does not need all these three. She needs a humanity. If you look at Graphic Design at Brighton, for example, it is about producing a portfolio of work and that includes making things and sketching. If she is keen on this career, their portfolio requirements make interesting reading.

With respect, photography does little for this degree application. What block is photography in? Photography A level, as we have previously discussed, is very possible without the GCSE. Could the photography be swapped for GD? I am surprised any school would let pupils do 3 arts/design based subjects so I don't think your school is unreasonable . However it should be a choice between photography and graphic design because they tend to send the student off in different directions at A level and beyond. Your DD seems determined to do only a narrow choice of subjects without seeing the bigger picture. She runs the risk of not getting the work done if she has a free choice.

Dear OP,
I would actually be quite concerned that a school would allow a student to choose art and photography, doesn't require them to do a humanities subject and won't let them do two MFL's. I would suggest that your daughter is at real risk of narrowing her options far too much at this stage. She is what, 14? How many of us changed our mind completely about what we wanted to do after that age. If she is academically able to cope with it I would be encouraging a much broader base to her GCSE's that will allow a wide choice for post 16. I personally think a humanities subject is absolutely essential for a students academic development.

her chosen career will have lots of time pressure, although she will of course be more mature.

I'm afraid this is life lesson #1, you can't always get what you want. There are only so many combinations of timetable and someone will always not be able to do their desired subject set.

it would indeed have been helpful to manage expectations earlier - lesson for the school - but the job now is to encourage her to choose suitable alternatives.

My dd was in the same delimma when she was in year 12. She had chose Eng. lit, French , photography and Art but we only found out the French was in the same block as the Photography , so had to drop one and pick another subject.
She wanted be do Fine Art, she dropped French in the end and picked Biology which she did terribly at AS. No need to say , she dropped it after AS.
Should the school informed us much earlier , we could have applied for a few more sixth form or college. Well, there was one mixed school offered her the four subjects of her choice but we declined their offer as their Art department was way too small, only 2 girls took the A2 the year before.

Anyway, she achieved the A* for Art and A for photography. She is currently study at UAL for her Art foundation. She could have done better for her fourth AS subject if she was allowed to do French instead of Biology.

School should have given out the subject block to inform the students and parents as soon as possible, I will bear in mind when it's dd2 to choose her AS subject.

DS did both art and graphic design, and I wouldn't recommend it! Music, drama, even geography are also pretty coursework-heavy, unless it's very different from our schools.

I'd go for history.

I would recommend Art and computer science personally.

I would have thought the school would advise against doing Art & Graphic design together even if the timetable allowed it simply because of the sheer volume of portfolio work required. DD's school advised against Art and Textiles, for this reason.
AS PP already said GCSEs are to demonstrate a broad education with A levels for subject specialisation. Although I have to say that a language academy in effect only allowing the studying of one language seems very narrow.
I have thought for a while it is completely misleading to talk about GCSE options when so many subjects are compulsory (& rightly so) and really you're only talking about dropping a few subjects.

Sadly even if you find 'Art' classes at Evening classes - they are only open to those aged over 18 and they are more leisure courses than GSCE. Might be better to look at an Arts Award - my DN did a Bronze and got so much from it. More and more providers are offering it. It is a bit similar to the Duke of Edinburgh awards in my mind - apologies to both if this isn't the case.

Oh wow - it would be ridiculous to do Graphic design, Art AND photography GCSEs - with the amount of coursework involved her other subjects would suffer without a doubt - unless she has agreed to a reduced number of GCSEs?

Photography as well . In that case I think geography is the much better option! Surely she'd drown under the coursework otherwise?

Can't they offer an after school session if you also pay for a tutor?

Computer sciences is likely to be programming isn't it rather than using CAD tools?

Agree it is daft having all languages in 1 block. At DD's school French appears in 2 blocks so you can do 2 languages.

Geography sounds a good bet if she's top set.

Art and Graphics would be massive coursework load anyway wouldn't it?

If it's actually "Computing" or "Computer Science" as a GCSE option, then it will be all about learning to code (programming), as well as learning logic, binary, how a computer actually works inside etc. It will definitely not include any ICT skills or graphics type work. I would strongly advise reading the blurb about this course before you choose it, as programming/logic etc is not necessarily everyone's cup of tea. These days ICT is a very different course to a Computing/Computer Science course.

All my DSs did three languages at local comp ... two timetabled, one twilight.

Art-based subjects are so time consuming though, compared to other subjects. Maybe doing both wouldnt be a good idea from that perspective anyway.

She should do a humanity. It is interesting they have not put art into the same block as drama and music. Art is fine for graphic design and her career will not depend on this GCSE. This is GCSE not A level and GCSEs are meant to be broad, not careers focused. I do agree the blocks should have come out first but I guess the school had not worked out the time tabling issues earlier.

It is a TOTAL disgrace that pupils cannot do two languages. This is a real state school issue and explains why students on MFL degrees are often privately educated. For a school that teaches several languages, why on earth would you not support able linguists by offering two languages? Most people do need the GCSE to be successful at A level MFLs. Only doing one MFL seriously curtails degree options in these subjects where many do joint honours and some languages are not offered ab ibnitio. What a disgrace we have schools that still limit the aspirations of young people.

If your daughter wants to be a graphic designer she should definitely consider doing computer science, probably with art. Basically all graphic design is done on computers now, using design programmes, so IT skills are as important as artistic skills. My mum was a graphic designer in the 80's when it was all done by hand, when she wanted to go back after having children she couldn't as would have had to completely retrain, that was nearly 20 years ago its even more technologised now. If she wants to go on to do graphic design at A level, a foundation in art and computers would be very beneficial. However I appreciate it's hard to see it in this big picture way at 14.

When I was at school a long time ago we also had option groups, but only a few and you could do more than one subject in each block - sciences, arts subjects and one creative or practical subject - French wasn't an option as such, most pupils did it except for some who did extra basic subjects, and our second foreign language, only studied by quite a small number of pupils to start with, was an option. We also did less subjects than most people do at GCSE now - a maximum of 9 if you did Latin for an extra hour after school in the 4th and 5th years (Yrs 10 and 11) and took the exam in at the end of the first year in 6th form, so it was 5 options in 3 areas.

I can't see that it's unreasonable to discuss it with the school and find out what the logic is, and to look into it a bit further. Are your daughter's classmates affected in other subjects? - the language thing seems a bit strange and would surely pose a problem.

Does the school offer A levels or other 16+ courses in both subjects and what are the requirements for those?

Are there any relevant after school clubs for art or graphic design or local colleges which would offer some chance of developing skills and possibly getting qualifications?

I can see how both computer science and geography, even human geography, might be relevant to later studies, etc.