Any Humanities teachers out there? - GCSE choices...

I'm interested in Wolsey Hall too, if anyone has any experiences! Particularly in Latin. DS1 is another one doing triple science and taking creative subjects. On the starting from scratch at A level, I would definitely agree that RS is the one you can pick up later - it's a bit like classical civilisation in the sense that you can transfer skills learned in other essay subjects and don't need really specific prior knowledge.

Balletgirlmum - it's what the government want, innit. An army of low grade technicians, who don't have security of employment, who are set to be replaced by AI anyway, who can't access decently paid jobs, who will never own property and therefore will be stuck in the rent trap, and who therefore won't rock the boat (and who, if they wish to rock the boat, won't have the skills to articulate their arguments in any prodctive way).

I'm appalled that schools are forcing kids who are more arts orientated to do triple science & not giving them the option of double.

Hijack away.

For what it's worth dd is only going to do GCSE music & not drama despite wanting to do MT so she can keep triple science (with an eye to dance physiotherapy) & her school have dropped dance as a GCSE on the basis that they all have higher dsnce qualifications than that anyway.

GCSE music covers a lot of stuff like composition that you don't necessarily cover in instrumental lessons & it's much harder to be accepted onto music a level without GCSE which isn't the case for drama.

At our local sixth form college you can do all of those subjects without having done a GCSE as long as you have a decent English pass. They may also ask for a pass in one humanity but I am not sure of that.

I did RS A level having not done GCSE. Oh and I had an offer from Cambridge too. I ended up going to Cardiff but that's another story, but it doesn't close down options with decent universities.

3 sciences compulsory. Some rubbish about being rounded

How rubbish. One science is more than enough to be "rounded". Sigh. I'm fed up with the government pushing science down everyone's throats. We still need non-scientists.

RS is compulsory at KS4. My son's school gets everyone to do a GCSE in it so that time isn't wasted. Does your son's school do that too - I assume not or you wouldn't have the problem.

Out of interest, do you have time/funds for him to do the 3rd subject outside school eg via someone like Wolsey Hall?

I would say to drop the RS.
The school I am at has no 6th form provision but I have briefly taught A-level History and the one pupil without history GCSE struggled. I would imagine geography to be similar.

Sorry OP - I seem to have hijacked this thread a bit. I'll leave it now. Sorry, again.

She wants to do musical theatre. She doesn't have to keep up her instruments for that (other than piano and voice) true - but on the other hand they are something she is extremely good at (very high standard for her age - higher standard than DD1 who will be going to RCM in the autumn was at that age). And more worth keeping up than doing a useless GCSE in geography. And keeping up her instruments will keep her options open should she decide that actually, music is the thing she wants to do. Also - being highly proficient at music can be a good way to earn money as a student. Playing gigs and in pit bands and also busking financed me throughout my uni years. It's a useful thing to be able to do. Most of the people I know in that sort of world are multi skilled. They have to be.

What careers means you must play numerous instruments, sing, dance and act? People I know ended up specialising! Even musical theatre does not require playing instruments - usually! If you play in an orchestra, do you dance or do drama? What is her career objective?

KingscoteStaff (which one though? Crommie? Not Keith surely...) Yes, if she has to make a choice she will do music at school and drama with her drama group - we just would prefer her to do drama at school too because (a) she wouldn't have to do an extra unnecessary GCSE (in addition to the unnecessary science she will be lumbered with) (b) there will be scheduling difficulties and she may well end up having to drop an instrument (she has 4 sets of lessons including voice) which seems bonkers - but she won't dump dance, that would happen over her dead body (c) because of the new syllabus, the fact that drama with the drama group always gets better results than drama with the school was going to be less of A Thing, in fact we suspected that her year would be the first year where there would be an advantage to doing it with the school rather than the drama group.

She already gets way more than enough EC opportunities (right now she is sorting out her costume for tonights MT performance in a regional dance festival) to perform so that's not an issue.

The fact is she doesn't HAVE to do drama GCSE or A level really - one can do drama at a drama school, conservatoire or uni without. But she wants to. And she decidedly doesn't want to do any of the other subjects.

Shame your DS will have to dump Latin. I think it's still possible to do it externally with the Cambridge Latin people? There's like an online thing?

bojororo My DD is currently going through GCSE options. But doing drama and music doesn't close down your options if what you want to do as a career requires both. Not doing one or the other closes down your options. But apparently the only career paths worth considering are those that lead inexorably to low grade technician jobs. Which will mostly be replaced by AI within our kids' working lifetimes anyway. And then where will they be?

List looks good to me, too.

Can he do double science Kingscote? This means less subject matter for each science and Arts people do not need 3 separate sciences. List looks OK to me.

Uhtred...My DD1 was not too bothered about science or maths despite top grade GCSEs. Some people willl always be wordsmiths or use their brains in different ways. I actually do not see anything wrong with her A levels and if Music and Drama fit her future career plans, then do them. English and History are very strong subjects though and doing both would certainly keep more options open, e.g. for Law, History, Philosophy, English, Drama etc. Doing both Drama and Music do not keep many options open, they close them down. Drama does not need Music and Music does not need Drama. English works well with Drama.

I think having breadth at GCSE is important because no-one needs to specialise at GCSE. One of my DDs did Art and Photography A levels. It got her to where she wanted to be. History is fine at GCSE. Neither of mine did Geography and you do not need both - unless you want to do Geography of course!

My DD has a similar problem - the subjects she would ideally like to do at A level are music, drama, English and History. She is outstanding (at the moment) at all those subjects. She is free to opt to do drama and music for GCSE (she has to choose between history and geog also but that should be ok, she gets top marks all the time in history and is not great at geog I can't see them making her do that) but she has been told she probably won't get one of her choices because 'balance'. Which is ridiculous. She is forced to do triple science and maths, even thugh she will drop them all like a stone as soon as she can, and she also wants to do two arts subjects which are directly related to the A levels and then career path she wishes to follow. And which completely complement each other. There is no lack of balance here. There's just a kid who doesn't want to be a soulless minion of orthodoxy and swallow the 'only science matters' mantra all kids and schools are being force fed at the moment. Which is storing up no end of trouble for the future - a future in which we won't need low grade technicians who have been forced to follow career paths for which they are unsuited as a result of short sighted education policy. :( (Incidentally my DD regularly comes top in science tests, it's not that she is crap at science she just isn't interested.)

I agree with Bertrand. Hist and geography cover different skill sets. History is transferable to philosophy later on. Harder to pick up geography skills.

But history sounds like the non-negotiable one for his future plans.

"His current aim is to study History and Politics; Philosophy and Theology; or Human, Social and Political Sciences at university. Does that make a difference?"

My dd is doing Philosophy and theology. Most of the people she knows on her course haven't got Philosophy A level, and the course assumes that they haven't. I think this is quite common. I would assume this isn't the case with history. If I were you I would qdvise he did history and geography.

I'm a Head of History. I've taken on a few kids over the years without GCSE, and it wasn't necessarily easy on them. I took their English grade into consideration when recruiting into Sixth Form and only took on diligent kids who would take on new and often complicated skills quickly.

I would start looking at the subject requirements for these degree courses and work backwards.

Starting with History and Politics, A level History is vital and Politics is desirable. It is no problem studying Politics at A level without a GCSE. The other degrees are flexible but History is a strong subject for all. RE is perfectly OK for Philosophy and Theology and an essay subject, but is not required. Therefore History, RE and Politics at A level would tick boxes but Geography is a facilitating subject and RE and Politics are not. Philosophy and Theology and HSPS are flexible on A levels. Therefore I think perhaps the geography is the one to drop - no course appears to specially want it. Or definitely decide which degree is most likely and go for the best subject combination. If studying abroad is desirable, this could include an MFL.

I have looked at the prospectus for the Sixth Form College my daughter may attend - for A level Geography they require at least a B at GCSE; for RS and History A levels they do not require any previous knowledge of the subjects.