£600 per pupil for every extra pupil studying maths in sixth form

Me too...

But no one seems worried about DT subjects so I am guessing they know they can't make people study or teach graphics or electronics who have no aptitude or ability in it.

The panic in staffing is because you can't recruit enough Maths teachers to teach years 11-16 in some schools, let alone A level. I used to be head of a science department with no physics teacher at all for a term. And 34 kids doing physics A level.

I rarely talk of STEM outside of MN. I say Maths and Science. Because I am a bit scared of Computing...

There are still plenty of people doing Arts and Humanities degrees. Lots of them have A level Maths too. I see that as a plus, to be honest. My DS is doing Maths, Physics, History. At the moment would like to do History. Maybe.

Nice to see you on here wyf after having been called a terrible teacher and human being on t'other thread! I didn't dare stick up for you...
Yeah, I decided to duck out of that one!

I note we rarely talk about the T of STEM!

I am not sure that is entirely true fallen - it is about staffing, but the panic about staffing in STEM is linked with the desire to push STEM forward for the UK to 'compete on the world satge' educationally and in business.

It's a catch -22 . Lure young people towards STEM, promising amazing future career prospects and pay and then wonder why they don't want to go into teaching!

Trace it back fallen : maths has overtaken English Lit at both A level and university. I think in a few years time, all the sciences will overtake English Lit.

The incentives for STEM teachers are not to push STEM in schools. They're to staff STEM in schools!

The country might say they 'need' maths and physics.

The world needs culture, thought and the appreciation of things of beauty.

Which could be maths and physics.

Maths is certainly the most popular A level. Biology and Chemistry are above Physics. As are English Literature and History. And Art and Design subjects. For 2017 entries at least. MfL, I agree is in crisis.

Want to stress, I am not anti STEM. Happy for those who have a passion for it to study it!

Government policy. Incentivisation of the study of STEM, STEM colleges , UTCs, funding cuts to Arts Projects, conversations my students report having with careers advisers, teachers, parents...incentives and bursaries for teachers of STEM. Today I had a mailshot aimed at physics teachers asking them to pick out future physics teachers ... some sort of bursary project...

Much of this is due to the dearth of STEM teachers but not all of it..

No, I did mean what. What other examples are there of a deliberate push to STEM subjects?

Nice to see you on here wyf after having been called a terrible teacher and human being on t'other thread! I didn't dare stick up for you...

DS's Spanish A level class is about 15, believe it or not, after the sixth form actually tried to axe it!

When I did A level German many moons ago I was in a class of 3!

But what is unusual now is someone like noble who mixed maths and a language. Now there would be more pressure from a range of sources to mix maths with physics and another science or economics (and with only three A levels back, there is less picking a hums or otehr essay based subject as a 4th). Maths and MFL is a fabulous combination!

I suppose the question is "is it wrong to steer the bright kids towards maths and physics when that's what the country needs?"

That's not all the country needs. The British "language deficit" is well known -I'm not sure I believe it costs us 3% of GDP, but it's certainly an issue. Not that it could all be fixed with £600, but imagine what exciting authentic resources, subsidised trips, etc could do for language teaching.

When I took French A-level at school, there were too many kids in the class (more than 30) so I didn't have a desk. I just sat on a chair that I had to get from another class and balanced books on my lap.

I promise that's not a problem any more! I'm an MFL teacher. For French this year we have 4 at A2 and 9 at AS. German & Spanish have about the same - and we're doing better than most of the other schools in our (affluent, highly educated, high % uni) area.

I agree its' not entirely the reason... but when I surveyed my students last week viz my other thread one thing they all talked about was the cachet (sp?) of physics and maths these days.

Music is also in some kind of terminal decline , drama is dropping, English Lit is slightly under threat (although perhaps form other English subjects to an extent)

Clever pupils used to be steered almost equally towards arts and hums as they were to science and maths. I don't think that is the case any more.

A poorly thought out education policy? Surely not.

Do you mean why Fallen?

The uptake of A levels in arts subjects - and especially MFL - tells its own story.