Triple science or French Gcse?

I meant, regarding art GCSE, that as long as you can come up with a portfolio of work, you would still be accepted into college with that if it's good enough. It's not the GCSE itself that will help.

Meant to add though, my own DD went with photography over art, as she felt it possibly more relevant to Medicine & she was told the Art GCSE covers a lot of photography anyway, which she didn't fancy as it sounded too "bitty" to her. She also has a small leaning to something creative instead of medicine, so wanted to keep her options open & the photography GCSE looked like quite an easier one for her to do well in

Art GCSE will have no bearing on any future art or design career As a designer, I would disagree with that as it hasn't been my experience at all, nor that if friends or their older DCs who have gone into similar fields.

My daughter had exactly the same dilemma with Triple science and first decided not to do it in favour of another subject. She also is very bright so after two weeks of doing 'double' science with less able pupils she knew she had made the wrong decision luckily the school allowed her to swop.
On another note French A Level is not all about language it includes a lot of history of the country etc

Both triple science and French. Geography is also a great course and very scientific.

I'd drop art out of those options. Art is something that can be enjoyed easily outside of school.

I would encourage her to do triple science and french and not do art. She can still enjoy it as a hobby.

Art GCSE will have no bearing on any future art or design career, just as music GCSE has no bearing on any future as a musician. If your DD can take triple science and a foreign language that is the best option. I really think languages are important - learning a language stretches your brain and makes it work in a different way to many other subjects and it shows that you are generally academically capable - that's what universities would like to see.

Also if medicine is a real possibility have a look at GCSE requirements. Some courses are asking for the equivalent of 6+ A*s. So it’s worth thinking about which subjects she is likely to excel in.

Cardiff school of medicine GCSE requirements

^“The first thing the School of Medicine will do on receipt of an application is score the top 9 GCSEs. These 9 must include English Language (and/or Welsh Language), the Sciences and Mathematics.

We award 3 points for A*, 2 points for an A and 1 point for a B. We do not award points for short courses. Applications will be ranked according to their score and a cut-off point is decided. The cut-off score can change from year to year as it depends on the overall standard of applications we get in any one year. Over the last 5 years the cut-off score has ranged between 24 to 26 points.”^

Other medical schools are more forgiving at GCSE eg Keele I think, although my research is a couple of years out of date.

My yr10dd is aiming to study medicine too & definitely triple science for this field. DD May or may not need a language later, but language qualifications that show enough proficiency are easy enough to pick up outside of school if needs be.

It saddens me how little importance so many people in the UK place on learning another language. Art rather than a language, seriously?? Because art is "relaxing"? If she's pushing for Oxbridge, I'd drop Art and instead do Triple Sciences and French (and Geography).

I was one of the few people in my school who choose French (and Art and Geography! But we had more than 3 choices). I ended up carrying on French at A level (with a Spanish GCSE on the side) and on to university to do joint honours in French and Economics. I never planned to have a "linguistic career" (i.e. interpreter, translator, etc) but having a second language has opened so many doors for me in my actual career (which is Financial Services). It gives you an edge over a lot of people (Brits mainly!) but it also opens doors to understanding different cultures and makes it easier to pick up other languages too. I meet so many people who say to me that they'd wish they'd chosen a language at school - and carried on with it. By contrast, much as I enjoyed my art, it never added anything to my future. I can sketch whether I have a qualification in Art or not. My cousin is a reasonably successful artist (he has works in the Saatchi gallery, has won awards, solo exhibitions etc) but it was art school that made the difference rather than Art GCSE.

Just some food for thought.

Daisy, I would agree.

At DC's comp, almost everyone does a modern language for GCSE. They do 1 in Y7, normally 2 in Y8-9 unless they have SEN, in which case they use the second language slots for extra English / Maths, and then usually 1 for GCSE.

More able pupils do 2.

Very able linguists can do 2 more as after school clubs leading to GCSEs. A very tiny number who are bilingual also do their 'other' language to GCSE, so the maximum number of MfL GCSEs possible is 5.....

Lilyrae I find it very odd that you're told that with a language GCSE "normally only more able pupils take it". I don't think this is true at all. I would expect all average and above pupils to take a GCSE language and many to take two or even three.

Might be worth looking at the requirements of potential degree courses. DC did a science degree with double science gcse followed by sciences at A level. Whilst double science wasn't a hindrance to dc1, I understand some universities do question why a student is offering double rather than triple science if triple science is an option at their school (and yes, every university dc1 applied to made reference to this in the interview).

If the current plan is medicine three sciences makes a lot more sense. The question will then be between geography or french.

One consideration of MFL, unless you are continuing with the language in some way afterwards (holidays etc) as you quickly (or at least I do) loose what you don't use.

I think you need a modern foreign language at GCSE for entry to some universities. Your DD must, in my opinion, take a foreign language. I agree with the others - art is a lot of work.

Lilyray,

I think you do need to emphasise just how much work is required for Art if she thinks it will be 'much more relaxing' compared with other lessons. The lessons themselves may be relaxing, but it may be worth her asking existing GCSE Art students how many hours per week they are doing outside lessons.

Can’tkeepaway I’d agree - art has taken up more time than anything else and still isn’t complete! Combined with the choice of music GCSE, which also has coursework, it wasn’t perhaps the best choice. The music is a lot more doable in comparison, though!

(Especially where Triple takes up an option block. Triple done in Double timetable time is hard and fast. Triple done in 1.5x double time is far more relaxed in terms of pace, in fact probably more relaxed than a wholly separate subject)

Also worth bearing in mind that 'new' (ie 9-1) double science has more content in than the 'old' (A* to G) double science, and in my discussions with science teachers, this makes the jump up to A-level much smaller than it used to be.

I would say that DD (a genuinely excellent artist who is likely to aim for an Art-related degree / career) has to spend as much time on Art homework as on all her other subjects combined. For someone aiming at medicine, the 7 or 8 that could have been a 9 in a science subject, if time had not been spent on Art instead, is probably worth considering. Triple, geography + French would definitely be an easier option time / effort wise.