GCSE Options - academic child picking multiple creative options

Many universities would disagree with you.

I am a lawyer and yes certain types of lawyer tend to be natural performers (although typically we are fairly conservative and 'academics focussed' and so whilst drama GSCE would be fine and helpful for some of the soft skills lawyers require, I certainly wouldn't recommend it at A level - unless possibly doing 4)

I can see why it would feed into being a lawyer, actually! DD was startled to be told when reviewing drama shows that 'I didn't like it and thought it was awful/shoddy/under-rehearsed' was not a valid opinion, and that she had to find something to plead in favour of even the worst show.

Excellent practice for advocacy, I should think.

Nelly - Someone did a FOI Request with various Russell Group Universities and for several RG Law Degrees the most common A level taken by students accepted onto the course was Drama.

I am really surprised at how negative schools seem about creative subjects. My dds school very much encourages drama, music, art, dance, and textile design. They send 10-20% to Oxbridge each year and rest to Russel Group or art/drama school. Many who go on to art/drama/music school make a good career out of it. School has invested heavily in dancing/ drama/art/music facilities so obviously wants it used. If you swap 3 creative subjects for PE/RE/Critical Thinking, which many schools offer/demand, you'll end up with same amount of facilitating subjects than many others who are aiming for university but keep open the option of art/drama/music school.

*Praying, fat finger syndrome

I am prayong my dc will chose drama GCSE! Just think how helpful that will be for faking confidence in the future boardroom/courtroom/classroom as a future CEO/barrister/teacher. If she adds history/geography and a foreign language it will be pretty balanced. Most universities expect 8 GCSE (Will only consider 8), so 7 facilitating subjects plus 1 creative sounds fine to me. What are her ideas for A levels? Or is she serious about art/drama school?

It's a 3 year GCSE course at my youngest's school as well but they have two rounds of options - in year 9 they have to study Maths, English, a language, a humanity, science, PE, RE and then can choose from DT, home economics, art, music, performing arts, child development or business studies.

In year 8 they do their first set of options - they can drop one language, one humanity, art, cooking or music - and then in year 9 they do their GCSE options and choose a pathway which is broadly speaking advanced academic, general academic or vocational plus 3 chosen GCSEs.

At Ds's school Art & DT are two options of the same spec so it is impossible to do both as they discount each other.

At DSs school they are not advised to do certain things together. Art and DT for example is regarded as tough going in terms of time commitment. DS2 wants to be an architect and was keen to do both but has been told he'd have to think very carefully about it. They won't say no unless the timetables won't accommodate it but they do point out the downsides.

I am a bit late to the discussion, but at dds school pupils are limited to only 2 creative subjects at GCSE.
Some subjects were earmarked for pupils of different abilities as well so BTEC/vocational options were aimed at pupils with average/below average ability (more able pupils may be able to do these only if there was enough space) and other options at pupils with higher ability.

If a young person has done something like LAMDA then there is a viva voce theory section.

But bear in mind that drama isn't all acting. There is lot of written work.

Is drama the sort of subject which can readily be picked up at A level if not done earlier?

Yes. A lot of schools don’t offer GCSE drama so as long as someone has done experience from perhaps Youth theatre or LAMDA then it can be picked up at A level or Btec Level 3.

I do think music is taken by able musicians for obvious reasons but we found art teaching and drama teaching can be hugely variable. Both my DDs did GCSE drama and, in the right school, it’s a terrific springboard for Drama A level. I don’t have info on schools allowing DC to do it without GCSE but one would think the BTec would be fine. Perhaps the music and the BTec might be the better combination?

Is drama the sort of subject which can readily be picked up at A level if not done earlier? (I'd have imagined so, but don't know). If so, not doing the BTEC wouldn't be closing doors, which is of course the main problem to be avoided in all of this.

I too would look at grades achieved by children in the school. Rather than Art, Drama goes well with English. No university would dislike English, History and Drama at A level for entry to an English degree. That also includes Cambridge! I would reduce to 2 Art subjects and not do the BTec. Try and keep the Spanish going. That makes a more rounded group of subjects and you don’t need more Stem on top of 3 sciences and maths if you don’t see your career in this field! That would be 5 stem subjects!

Drama has the added wild card of group work. In some schools they will affectively stream the children in class and so they wouldn't put a potential 8/9 child in a group with a potential 4/5 child to minimise the effect of the group work but it doesn't always work out like this.

I would have a look at the past couple of years of results in the three arts subjects. At our school this year, there were plenty of grade 8 and 9 in music and drama, but none at all in art or DT (lots of overlap between students across all of those). In the neighbouring school, it’s the other way round. That’s been consistently the case (on old style grades) for some years.

The other thing to think about, in terms of a school forcing pupils into 3 year GCSE courses, is your role as a parent to ensure that your child has a broad and balanced education for as long as possible.

In a school offering what used to be the almost universal norm of a 2 year GCSE course, all pupils get a mix of creative subjects, STEM subjects, languages, humanities, PE at least until the final term of Year 9.

If in your child's school the situation is now that the final year in which your child is guaranteed a broad and balanced curriculum is Y8, when a child is just 13, then IMO you must, as a parent, influence the GCSE courses that they choose to keep their education broad for as long as possible.

So taking 2 English, Maths and double science (all 3 sciences but 2 GCSEs) as a given, then you should be looking for the remaining 5 to include 1 STEM subject (a further Science, a DT subject or Computing), 1 language, 1 humanity (either the government's preferred History / Geography, or a full RE GCSE) and 1 creative subject. Then the 5th can be a second of any of the above - a creative subject if that is what your child prefers.

Hopefully, the school will force this type of selection using their option blocks, but if they already narrow education through a 3 year GCSE course, then I am not sure they will necessarily have broad education, rather than narrow exam success, as a focus.

DS1 is in Year 9 and his school does the 3 year GCSE as well. At the start of Year 8 he was adamant that he wanted to pick Geography, History, French and Spanish (they all worked with the options units). He is quite academic as well but has a very definite career goal in mind for which 2 languages would be useful. He had a horrific year last year with no French teacher for the whole year so decided against that.

We had a long chat with teachers at their options evening who said that in the long run taking a wide variety of subjects is much better than taking all of one particular type. He completely changed his mind and is now doing Spanish, Geography, Media Studies and PE as well as all the core subjects. Non of which will particularly help with his chosen career but at the end of the day he's only 13 and I think he would have been totally overwhelmed doing the subjects he initially chosen. Im hoping with a wide variety of subjects he can do really well in the ones that matter the most...if that makes sense at all?

So I would encourage your DD to do a language and a humanity and then let her chose what she wants from the other 2.

Similar at DS school except MFL is compulsory for most. He is in y9 doing art and photography plus all the usual core stuff. It's actually really working well having some subjects with course work as the rest of his subjects are focused on memorising facts, equations, PEA sentences etc.

The creative stuff makes school a hell of a lot more interesting. The new GCSEs are pretty joyless.

Though he didnt get a choice about science, the school decided for the students if they will take it as 2 or 3 GCSEs.

That’s right Everard , and in my experience of two dc doing history it tends to dominate any A level workload so in general I would think it would be difficult to jump in at A level without GCSE

Useful to know, DD is planning history and we are a bit scared of this!

I seriously doubt many universities do much, if any, analysis of gcse subjects beyond maths, English and any which might be specifically relevant to the uni course. They might consider grades - on that, for an 'academic' child the artsy ones may be less reliable.