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Original poster

Small disaster with GCSE options for next year

171 replies

JoanCallamezzo · 03/05/2019 15:53

DD (yr 9) was told yesterday that school can’t accommodate her GCSE options now that they have worked out the timetable – she can’t do Geography, History and Art together and has to drop one. She loves (and is pretty good at) all 3 but is most committed to Art and Geography, so it looks like she’ll have to drop History. However, the only alternatives she’s been offered are Music (she doesn’t even play an instrument), Photography (not allowed in combination with Art), 3 vocational non-GCSE courses (Hospitality, Child Development, Health - none of which are right for DD) and Sociology (which is the only viable option but DD has zero interest in it and I feel it is quite limiting as a subject compared to the breadth and scope offered by History).

We are deeply disappointed and feel that DD, who works hard, and was on track for good grades in all three of her choices, is being let down quite badly by the school. She's really upset and stressed. It is being presented as a fait accompli and DD was told she had to decide by today (we have asked for more time and for a meeting to discuss.)

Has anybody managed to resolve a situation like this or do we just have to suck it up and find a way to help DD feel happy about Sociology and less sad about dropping History?! Any ammunition for our meeting next week would be great, as would opinions on Sociology over History at GCSE!

OP posts:
Fazackerley · 04/05/2019 16:26

If she's not interested in it then of course don't do it. But to suggest doing one non GCSE subject would mean your dd wouldn't be prepared for 6th form IS rubbish.

Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 16:26

Thanks Penguinpandarabbit - will definitely check the option of doing History A level.

OP posts:
Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 16:25

Fazackerley I was actually paraphrasing the school's GCSE options booklet! It's also not a 'Health and Social Care BTEC'. Also, how on earth can it be a 'load of rubbish' that DD is simply not interested in it? Your post is not particularly constructive or helpful!

OP posts:
Fazackerley · 04/05/2019 16:01

Because she is not in the least bit interested in health and fitness. It’s offered as a vocational alternative to a GCSE course and not recommended if DD wants to study A-levels in the sixth form

What a load of rubbish. It's a BTEC. If she's taking 8 other gcses she will be able to do whatever she wants at 6th form.

Health and social care BTEC is probably far more academic than photography GCSE!

Penguinpandarabbit · 04/05/2019 15:55

I did History A Level without the GCSE and it was fine - two completely different periods of history though check.

If she's not planning on taking Art further than GCSE I would encourage Geography, History, Photography - I did art GCSE and it was enjoyable but think photography would be good to learn to if she enjoys that. After that would go for Geography, Art, Sociology.

Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 14:24

julesanor Because she is not in the least bit interested in health and fitness. It’s offered as a vocational alternative to a GCSE course and not recommended if DD wants to study A-levels in the sixth form. So would definitely not be the right choice for her.

OP posts:
julensaor · 04/05/2019 13:14

If she is doing 2 science subjects already, why not pick Health?

Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 13:13

DecomposingComposers I'm definitely going to look more into the Photography/History combination as a possible solution although I don't think she'd buy it sadly. Photography seems to be a very separate subject to Art in the school – different location, different staff etc. Plus she's been really encouraged to choose Art over Photography at this stage by my sister who did an art foundation followed by Photography degree (not that DD will follow the same route necessarily, just that my sister says it's better to have an overall grounding in art at this stage rather than diversify, which I think is probably right).

OP posts:
MarchingFrogs · 04/05/2019 13:02

StationView

Yes, I'm fully aware of why a school would be reluctant to drop Eng. Lit, hence my Playing Devil's advocate... I was merely pointing put that it could be seen as an alternative to Art in the 'you don't want to take that, look how much time you have to devote to it, it's something you should just do as a hobby' stakesSmile.

StationView · 04/05/2019 12:43

Marching, schools are reluctant to make English Literature optional due to the weighting it has in Progress 8 measures. (These affect how as school is perceived by the government as progressing.) Some colleges will also accept a 4 in Literature in lieu of a 4 in Language. This worked in favour of one of my pupils last year.

DecomposingComposers · 04/05/2019 11:40

If she took history, geography she could drop art and take photography couldn't she?

Would she consider that with photography still being a creative subject?

Sociology is very interesting (and not dissimilar to RS which she was prepared to do.)

SecondHandTicking · 04/05/2019 11:35

History A level is far more useful than Sociology for all sorts of courses.

Lots of PPs saying history A level is not necessarily off the table. Also I'm not sure that is true for OP's DD. If she wanted to do a degree in English or History then I'd agree, but a lot of social science degrees are subjects that aren't necessarily studied at GCSE - economics, politics, international relations, philosophy, psychology. Sociology GCSE would be a reasonable dip of the toe in this kind of area which may well be an excellent fit for her. This is about choosing her 9th GCSE at the end of the day.

Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 11:29

Bubbles Yes, Teen is correct, she's doing 9 - but all the other subjects are compulsory/core ones, including a MFL and dual science - and even if there was an option to drop one of those it still wouldn't help with freeing up an optional subject.

Your post sums up my instant reaction when I found out the news, but actually having read the many posts on here advocating for Sociology, I'm feeling a lot better about it as an option for DD - whether she will be talked around to feeling the same is another story! I'm still going to push back and point out how limiting the alternative options are though.

MarchingFrogs Agreed about English Lit – DD's school actually take it a year early, at the end of Y10, because it's such a huge workload – so she's already half-way through the curriculum and I've been stunned at how much more work it is than in my day! Can't believe how much they are expected to learn off by heart - I'm sure we were allowed to take our texts in with us back in the 90s!

Bpisok Noted - although I still don't think it would be fair to steer her away from Art. I'm definitely preparing for it to be a slog after the advice on this thread though!

OP posts:
MarchingFrogs · 04/05/2019 11:15

For balance, we've actually got a DS who spends a lot of his free time producing artwork and has just completed his GCSE (and, barring a totally unexpected 5 or below, will be doing it for A level) and is predicted none of his other 10 GCSE subjects below a grade 7 / A. So yes, Art GCSE does take up a fair amount of time - it is one of the curriculum subjects with the most lunchtime sessions provided at his school - but how much it impacts on anything else does, to some extent, depend upon the individual.

Playing Devil's advocate here, one might argue that no-one actually has to be able to dissect poems and novels (and I'm willing to bet it's not what an awful lot of authors had in mind when they wrote them), so why not make Eng. Lit. an optional subject, given how much time all that reading can take up?

bpisok · 04/05/2019 10:47

I would steer her away from art if you possibly can.
DD (now Yr 12) loves art (still does and she is good at it) but 'time eater' is probably an under statement. It took so much of her time that she says if she could chose again she would steer well clear. She still sketches and paints in her down time - but no way would she do it for A Level.
This sentiment was shared by all of her peers with the exception of 2 who decided not to do A Levels but went directly to art school and do an art foundation course - they realised that art and 2 other A Levels would be hard.
So my advice- keep it as a hobby!

TeenTimesTwo · 04/05/2019 10:41

Bubbles
a) She is doing French as well, so 9.
b) She could do History if she were willing to drop Art.

BubblesBuddy · 04/05/2019 10:38

shooting obviously!

BubblesBuddy · 04/05/2019 10:37

I think the big problem is only 8 GCSEs. This isn’t allowing any wriggle room. She should be able to do the subjects she wants and no decent academic candidate should have to put up with BTecs instead of History. Sociology isn’t a substitute for History. History A level is far more useful than Sociology for all sorts of courses. Schools that narrow down aspiration suck! They need a policy rethink! I would make an appointment to see a senior member of staff. This choice just isn’t good enough. If she might want History A level, as she’s not science oriented, she’s shouting herself in the foot and the school has provided the gun! It’s not good enough.

MarchingFrogs · 04/05/2019 10:37

But at this stage, the OP's DD is only taking Geography for GCSE - plenty of time yet to decide to take / not to take any of her GCSE subjects at degree level. Or to find that she is actually a lot better at Maths than she thinks (friend's DD is currently half way through a Maths degree, certainly having given no inkling that this was ever likely to happen at any point in KS3).

Another vote for Sociology as a substitute for History here, btw.

Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 10:32

Meredith12 Great to hear your daughter is finding Sociology so interesting, thanks!

Someoneonlyyouknow 'If the school are unable to change what they have offered then try to be positive going forward and make the best of it for your DD's sake. Don't dwell on what might have been.' - Wise words and exactly what I will try to do, thank you!

OP posts:
Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 10:23

Mistigri The thing is that Geography is her strongest subject - she's consistently getting 8s and 9s in assessments, plus she's really, really interested in it.

I'm taking on board the comments about Art being such a time-eater, and while this is definitely a concern I do think it's important for DD to choose a subject that she really loves. The art room at school is a real sanctuary for her and I can see that being really good for her over the next couple of years.

EatsFarts (best name) That's such a good idea about looking at the text book. I'm thinking I might try and get her to have a chat with the Sociology teacher too, although he really didn't seem all that inspiring at the options evening so it might not encourage her much!

OP posts:
Mistigri · 04/05/2019 10:07

Just a few thoughts from a pragmatic point of view.

Geography once you get to degree level is a more "science-y" subject than history. For a humanities buff who is not so great at maths, I think it would be a mistake to prioritise geography over history.

Art is a time-eater and results seem weirdly uncorrelated with actual artistic ability. I have a friend whose daughter is predicted to get one below the top grade. She has professional level drawing/illustration skills and her painting is pretty impressive too (I have a degree in fine art myself and she's better than I ever was).

Original poster
JoanCallamezzo · 04/05/2019 09:53

Thanks SO much everyone, I can't tell you how much your posts have helped me to get my thoughts in order about this and be ready to talk through the options with the school - and probably more importantly to feel more positive about the option of DD doing Sociology instead of History, which does sound like it could be a good thing for her.

I had totally assumed that she wouldn't be able to do History A level if she hadn't done it at GCSE so it's really encouraging to hear that's not necessarily the case - will definitely raise this with the deputy head.

DD is on a sleepover with her best friend so we haven't really talked about it since the immediate upset on Thursday. I'll make sure we have some calm time to talk it over this weekend and all the advice you've given will really help. I feel much more confident now that we will find a solution she is happy with, even if it is a compromise, so thank you all! Flowers

OP posts:
soccerbabe · 04/05/2019 07:58

IME sociology is interesting and surprisingly rigorous as a GCSE option. As pp have suggested I would try and get school to agree that she can take History at A level without the GCSE, given the circumstances.

mummymayhem18 · 04/05/2019 07:50

Sociology has been a popular choice especially for my daughters friendship group. My daughter has chosen her top 5 as Art,Geography,History,Sociology and Spanish to get the Ebac part of it. The 3 reserves were RE, Media Studies, and Food & Nutrition. I'm really hoping she does get Sociology as I think it would be a very good and interesting subject to do. I'm worried as she only put it down as her 4th choice and a lot of people have also picked it that she won't get it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed 🤞. I'm 99% sure she will get Art and Geography as her teachers had said at parents evening that they think she should choose it and hope she does. So a tense few months wait until she finds out in the Summer Holidays.

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