Is this a poor combination of A levels

Meant to add, I can think of several selective schools which offer film, along with many high flying sixth form colleges. A lot of schools are now switching to film from media.

Probably late to the party on this OP but as someone kindly pointed out right at the beginning , this is my subject.

If you still want info , do let me know.

I am not interested in a bunfight over the quality and reputation of Film...people who think it is somehow easy have never seen the spec or an exam. When it was reformed an independent analyst informed Ofqual that the new A Level was 'a film degree and MA in two years'. They responded and took out some content! But it is very wide ranging, opens your mind, is great for historical nd cultural awareness (that cultural capital thing, now so prized) and actually keeps foreign languages going to an extent. I adore the subject. It is (whispers) more rigorous than media, especially if the school chooses the screenplay writing option. It is assessed entirely through writing. I teach English Lit too, which obviously is highly regarded. It has a high drop out rate and is actually narrower in scope and focus (not necessarily demand) than film. that said, they are a great complement.

I would say, I have five students this year who have offers (actual offers and interviews) coming in as we speak for Warwick, Manchester, Oxford and Birmingham for film, English, history of art , creative writing and history. From last year's group, one is now at Warwick studying film,and another at Birmingham studying history. The previous year we sent students to Loughborough (on a scholarship) and Manchester. So none has struggled to gain places at highly regarded institutions.

The options are a bit narrow : but that is rarely said to someone who does physics , maths and another science.

We have a drama teacher who did film A Level and now teaches English and drama. he keeps begging me to teach film because he preferred it!

My DD started ALevels with Biology, Psychology and Drama (having achieved '9' grades in both Biology and Drama at GCSE). She soon realised she wasn't keen to pursue Biology so changed to English Lit. Psychology also didn't suit her after a while so she changed to Art (which was her 'worst' GCSE grade at '7' but one of her favourite subjects).

She's at a highly selective Grammar and they weren't as snobby about her final subject choices as some of the Mumsnetters on this thread! As others have said, if the child is motivated and enjoys the subjects, they have the best chance of doing well.

Hi Comefromaway!

I work with schools. The advice from Teachers is:

Eventually, your daughter will be expected to teach English Language/ English Lit (combined at GCSE), English Lit A Level and Drama up to A Level. Depends on the school's staffing and timetabling needs. For pupils, English Language is compulsory up to GCSE, so the demand is there, as is pressure of exam results; but there are also a lot of English graduates about. Drama is optional at GCSE, is more 'fun' and is an extra curricular, but threatened or extinct at too many state schools. Film Studies is less common at the more academic schools. Some professional realties to reflect upon!

Do check with University faculty web pages. Also post-grad Education faculties.

That said, above all, I would support her choice to boost her self confidence.

What's up with film studies? Sounds good to me. I did media studies and loved it, so interesting!
If her confidence is low then might just be best to support her choices?
To some extent a level subjects are irrelevant once you've got a degree. Just check what unis want and what grades they'll want.

I agree the native speaker issue a problem. At degree level too. They simply have to do less work to get a high classification of degree. It’s obviously unfair. DC, as has been said on MFL posts, can go abroad and simply refine their writing skills. Others have to refine speaking, listening and writing skills which is obviously a greater task. Often with no parental help either.

It’s not a given pupils get lower grades in MFL. If they are good at MFL they won’t. They should do MFL in preference to Film Studies if they are good at languages. No one should be discouraged from doing MFL if they are likely to be able to do a MFL at uni. But not everyone is good at MFL any more then they are good at maths.

Our MFL department get excellent grades and students don’t get lower grades than in other subjects. I think that’s probably a combination of excellent teachers and small class sizes, so that is never really a concern for me.

MFL are very hard to get top grades in, so I'd definitely recommend Film Studies over French if the student was likely to get a good grade in it!

I just want to be clear that I don’t think subject choices are completely irrelevant for all students. There are plenty of instances where subject choice does matter and the formerly “facilitating” subjects certainly keep more options open. I teach a facilitating subject myself.

Studying a subject that you have no interest in or particular aptitude for is never a good choice though. Kids with great grades in three “facilitating” subjects have more options than those with the same grades in non-facilitating subjects. What all of this misses is the fact that those with poor-mediocre grades have fewer choices than those with good grades. Students on courses that they don’t enjoy and aren’t interested in get worse grades. In the nicest possible way, if you’re not especially good at GCSE maths and aren’t very interested in it, then any degree that requires A Level Maths is probably not for you anyway, so leaving it theoretically open as an option is pointless. A degree or career that involves a huge amount of Maths is not right for you.

Young people are unique individuals with different talents and interests and there are a whole range of careers and degrees out there. A subject profile like the one in the OP is perfectly fine for a degree in English or Drama or American Studies or any one of a number of other Arts and Humanities subjects. Yes, it will rule out engineering or history or psychology degrees at most or all unis, but that’s fine if the young person is clear about that and has no interest in pursuing those subjects. If you want to be a drama teacher it’s a good combination.

If a student had real interest in both History and Sociology, or both French and Film Studies and was struggling to choose between them then my advice would be to take the History or the French but I’d never direct a student towards a subject they don’t have any interest in.

"Facilitating" subjects, essentially do exist. They are now called "A levels that keep options open". Cambridge university helpfully list them. However, when you know what you want to do, they have little relevance if the course does not require one or more of them. It is that simple. Drama is good for Drama. Photography is good for Photography. Music is essential for Music. None are facilitating! English Lit goes perfectly with Drama. So there simply is no problem. I think the bigger poroblem is plotting a career path! The degree is a vehicle, not a guarantee of a job.

English Lit is on the Cambridge list. There are loads of subjects the DD involved could do with her choices. However they won't stretch as far as they might have done if she had made alternative A level choices. But it doesn't matter, does it? And apologies to OP for misinterpreting her DH's job.

It is not correct to say to ALL young people that subjects do not matter. At very competitive universities (and not all RG are by any means) they will take not all sorts of A levels on every course. It is as simple as that. On lots of courses at RG universities they will. Eg sociology, law, philosophy, film and photography, international relations, American studies, marketing, education, journalism, communication and media (and plenty more), are all possible with non-facilitating A levels. Any course where none in particular are specified you have a decent shot without facilitating subjects, but not if it is wildly competitive, in many instances, and the university considers some subjecs are better prep than others. It really depends what DC want to do and what the course info suggests is a useful subject.

It is not correct to say the old list of facilitating subjects is useless. It is not. However, for lots of DC, one of these subjects will do. For other DC they simply don't need any of them for RG courses. Always check first. If you do not have any idea about university, course or career, include at least one!

You sound like you have a chip on your shoulder with that comment do I? I just can't bear it when posters come on and read a post about A levels and immediately jump on them as " not facilitating" (doesn't exist), "why doesn't she do 4" (majority of schools don't offer this any more except further maths) and shadowy "industry" who will drop you like a hot potato despite your English Lit degree from a great uni because you've got Film Studies rather than History (this may happen in a handful of top flight graduate schemes but not to any great extent). Fwiw I have one who did three non facilitating subjects and went to a russell group uni tondo a degree that would make plenty of mumsnetters spontaneously combust, and another dd who.did subjects much approved of by mumsnet and has offers from 3 top unis so far, so I don't think I'm chippy- just aggravated by the irrelevance and out of date crap that gets spouted on any mumsnet A level thread

I'm not sure that we disagree about what this child should do.

My view, which isn't very controversial, is that a range of subjects keeps more options open later, which is worth doing, unless a) you need a particular set of subjects for a particular route or b) you really know you only want to do a clump of subjects.

It's always posters whose kids did 4 sciences, or 4 "hard" A levels that come on as well. not so Stealth boasting

Of course posters think they know best! That’s why they post. They are not held to account for their posts. Anyone that posts that the DD should do accountancy is just weird. She isn’t going to do Maths or French either! So what’s the point of that post?!

She’s made choices based on what she does wish to do and presumably what she’s good at. She might look for an alternative to Film Studies but for a drama degree - who really cares? Some high brow employers might not like this A level but for her career (and Dad already teaches Drama) what’s the great issue? She could look to doing English and Drama at university which, in my opinion, makes her more likely to be employed by a school because she’s offering two subjects. If she’s intent on drama only, there are less opportunities in mainstream schools. None will worry too much what the drama teachers did at A level.

Niche? Chemistry is probably more niche than Film studies tbh!

But this child doesn't want to do French and Maths. She is doing English Literature and Drama, both of which are well regarded A levels. Film Studies might not be regarded as well as History if you are applying to a top law firm, but that isn't what she wants to do!

Where people are certain, that is fine.

I had a child who picked four sciences, we had the same conversation in reverse about potentially picking something with greater written content. In the end they thought it through themselves and made the right choice for them.

Assuming all A-Levels are viewed equally by any future employer is not helpful.

Many people do niche things. They just need to think that through.

The mumsnet attitude to A levels is so wrong headed I don't know where to begin. Thank goodness there are more and more posters that can see through it.

@MadameMinimes
Fabulous post. I try to stay away from education on Mumsnet, but this post made my day.
Although unfortunately, my child might be one of the arty kids going into sciences, her school doesn't look like it will run Art A' level next year☹️ But I have made it clear she's to go with her own choices.

I talked my daughter out of doing Media as a GCSE, in part due to comments rubbishing the course on here. I regret interfering, the GCSE she replaced it was a source of lots of stress, and she has dropped it now. She still says how interesting the work looks on the media course. She would have enjoyed it and had one more GCSE.
Really, just let your daughter make her own choices, she's far more likely to get good grades in the subjects she enjoys. Mumsnet has an 'attitude' to certain subjects. And whilst some subjects may be more desirable, failing a subject is even less desirable.