Computer Science GCSE

Dd did CS. It was really encouraged. She had 3 girls and 17 boys in her class. The male teacher was almost in tears when she said she wasn’t doing it at ALevel. He said the girls had a different way of looking at solutions which would really benefit everyone in the future if more girls got into it. The only thing is if you do computer science at A Level you need to do maths as well because practically all CS degrees need ALevel maths.
Dd got a 9. With everything getting more technical, as an employer I would definitely be happy if I saw computer science on a CV even at GCSE level as it shows they are not afraid of technology and hopefully know their way round a computer (I have had well educated employees that can’t do these things and it hinders everything).

Look at the teachers and the grades the school attain. It’s really hard for schools to recruit and retain good CS teachers. It’s such a shame but understandable given most could have a much more lucrative career.

DS did GCSE CS recently and we were really disappointed with the course. He was bored out of his mind on the theory portion but loved the coding side. Take a long hard look at the syllabus on offer before you make up your minds. It’s way better than the old ICT rubbish mind.

I'm a developer too who faced the same choice (but at a level, GCSE want offered in those days). For the record I chose geography whilst doing some background reading/coding myself at home before doing a CS degree.
I'd let her choose, she's not closing doors at this point.

This was meant to be a temporary change due to the pandemic. There is nothing to suggest at this stage that the syllabus won't have reverted to normal for OP's DD year.

No. Not at all. (I teach the subject and this qualification)

OCR, AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas all changed their syllabus completely (the changes were announced well before Covid.) starting Sept 2020.

The current Year 11s and last year’s year 11s, still had/have to do the programming project (NEA). The current year 11s don’t have to send off their programming projects this year and neither did last year’s year 11s as a Covid response.

Current year 10s and below have a new syllabus that’s is not changed because of Covid. It was changed because of ‘cheating’ in the NEA.

Go have a look at all the exam board’s websites if you don’t believe me.

I'm a developer, would also love more women in my field (I actually work in a company with more female than male dev, v unusual!) but you've go to actually like doing it or you'll hate it and you'll give up. You have to kinda like relentless problem solving.

Also I had nearly 2 years off where I barely coded (mat leave + Covid) at its really crap trying to get back into it, I have to Google a lot more but I guess the fundamental approach is still in my head though best practices have changed a lot in the last few years sooooo learning to code and then not constantly using it is slightly pointless to me.

I'm in a Facebook group of women who code and there's a lot of women who turn to it because they think they can make lots of money but they aren't inherently interested in it so it's really painful for them.

I agree with redsky you need to look at which exam board they are following to see that there is hardly any coding. A lot of children think it is coding and then get bored when they start looking at systems and they then switch subjects.

Both my sons do CS, Ds1 is in year 13 and has offers from top RG unis for CS but they only want maths and further maths, not CS at all. Ds2 is in year 10. They both studying under the OCR exam board.

At the end of the day this is about numbers on a sheet of paper, ie the grades you get for GCSE. So subjects they are good at which hopefully align with subjects they enjoy. It is soul destroying to do a subject when you dislike it. Trust me, both DCs hated English, they are science/maths boys, they hate the wishy washyness of English and I have tried to get them to love it, my own degree is English lit! It will feel like an enormous slog for GCSE.

Let her choose what she wants to do. She can code outside of school work if that is what she loves, Ds1 certainly did which is why he has 4 offers already from universities for it.

Agree with op
I am also in it, more girls the better, but to be truthful I am happy for people to have a range of backgrounds and people who have studied more broadly often see coding as a tool to solve a problem, not as a thing of beauty in itself , and so tend to focus on the solution not the pure code

There is now NO NEA (which was coursework/controlled assessment)

This was meant to be a temporary change due to the pandemic. There is nothing to suggest at this stage that the syllabus won't have reverted to normal for OP's DD year.

My DD Y10 is doing Cs gcse. She had it as a compulsory subject in Y7 and Y8, l lots had done some at Primary school when they had a coding club and used Scratch.

I've encouraged her because she has a natural aptitude for the coding. It's how her brain works. I thought it would be a good way for her to stay in the loop, especially being a girl, and sustain her interest, giving her more chance of choosing it as a future career option.

She loves the coding. There is a lot of theory which is boring to her but manageable. What they have to fit in to two years seems like less than some of the other GCSEs cap they've had time in their lessons to participate in a game design competition.

Depending on what other GCSEs your Dd is taking, it can be a nice break from the essay heavy subjects or content heavy subjects (like sciences) if she likes geography though, it would be a shame to cut off that avenue for her in case she wants to pursue it in future years.

I can see a bias here though and the responses I think would be different if you had said DS not DD.
I work in IT and I would personally be thrilled for more girls taking Computer Science. But I still stand by my previous answers that the most important thing is that OP's DD should take what she is most interested in and strongest in. I've not noticed any gender bias here at all. FWIW I think Geography is also traditionally a more "male" subject?

My DS had this same option choice and I think both are great choices. I can see a bias here though and the responses I think would be different if you had said DS not DD. I asked a friend (female) who did geography but is now a computer programmer in a large well known IT company and she said computer science at GCSE is the better option in her opinion.

Hello OP
Lots of good advice here. Just want to make it clearer that in September just gone, the syllabus for all GCSE Computer Science courses changed syllabus.

There is now NO NEA (which was coursework/controlled assessment)

100% of the qualification grade is now based on two paper based exams. One of which is a problem solving paper that does involve a theoretical programming element.

There is a requirement to offer 10 hours worth of programming experience but this doesn’t count towards the final grade.

Just wanted to highlight this in case it helps with any decision making.

I would check out your local 6th forms requirements for A levels - our 6th form which is one of the top in the country and very large - does let you do geography A level without the GCSE. Obviously if you are planning geography or computer science A levels it probably makes more sense to take them but neither is essential by us. I would also check the 6th forms record with computer science grades and teachers as there is a shortage, tend to earn a lot more in industry.

Reading back I think the message I haven’t given that I wanted to was that a lot of kids at both the schools I mentioned took CS because their parents thought it was the right thing to do . It didn’t always work out as well. Also My DD is very nerdy and a bit shy but she went into CS quite confident because because of having done the coding clubs . So if your DD hasn’t done that much I would spending a bit of time with a microbit / raspberry pi for fun .

One of my DC did both of these subjects in the reformed GCSEs and loved them both so ended up having a similar decision at A level . She got 9s in both so was equally able in both.Both are great subjects IMO but I would say you can still do coding without doing the CS GCSE so if it were hard to choose I would go for geography . At DD school you can still do Computer Science at A level without doing GCSE but I don’t think many , if not any, schools would allow you to do Geography A level without having done GCSE. You can also take computer science at university if you have maths A level . My DD was actually the top performer at GCSE computer science in the school but she decided not to do A level ( it was a really hard decision ) but instead chose maths which might enable studying computer science later on if she chooses to . She is however doing Geography A level . Geography as well as learning about our world ( both physical and human geography ) also has a lot of transferable skills. The other point, and as echoed by previous posters , is that good computer science teachers are like gold dust so might be worth checking out what the CS credentials are . My DD was lucky because she had two truly brilliant teachers who also ran weekly coding clubs ( which she attended from year 7) and an engineering club where they could program drones built ( although you don’t need to do that to get a top grade it’s just my DD enjoyed it) . At my other DC schools the computer science provision was awful - one DS was taught CS by a teacher who was really a maths teacher and only knew a bit more than the children he was teaching ( not his fault !) . Finally I would let your daughter choose which subject she loves best - that is the most important consideration . To really “get” computer science you have got to love it . Fortunately my daughter did . Another poster mentioned that sixth form colleges might favour CS . Actually here the local super selective grammar doesn’t take a CS predicted grade into account but does take Geography when making sixth form offers ( I have no idea why - both subjects are of equal challenge !) .

I think it depends a bit how much she likes computing - like does she love it but not confident enough? If that is the case assuming there is suitable teaching I would take it now as her confidence probably isn't going to improve by A level and she would then be up against children with 2 years more knowledge than her so feel even more out of her depth. But if she's not that keen would stick with geography. My DD was very worried she would be behind so she did the seneca over the summer for gcse computing and says she now finds it easy and loves it.

History has a lot of background reading and writing. Geography has much less.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard 6th form colleges favour CS over geography but I couldn’t back that up with evidence..

Sixth form colleges usually have entry criteria. I can't think of any where a GCSE in computer science would be preferred over one in geography (unless you were planning to study computer science at sixth form).

DS is currently choosing his options and very keen on CS as he enjoys the structure of coding. His strongest subject is humanities, and he will definitely take history and was swaying towards geography also. His teachers have advised caution as they said there is a lot of background reading/writing and it can become unwieldy, so I guess it depends what other subjects DD is taking?

Will she stay on for A Levels at her own school? Anecdotally, I’ve heard 6th form colleges favour CS over geography but I couldn’t back that up with evidence.. my sense would be it depends on what she wants to study next and enjoyment plays a key role in that..

DD did Computer Science in yr 10 (school did it in y9& 10 rather than 10& 11).
She very much has a maths and science preference, and she found it a fairly 'easy' subject and got a great grade - however, as it was taken a year early her revision was concentrated on one subject, which would have been beneficial.

I get what pp say about her being able to pick CS up later but the truth is often girls don't. If she is interested in it I would encourage her to take it up in school. It is more likely to lead to a well paid career than geography. It is not an easy option so she would need to be prepared to work at it.

My daughter opted to do geography but it got vetoed by school and she got computer science. She will get a grade 9 in maths and currently predicted same in computing. From what she says it is very mathematical.

One issue you may face is there is a shortage of computer science teachers - in the last year we have had three, only one of which was good at teaching the subject - thankfully he's the one we now have but in the past the highest any student got was a 6.

I'ld go with what she prefers though I do think computing the more useful of the two and underrated. Both can be picked up later so don't think there's any big issue. There's only 2 girls in her class / 23 boys so big divide.

You don't need GCSE Computer Science to study it at A-level or degree. My ds is a year older and is doing a course that doesn't have lots of coding so you need to check the course if that's what your after. People who are keen on coding will be teaching themselves out of class rather than doing formal qualifications right now

They are both good subjects but I'd let her pick tbh.