GCSE options- humanities...

@Mostlee in what sense? They are pretty different.

PE is aimed at sporty DC, my ds2 had to offer three sports, one tea, one individual and one either. IME unless a students competes at a reasonable outside school it's not a great idea. Ds plays footy for a local team and competes for county at athletics. A mate of his who is a good athlete was able to offer a team sport he did in school. There's a good deal of theory too, biology and stuff about sports psychology.

Geography is great if you like it, dd did it and took it on to A level too. She said if you do it, it's worth learning all your case studies in yr 10 to get ahead. She now studies Eng lit at uni but still references points in geography (eg things about how cities develop) and says it's useful to support her degree too (probs more A level than GCSE there).

Glad you got sorted! We were pondering this same issue until late last night (right up until the deadline 🤦‍♀️)

My dcs are both at selective grammar schools. Dd did business, loved it and achieved a 9. At ds's school, they do economics, but he isn't too keen.

Ds has chosen Spanish, history, music and geography. He was very torn between geography and PE though and I'm still unsure if he is making the right decision.

Does anyone know anything about PE compared to geography?

Fab, glad it’s all sorted to everyone’s satisfaction.
Hope he loves the GCSE History.

My son goes to a selective private school. We had a long lecture about forgetting our own experiences and not categorising subjects as "soft" or "hard". My son wanted to do Academic PE as one of his ten GCSEs. I still had a few lingering doubts so had a quick chat with the admissions team at my old uni. They confirmed this was definitely the case and your child should pick the subjects that they enjoy.

My son did history and geography and it was a lot of content. I'd say his GCSE geography had more content than my A level or degree. He really enjoyed history, partly as it was based around Germany from 1918-1945. I'd say it had less content than geography.

That said, I'm being a hypocrite and my younger son is choosing between PE and DT rather than doing both as we feel doing 9 non practical-type GCSEs might be better for university applications...

My DD2 did business studies A level without the gcse. The better mathematicians did economics. Again without the gcse. BS tends to be the less academic poor relation. So look at who else is doing it and whether they are the brightest dc. Possibly not and possibly that won’t matter, but it might. What are results like and is the teacher any good?

I would say his GCSEs are not particularly balanced. RE is the easier humanity and there is no arts subject. It’s very stem based. I’m surprised he doesn’t like Geography because it’s more allied to sciences and with his GCSEs. He’s obviously not a humanities/art dc which looks narrow to my old fashioned eyes. DDs having been to selective independent schools. Your school presumably is after league table position.

I would ask him what he wants to do at A levels and see if this will affect his choices. He can do business at A level without a GCSE - but if he isn't fussed about doing history at A level and he thinks business looks more interesting than I would let him go for that as its an easier GCSE and he can concentrate on what he wants to do for A levels.

Gosh let him do what he’s most interested in. I can’t say any future employer will care if he does History or Business GCSE.

Just do whatever he prefers.

Might seem like a major decision now but in the grand scheme of things it will mean very little.

So you might as well have a child who is happy with their choices instead of finding history hard/onerous and then hating it.

Less essay writing in one subject might free up time to excel more at others, you just never know.

Has be looked at the topics his school covers for both?

History is A LOT of work - reading, making notes, essays. Business seems to be easier.

What is he more keen on?

Interesting that Ops son is at independent school and she mentions ebacc.
Most independents don’t bother with it at all/report figures for it.

Yes, get a broad and balanced curriculum. His choices will do that. I agree that RS is fine as a humanity.

Business shouldn’t be chosen as a route to other study (simply not needed) but as the final option choice, chosen for genuine interest, fine.

And it’s true that when unis and workplaces look, they will see the number of GCSEs and their grades.

Perhaps look at the historic outcomes of the History and Business Dept for GCSE in this school. It shouldn’t be the sole driver, but if for example Business tends to get all poor results, I might think again. There can be big discerepancies between department results in some schools.

I think he should do whichever he wants to do.
He has a perfectly fine set of very academic GCSEs already.
The final one doesn't need to be for show.

My dd did RS instead of history. Her school (private) classes it as a humanity and couldn't care less about ebacc. A different 6th form were quite happy to take her for A level history or Politics with just RS, but in the end she chose to stay where she was and did A level RS.

Ds did Business Studies, it was quit mathsy in places and appealed to his logical side.

He should do whichever he thinks he will enjoy the most and get the best grade in .

I think also consider the teachers (if he knows them/can find out about them). Ds is in year doing RS, Business and History! I think all are interesting and valid subjects. Unfortunately his Business teacher is uninspiring, whereas the other two are really good - amongst the best teachers he’s had. That makes a much bigger difference to their experience, and probably results, than anything else.

Otherwise I wouldn’t worry too much about right/wrong subjects. Some schools will actually allow you to take history A Level without the GCSE. But if he’s not massively interested in it now, why would he suddenly want to do it anyway?

I was pushed to do history instead of art as it was more academic. I hated it, and got a bad grade as a result. No-one will ever ask him about his GCSEs, and if he's not likely to do history at A Level, what's the point?

My biggest regret in life is studying what I was pushed towards rather than what I really wanted to do.

Yes I agree, not choosing history doesn't close doors. You can do history A level without the GCSE. It's unusual bc a history buff would most likely do GCSE anyway, but not impossible - if, for example, you disliked the modules offered for GCSE but loved the A level ones.

Honestly, I don't think a subject like business will affect his academic GCSE profile. A very smart pal of Ds2's did it for GCSE and has an offer to study maths at Cambridge. If you are targeting the most selective unis, GCSE grades are more important than subjects. If he would get a 9 in business and a 6 in history then business may be a better choice (though not necessarily!).

Yes don't be distracted by the Ebacc, it's not something a student "gets", just a measure schools are judged by. A good range of GCSEs is a good idea, but he has that with MFL, RE and CS plus the compulsories.

The only door that not taking history will close is taking History A Level, I would have thought? (and even that is sixth form dependent).

He's got 9 solidly academic choices already; he should really just take the one he prefers.

I would suggest history GCSE and then considering business or economics at A level if he is still interested.

You don't need history GCSE to do A level though - at least in many sixth forms you don't.

I did RE A level without having had done it for GCSE.

Yes, your summing up is pretty accurate.

I have to say I’m surprised a selective school offers Business GCSE. Even Economics GCSE is very unusual these days.
Do they offer a range of less traditional subjects at GCSE? Is it selective in the sense there is an exam, but actually almost everyone gets an offer? Lots of independent schools, especially outside the south East simply don’t have the applicant numbers to be truly selective and just give the impression of it with an exam.

But his GCSE choices overall are a good range of subjects and look good so 1 subject because it really appeals to him would be fine, as long as you realise that’s what it is and not that it’s leading somewhere. Business at school level (both GCSE and A Level) tends to attract the less able (not always of course) and so the profile in the class is likely to be different as a PP mentioned. That in itself doesn’t have to be a problem.

Back in the day I insisted in doing GCSE Typing. It didn’t fit with my other academic subjects but I was desperate to do it. Most of the others in the class were preparing for office work and struggled in the more academic subjects. It was my favourite course and I loved it, although I knew I wouldn’t be taking it further. Actually it allowed me to get temp work at 16 and 18 and to type my essays fast at Uni. So doing 1 subject because it really appeals to you is fine at GCSE....you have enough to absorb it and it not to ruin an academic profile...and the whole point is a broad range of study at that point.

I would agree that Business doesn't 'lead somewhere'. Don't choose it expecting it to. New subjects can seem more attractive on the page as students don't have negative associations with them. The ability profile for BS at our school is weaker than for History (and much more boy heavy). However, I think the balance of his subjects is fine and he should take whatever he is interested in. (Nothing creative?)

If he’s an able student, the school should be directing him towards the academic subjects. That’s what would happen in a selective school.

You are right that people need to study business, psychology etc.... yet the time to study them isn’t GCSE. GCSE is for a broad based curriculum which keeps doors open. Even A Level isn’t the best time to study the subjects you mention, for an able child. People go onto business degrees, psychology etc without having GCSEs or A Levels in them.

The GCSE profile which is regarded most highly is a decent number of subjects (8 is fine) with the majority being standard academic subjects at high grades.

Remember, you can’t do History A Level without the GCSE. You can do business. You won’t do a History degree without A Level. You can do business.

When choosing GCSEs lots of children are attracted to new exciting real world subjects that look more exciting than the subjects they already know. They tend to be taken by the less able students who have struggled in the standard subjects (not in all cases of course) and are less well regarded for academic rigour. Look at if your nearest independent or grammar school offers them...probably not. Most won’t offer business at GCSE and only some offer at A Level, but offer Economics instead.

Get your son to have a discussion with the careers advisor at school about which options will keep most doors open and give him a better profile. He needs to hear the reality of the situation and so do you.

It is exactly this kind of thing that lots of Comps are getting critisicised for. They are not directing their able students towards the courses which keep the doors open to the more academic options at the next stages.

Business is a fine GCSE for some students. Obviously GCSE is very basic level and having a GCSE in business isn’t going to turn you into a business person.

Having said all this, I would also say that for an academic student, having 1 GCSE in their profile which is something they chose for interest and which isn’t academic is absolutely fine, as long as the rest of their profile shows them as academic.

So if he has a good academic profile (perhaps 3 sciences, a language, he has RS) then having one subject that really appeals to him (maybe business) is fine. But recognise its worth choosing for that reason rather than its a good subject to study because we need more people with business and that it isn’t a subject at GCSE that ‘leads somewhere’.

Think to the next stage. From his GCSE choices, which A Levels will be open to him and which won’t? Which A Levels might he be likely to do? If he has any idea about degree, are there any requirements or subjects that would be required or good to have.

Hard to think of all this when teens rarely know what they want to do next I know. But essentially I think you both need to understand about keeping doors open and closing them and which subjects help with this.