Year 9 Options question

Well my son is rubbish at science as well as writing. No one is excluding kids from writing on the basis of bring good st STEM subjects, we are often juSt being realistic.

Computing and history.

Computing - great GCSE, useful if wants to do CS A-level. So many jobs involve coding.

History- also a great GCSE, great for developing analytical skills and essay writing. Interesting too.

I am certainly not saying STEM students cannot write accurately but I do think parents excuse their DC of writing and essays because they are good at STEM. It shouldn’t be either/or. As your DS has discovered, both are necessary. Even if it’s a sideline. It’s such a good skill to have too!

FWIW I'd go history every time if he's interested by it?

History proves you can learn and analyse and write essays. Very transferable skills.

No need to have a business studies GCSE to study it at A level, and no need to have A level to study it at degree level or start your own business.

What qualifies a child as being “academic”?

Interesting question! By "academic", I guess I mean the kind of kid who finds it relatively easy to excel in school work and exams, i.e. is likely to get good grades if they put in a reasonable amount of work.

I don't think it's the same as "clever" as there are so many different types of intelligence. Academic is just one type of "clever", but there will be kids who are not at all academic (i.e.will not excel in exams etc) who are nonetheless very intelligent/"clever" in other ways. E.g. they might have incredibly good practical skills, they might be talented entrepreneurs, or they might be exceptionally emotionally intelligent etc.

Who is judging autistic people? I cannot see where this came from? Surely we do not think every STEM DC is autisitc?

Essay writing is absolutely linked to writing lengthy and detailed reports for clients. It is necessary because of the structure involved in writing a report and organising thoughts in a coherent way. It is not just about bullet points and a short narrative you might see at GCSE. It is about detail and being able to express this clearly in a way everyone understands. It is almost certain a STEM person will not do any lengthy writing at A level either as STEM subjects do not require this. Universities do not appear to care about clarity and quality of writing either - certainly in engineering degrees. Some employers will care a lot more because their reputation is on the line. Some employees might be able to hide away and never have to write anything but if you are a professional, and certainly working for a consultancy, there are few hiding places. Understanding what is needed at work is often a key point in choosing a balanced education.

And I think the world is a much better place for having autistic people in them rather than snobbby, judgemental ones.

Comefromaway Same with my son he's austistic as well.

I'd definitely go for history over business if he is academic and doesn't have a preference. 10 GCSEs is pretty standard, so I wouldn't worry too much about the workload unless he really struggles with time management. There is a lot of content, but it's manageable.

However, now she is in college she is learning German as part of her course but she will not be assessed on it. She's also learning Dutch for fun (because she has links with a Dutch school). The German she is learning is specifically relevant to the industry she hopes to go into.

I found the opposite at dd's school. It was the essay subjects that were more popular (along with the arts).

The language thing I feel is more to do with the way GCSE is structured and marked. Dd has sensory processing issues so she found the listening exam very challenging due to her inability to filter out background noise. She literally could not decipher what they were saying on the recording. A native speaking boy was marked down because he used colloquial phrases.

My son's grammar, punctuation and clarity is excellent but due to specific issues related to autism, he cannot write good essays in the way that was expected at GCSE although I have seen him destroy someone's argument a debate on social media several times!

Why is it, in this country, DCs don’t want to write or don’t want to bother with a language? Why are we so narrow in our expectations? It’s not great for the future.

Can I please just say: it is necessary for bright children to be able to write!!! My DH employs many qualified engineers. Lots cannot write a report without it being corrected. Please ensure your DCs can write well, even if they like STEM. It’s vital and they need to learn that writing is a skill needed in most professional jobs.

My dd took French because she felt she ought to have a language but it was her weakest subject and she really wishes she'd taken Geography instead (which she excelled at) she got 8's and 9's at GCSE but her French Grade 6 sticks out like a sore thumb.

Yes, unless he wants to take history for A level then its better to have have good grades than specific subjects assuming maths, English and science are all covered.

Is he good at essay writing? If so, then opt for history. What are his other options? There is a lot of content in history and if he has opted for other essay based subjects the workload might be high.

My son enjoyed business studies because he felt it was a more logical subject (he's far more mathematically minded and struggles with essay subjects.

Lots of academic schools don’t offer Business at GCSE. Mainly because it’s not necessary for A level. History is offered by all schools. That’s because it’s more academically rigorous and most schools do want DC to have studied it at GCSE prior to A level. It’s still one of the A level subjects posted by Cambridge University regarding giving best prep to their courses. Business Studies doesn’t and nearly everyone who runs a business won’t have it at gcse. It’s truly something you can leave to university!

I did History A level without the GCSE (just English Lit as a writing subject) and found it fine - we could only take one Humanities and I was more interested in political history / economics / current events and our History GCSE was medicine and Norman England. Though if there's any chance he will take History A level makes more sense to take the GCSE as well.

I found it useful with both mine to consider quickly if they had any preference re degree / A levels and look through some of both the content of the GCSEs and A levels. Though I don't think either will restrict anything unless their 6th form has rules about entry so I would just check but none of those subjects are requirements at ours. The business course at our school was quite different to what I expected and very practical and lots of marketing. If you get the exam board you can get full syllabus and a past paper which gives a very clear idea. I know a few subjects I've read out to mine and they've been wasn't expecting that, no I don't want to do that or actually that is interesting.

History GCSE does have a reputation for being content heavy though my DD is doing 11 and says she doesn't find it too different to the others and says overall workload is OK. My DS is taking pretty much the same, I'm more wary with him taking it as he doesn't like writing and has a do minimum approach.