Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

BTEC instead of a GCSE?

29 replies

CinnamonEstella · 02/11/2021 09:26

Dd is 14, choosing GCSE options for next year.

She has 4 choices, and will be doing the EBacc (Spanish, German, History) for 3 of them.

School "encourages" a creative or practical subject for at least one.

Dd really wants to do Travel and Tourism BTEC.

DH and I are fine with this, it seems like the sort of thing Dd is interested in and goes well with the languages, will be an interesting change from other subjects, fewer exams, likely to be a small class, fulfils the requirement to do something more practical etc.

Everyone else, literally everyone I have spoken to have made a face, said it is a waste of time, universities won't like it, she will only have 8 GCSES, she should do business instead, the travel industry has no future, everyone else in the class will mess around etc.

I don't want to give Dd bad advice. I think it's a perfectly valid choice. But I'm taken aback by the negativity.

Should we support dd's choice? The only other thing she might like to do is RE, which is obviously more academic.
But 1 BTEC and 8 GCSES should be fine, shouldn't it?

OP posts:
lanthanum · 02/11/2021 10:40

I agree with TeenMinusTests about the questions to ask. Have any of the discouragers been her teachers? It would be good to know what the school think about the choice - they might try and steer her away if they don't think it's the right thing for her.

However I don't think it's going to disadvantage her if that's what she wants to do. Does she know what she wants to do beyond GCSE?

TeenMinusTests · 02/11/2021 10:07

I'm half and half here.
I don't see anything wrong with a BTEC at GCSE level. It provides a different way of learning and will lighten revision load in summer of y11. I don't think universities will care what she did as a last choice.

However I would still have concerns:

  1. It is more likely that T&T would be chosen by less academic pupils, who may well be choosing it as the 'least bad' option rather than as an active choice iyswim. This could lead to lessons being pitched at a lower level and also behaviour issues.
  2. My DD1 did T&T at college, level 3. Some of it was interesting, some of it highly repetitive and much less interesting. There was far more written and far less 'real practical' than we anticipated/were led to believe. You also have to hit the ground running as assignments count from the start.

If doing the BTEC I would strongly suggest you ask some searching questions on

  • what the spec of the course is
  • how it is taught, what level of independent research is required, do they get clear feedback on assignments etc
  • what type of 'outputs' are going to be required
  • have they taught it before, can you see example outputs to get a better idea
  • how will they ensure your DD gets a chance to do/learn the distinction elements if she is able enough
  • a promise on behaviour
LindaEllen · 02/11/2021 09:37

As long as she has her English and Maths GCSEs she will be fine. Possibly a science depending on what she wants to do going forward. Everything else - unless she's looking to go to Oxbridge - is pretty much forgotten about as soon as they're onto the next stage.

She should do what she's going to enjoy. It's a lot of work if she's not!

titchy · 02/11/2021 09:36

Of course it's fine. Unis don't care about GCSEs as long as you have 8 including M and E.