My son wants to take GCSE Child development

Teacher is being ridiculous . Equality is not just about women in STEM, it’s about men in caring roles. This is to be encouraged. You wouldn’t tell a gitl she couldn’t study mechanics!

Bit of a tangent here but do you know what exam board they use for GCSE Child Development my daughter is home educated and would like to do it but can't find an exam board that offers it.

I taught child Development and frankly think all pupils should study it. As well as teaching important life skills it also teaches study skills. It is an enjoyable subject - let him do it

100% this!

Wouldn’t we? PPs have said that they were discouraged from studying it because it was seen as a soft or non academic GCSE. OP’s question was about how universities will view it. The Russell Group facilitating subjects list was only scrapped in 2019. My older DC were advised to choose facilitating subjects at GCSE to keep their A level options open.

Tldr all the replies but dt is very time consuming, especially if your hearts not really in it! There’s loads of course work and homework. Don’t know if child development is the same?

Absolutely.

Boy wants to take subject that is in line with his ambitions.

We wouldn't be asking questions of a girl doing similar but against female gender stereotypes.

It's good that he doesn't feel the need to conform with social expectations.

Support him.

Same! I also got a first from a RG uni.
It was a fairly popular gcse at my school. But no one tried to dissuade me. It was true it did have a lot of the girls in who were at the lower end of the academic scale but they still didn’t get As in it.

As I said before I think they should all do it - much more information than bog standard PHSE lessons!

I think he should do it! Good for him

Child Development GCSE sounds great. Definitely encourage him to do it, it will definitely help with his applications going forward into healthcare/medicine. I'd add, the fact he also loves cooking and all this at 13! he sounds like a marvellous young man in the making.

I think it’s a fantastic idea, and good for him! I have done lots of school tours recently and I’ve seen boys in the child development classes.

I took child development. Can’t remember what I learnt and I am now child free. Take from that what you will 🤣

The teacher sounds set in their ways and sexist. If your son wants to do it and it’s a worthwhile subject, then let him do it.

100% this

Let him take it if that's what he wants.

Gender equality isn't just about women in STEM subjects, it's about men in caring professions.

Learning from experience with my older son, I advised my youngest to take the options he thought he would enjoy. He took Citizenship, RE, and Film studies. He was doing triple science as well. He did well as he enjoyed the subjects and went on to take 4 A levels. College didn’t care about the subjects apart from maths, English and science as he wanted to do those subjects at A level.

When I was at school, many many years ago, some boys took Child Development purely for the "reproduction" element. Basically, they thought they were getting a GCSE in sex. Sounds like your DS is a lot more switched on than the reprobates at my school. Best of luck to him.

He might inspire more boys to take it in future. If you can see it you can be it.

My apologies. I missed that bit completely. I did look through the comments to date and wondered what you were paraphrasing (possibly mine or others). E minus for me!

My daughter has taken this and she loves it. She is predicted to get the highest grade possible and finds it very straight forward and an easy subject.

Some of her boy best friends are doing textiles. I don’t see why anyone would even question it.

I wanted to do this when I was at school and was dissuaded by the teachers saying it was meant for the less academic pupils and I was too clever to spend time learning to look after babies, if I wanted to go to uni I shouldn’t pick it.

This was the impression I got when I chose Child Development for GCSE as a straight A student. Teachers were quite shocked but there wasn't anything else I was interested in the option segment. I loved it. It's come in very useful as a parent and generally in life. I went on to get a first class degree from a RG uni so definitely wasn't held against me (although it was a humanities subject). I'd really recommend it - and looking at the world around us - it's a really important area of study.

DS chose Hospitality and Catering and regrets it hugely FYI. It's very basic and uninspiring. He was a complete foodie and great chef and it's put him off cooking for life. He said the other day he wished he'd done triple science instead!

From the OP: "I'm worried that it will be a bit of a pointless subject for him (although I get anything creative might be?)"

What are you on about? Nobody described a creative subject as pointless. The son said he didn't want to study photography and isn't particularly creative. Creative GCSE and A Level subjects are very worthwhile but time consuming and not the easiest to get top grades in for all rounders without particular aptitude. If he doesn't want to do it, he's better off doing something else and enjoying photography as a hobby or learning in his own time (uni society maybe). If he'd said he loved and was interested in studying a creative subject, responses at GCSE would probably be different. Mine would have been.