My son wants to take GCSE Child development

I agree with this. I did it for GCSE and it would be good if all teens had to do it! Teaches them about pregnancy, child health, their development and loads of things!

I wouldn't particularly push him into a creative subject if he isn't interested and it isn't a strength. I'm all for creativity and not narrowing down too soon but they are quite time consuming and if he's already got some idea what he wants then I'm not sure what photography will add. If he develops an interest later he can learn it as a hobby or at A level

Stats would be really useful for medicine (and anything scientific) but if he wouldn't enjoy it at this stage then child development would definitely make a lot of sense too. It might help give him something interesting to talk about at interview if he looks into current research and keeps a few notes. It's not a good reason not to do it, being the only boy. He just needs to see it through knowing that's likely to be the case from the start.

Given that there are so many stories about feckless fathers and the rise of single mothers I think Child Development should be at the centre of the curriculum. Most people will be parents at some point and understanding how children develop is so important

I wish I’d done child development rather than German, which I failed. But I still became a paediatric nurse without it. But it would have been useful.

No university will care whether he has child development GCSE or sociology GCSE, as long as he has the right grades and core subjects he needs. Statistics would be very useful though. He’ll need to study it at some point as part of his A levels/degree. It will not make any difference to university applications though.

They will care about his core GCSEs and his A-levels.

They are unlikely to give a stuff whether he did Geography, Child Development or Marsupial Studies as an option.

Probably the best teacher I’ve ever worked with - in a PRU - took that route. His understanding of development made a massive difference to our practice and made for a better environment for the kids.
Being make doesn’t make him unsuitable for this learning and if he’s interested then he’s likely to enjoy it and do well.

If he wants a career in medicine or science, I would strongly recommend taking statistics as he will need a good understanding of statistics for A levels and university.

But taking child development isn’t going to harm his university applications, if that is what you are concerned about? He has the essential GCSEs he needs to study medicine or sciences, he may as well choose a subject he will enjoy or find it easy to get a good grade in. Stats would be very useful but he won’t do well if he isn’t interested.

Let him take it. Not only does it fit perfectly well with someone interested in science, healthcare and medicine (paediatrics for example), we need more boys to grow into men who know that children aren't the sole responsibility of their mother. Good for him and for picking something he is interested in.

He should do what's best for him but go in knowing he may be the only boy.
Dc1 did health and social care at college and was the only male, (he's now at uni and the only male in his group). But it was right for him. I'd say child development would be useful if going onto health care, dc did a whole module on unders 5s. Some subjects are heavily outnumbered by one or another group. Dc3 is doing sociology (it's all girls), dc2 is doing economics and there's only 2 girls. So if that doesn't bother your son he should do what's best for his future. As a parent my worry would be is the teacher going to support him if she's trying to put him off already?