Subjects no longer taught at school

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On the back of the what O Levels did you do, thread, it got me thinking of subjects that were available when I was at school, but aren't any more:

When choosing options you could do, at our south London bog standard comprehensive

British constitution
Government and Politics
Needlework - very different to the Textiles kids would do now
Typing- only the girls
Metal work- only the boys
Motor vehicle maintenance - again boys
Technical Drawing - think this was a mixed class
Home Economics- much more than the Food Tech kids do now though. I remember we had our own studio flat, between the two HE rooms. For end of year exams, students would have to cook a 3 course meal and serve to a number of teachers in the 'fiat' as if having a dinner party.

What subjects did you study, or remember that aren't being taught any more?

Government and politics is still taught

Technical drawing, needle and metal work are part of DT now

I really enjoyed British Constitution but can’t remember a thing that we studied. We did it as an extra exam in a year in the sixth form so it was full on at the time, I recall.

I also took ‘Commerce’ which sounds like something from the 1950’s. Disclaimer - I’m not quite that old!

When I was at school only the boys could do technical drawing, woodwork and metalwork, and only the girls could do domestic science. Only the pupils with lower academic achievement could do typing. I type a lot at work, but I can't touch type because I never learned.

I did food and nutrition O level (1975) and had to cook 5 different dishes in two and a half hours. At A level (1977) it was called home economics and we had to cook 7 dishes in 3 hours.

I enjoyed Arithmetic much more than Maths. They were different subjects for my O Grades (mid 80s in Scotland).

Only the pupils with lower academic achievement could do typing. I type a lot at work, but I can't touch type because I never learned.

We had that rule, too, but I was allowed to take it as a 6th form elective, despite being told, "girls of your calibre won't be secretaries." I did wonder in later years who they thought would be typing our dissertations and theses. (Me, in my case.)

When I did my O Grades in early 80s Scotland, I took Latin and Greek amongst others. It's almost impossible to do those in a state school now.

When I was at school, girls learnt to knit in P4 and then to sew, embroider, darn etc. I can't remember what boys did. At secondary, boys did woodwork, metalwork and techy drawing. Girls did Home Economics. We learned to cook, clean, lay tables, budget, iron shirts, fold napkins.... We had a wee one bedroom flat in the HE department so we learned how to make beds, use a washing machine, clean a bathroom, wash windows. Everything we would need to know to be a good little wifie.
My HE teacher was obsessed with etiquette and deportment. She actual had us walking about the class with a book on our heads to improve our posture 🤣
In 3rd year, girls who couldn't manage a maths O Grade could do Secretarial Studies, but boys weren't allowed. We also had what was called the 3 Science Class. Those of us in the top 10% of 2nd year, were offered the chance to do physics, chemistry and biology O Grades, condensed into the 12 periods a week other kids got for 2 science subjects. That wouldn't happen nowadays.

I did O level GEC - Government, Economics and Commerce.
Didn't do the O level but did three years of needlework and home economics in years 8, 9 and 10. The first thing you did was make your apron for home economics. Fortunately, I was in the top set so did not have to do the assessed bed making and dusting sessions that those in the lower sets had to do. Housework was considered beneath us. Girls only of course.
My friends dad had to threaten to sue for her to be able to take woodwork because it was only available to boys. 1970s and he had to use the Sex Discrimination Act to help his daughter become a carpenter. On the back of her success one lad took cookery and went on to become a chef.

Needlework (at primary school in 80s). The boys did woodwork.

Home economics we did at secondary school (early to mid 90s) up until y10. Don't know if schools still do that. We also did design technology divided into a term doing needlework and a term doing wood and metal work. It was a single sex high school.

I did a short course in typing at my state comprehensive in the early 1990s.

The school limited the number of exam courses we could do to 7 to accommodate a rota slot for vocational short courses - I think over the two years I did typing (useful), life skills (how to make a phone call, pointless - I knew already), scottish country dancing (fun, but another standard grade would have been more useful!), and some other random crap.

My friends who went privately all have 9+ exam from the same time period. Yet another way the state sector unwittingly disadvantaged pupils for university entry.

(I did OK out of it in the end, but it does annoy me when people who went privately spaff on about how harmful contextual offers are without understanding the reality of state education).

CSE rural science
CSE commerce

The one I am sad about kids now missing out on is Latin! I was a linguist and Latin was endlessly useful.

I never did HE but some of my friends did - it didn't fit in my timetable. It clashed with Spanish thankfully!

I did do RSA Typing to Stage 2 level, to get out of PE. It's been more useful to me than PE ever would have been!!

I also didn't take any Science subjects at O level - I was crap at them and didn't have to do them. I took the two Englishes/Maths, French, Spanish, Latin, German, History and Ancient History.

We had Rural Science too! We had an actual pig and at the end of the playing field.
Typing
British Industrial Society - the poor kids version of economics.

Late 70s/ early 80s we had Elocution lessons - is that still a thing? Doubt it.

At primary school in the early 70s we studied
Nature
Scripture

I did an O level in a subject called British Industrial Society. If I remember correctly it was an optional O level that we could take in 6th form. I have absolutely no recollection of any of the course content!

Other long gone subjects, like so many others here, include needlework, woodwork, metal work, technical drawing. No option to do any PE/sporting exams though back in my school days.

I did a Cse in childcare , my friend did office practise .

Those of us in the top 10% of 2nd year, were offered the chance to do physics, chemistry and biology O Grades, condensed into the 12 periods a week other kids got for 2 science subjects. That wouldn't happen nowadays.

That literally does happen nowadays! Top set(s) take the three separate science GCSEs, everyone else does a double award.

Most of these are available at my kids high school - sometimes called something else and obviously available to both boys and girls.

Yeah we had childcare as an option too, as well as office practise (I’m the proud recipient of an RSA I qualification 😀). We also had pottery and needlework too.

Some schools in Ireland do classics so Greek and Roman mythology- ds is gutted his doesn’t ( he heard of it from my brother- we’d thought it was discontinued!)

Latin in the late 80s and early nineties in a bog standard comp in a council estate in Scotland. It was only short courses but I loved it.

Technical was a rotation of technical drawing, woodwork, metalwork and plasticwork. I hated it with every ounce of my being.

I was also allowed to do three sciences for standard grades, I was also allowed to sit 7 standard grades when the standard was 6.

It doesn't really happen up here now, though. Most kids only do 6 Nat 5s. Some schools do still offer 8 but the way the whole "choices' thing is structured is very different from when I did my O Grades in 1982. I was the only person in the county, at the very least, to do 10 because my Classics teacher gave up intervals and lunchtimes to teach me Greek. So I did 3 languages plus English, 3 sciences, maths Arithmetic and history. You can't do that now.

As part of my YTS scheme, I did an NCFE course called Office Practice. We learned how to use a Telex machine & franking machine, how to correctly fold a sheet of A4 paper to fit envelopes, take minutes, bookkeeping etc. Another course was in Shorthand, the Teeline version to be precise.

I did shorthand for a year in 1994/95. I loved it.

Oh that's very odd @Lessstressedhemum. I did 11 GCSEs in 2001, and that was on the high end of normal? Two languages, three science, two English, maths, statistics, technology, business. And DSS did at least 8 this summer; english, Spanish, maths, three sciences, photography, history.