Subjects no longer taught at school

[adviceatthislatestage]

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?

One thing that impressed me at my school was that in 3rd year Senior School we were ALL taught how to type.
Both sexes, 1hr a week. No choice.

You could choose to do exams - none of us did but it's been a damn good life skill!

We were at the beginning of the computer age.
Info had to be loaded onto the computers via a tape recorder (!) & the school's heads saw that typing would be a necessary skill for us all, regardless of how our paths went.

1970s comp

Needlework - girls only and compulsory to 14
Cookery - girls only
Typing- girls and only certain streams
Woodwork boys
Metal work- boys only
Motor vehicle maintenance - boys only although my nephew did this in the 2000s
Technical Drawing - boys only
Rural studies
Commerce
Classical studies
Geology

Top two classes could take German and Latin.

There was no barrier to taking all arts subjects or all science subjects at O level - it wasn’t compulsory to take a science subject or a language at all. You could if you wanted take 4 languages.

There were always petitions for girls to be allowed to take woodwork etc.

Don't get me started on skirts vs trousers and having to wear knee socks until the age of 18.

Latin is not often an option any more, Greek even less so. Shame IMO - Latin grammar is v useful for learning other languages.

I did O Levels in the 70s- at my (London grammar) school, we had an additional English exam -Spoken English- which counted as a separate exam, but which you could only do alongside English language.
We did Latin, but only those who dropped Latin could do Classics, a very strange decision.
Only a few got to do computers, I think again if your Latin was really poor, they filled up your timetable with computers. I say computers, but there was only one, so big it filled the room!
It was standard to do Latin and 2 modern languages, and you could drop all forms of science at 14.Which I did, but again I think it was a poor decision- probably exam-success related.
You could do Art as a non-exam subject, which was cool.

I did Fizzy Chem, which was one O level, made up of Physics and Chemistry. Then I did a separate Biology O level. That was early 80's.

I did Latin GCSE at my London Comp. I went to my school's website and they still do it.

The classes were never big.

I was at a Scottish secondary early - mid 80s.

In 1st Year we did Classical Studies (I loved this)
In 2nd year we did a short course in Latin, which I enjoyed but wouldn’t take to O Grade as the Latin teacher was really scary!
In 3rd year it was Art Appreciation (I still have no appreciation for art, so it didn’t work).
In 4th year we had Music Appreciation, taught by a teacher who couldn’t make it interesting if he tried - and I was a musician, planning to do a Music degree!

I took Secretarial Studies to Higher Level, Modern Studies to O Level, as well as the usual English, French, German etc

Latin was also compulsory in my school. They stopped teaching it 7 years ago when they moved to the new school building.

Late 1960s comp. Fourth and fifth year (so 14 -16 year olds):

Shorthand - CSE stream only
Typing - ditto
Hairdressing (girls) and basic mechanics (boys) - for those who weren’t expected to get (m)any other qualifications

I wasn’t allowed to do any of those interesting things.

I did do a Commerce O Level which included a London field trip. We spent the morning observing all the men in the Stock Exchange, and in the afternoon, the boys went god-knows-where, and the girls had a fucking make-up lesson.

Music A level

Sadly dying out as an A level subject.😢

I work in a state school. One of our GCSE options is Citizenship which includes a lot of things probably covered in British constitution/ politics.
It’s very interesting!

We did a GCSE in TVEI; Technical, Vocational Educational Initiative. You had to choose various options which included Photography, Business Enterprise, Word Processing, Film Making ec

French studies: learning about France without learning the language

Well I did German which is of course still taught but has been pushed out by Spanish in some schools, including my old one. I also did Latin which again is in decline. Even at the time it was unusual to see in a state school (though it was a grammar)

I also did Food Tech (we had to do a technology unfortunately) and I think that’s now called Food Preparation and Nutrition and has a slightly different curriculum.

I also had friends in my school who did GCSEs in Law and a combined Business Studies and Economics course neither of which I think exist now although the latter two exist separately and I think there is still a Law a-level.

My dd did Latin for 4 years at her Belgian secondary - along with French, Dutch and English. It's obligatory for the first 2 years on the standard curriculum. They also offer Greek. She dropped it for the last 2 years to do triple science and extra maths. I think she regrets this a bit now as she's gone on to do a History degree.

I was at school in the 80s, and both sexes did domestic science (some of the boys were great cooks!) and the same for metalwork and woodwork. There were no classes which only one sex did.

I wish my school had taught Spanish rather than French and German. It would have been a damn sight more useful!!

The ironic thing being of course that secretaries and typists are pretty much extinct and even the most high powered and well remunerated workers are expected to do all their own typing for emails, documentation etc.

I know Latin isn't taught in as many schools as it used to be, but i know of several schools in my area which have been reintroducing it over recent years

Interesting thread.

I didn't realise there were girls-only and boys-only subjects.
No such thing in my schools in the 80's and 90s. Not in the UK though.

Not only unfair, but also it would have deprived boys of learning the basics of cooking etc.

Design Tech was the weirdest o level at school. Avoided that.

At my school A level Economics was considered a bit exotic because there was no corresponding o level.

We were also forced to do general studies a level. Which was a bit hard because nobody had a clue what it was supposed to be about - probably how good you were at bullshitting.

I turned up with zero prep and got a B. Which was worth something in the good old days.

I was in a Scottish state secondary school from 1974-1980. I did 9 O-grades - English, French, Geography, Maths, Arithmetic, Physics, Chemistry, Applied Mechanics and Technical Drawing. I was the first girl to do technical subjects at my school. I had to drop Latin to do the tech subjects. Applied Mechanics wasn't applied, it was the theory of engines, mechanical devices and steam engines. Quite a few boys dropped Latin but the rest of the top stream girls carried on, their standard option would have been "domestic" or "commercial". We were streamed from 1st year with a top stream boys class and a top stream girls class for the first two years. I think this was a great idea because there was certainly a higher than normal take up of sciences amongst the girls than was usual at the time. My maths, physics and chemistry classes were at least 50% female for O-grade and Higher. We did "interest" cooking and sewing, the boys did woodwork and metalwork.
I then did English, Geography, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering Science and Engineering Drawing at Higher (dropping French, which I regret and got a lot of grief for from the teacher).
In sixth year I did CSYS Maths, Physics and Chemistry, took the CSYS classes in English for interest and also took o-grade Biology and Anatomy Physiology and Health (APH). APH was the easiest exam ever - one question asked how many teeth an adult human had - you could literally just count them in your own mouth.
Now I'm a university lecturer in engineering. The school technical department were apparently very proud when I was first appointed, ironic because they gave me an absolutely miserable time in their classes, making overtly sexist remarks and generally putting me down, even though I always had the top marks.

Interesting about the cookery! I didn’t realise only girls did it. I also found the lessons pretty useless and not much was healthy.

I know it’s not a subject itself, but I wish Shakespeare was on this list.

Ugh Latin. I was ‘removed’ from my Latin class at the end of the 3rd year.

We had a subject our school made up called General Ed (not General Studies). We learnt etiquette, car maintenance, how to host visiting speakers, money management... all sorts of life skills really.

Arty-farty independent school in the 50's and 60's. History of Art (compulsory including 6th form), Musical Appreciation (sometimes we listened to music then painted it), Needlework, Cookery, Latin for top set, Italian for the rest, Lots of Literature, Music and Art, Maths and Science not so much, Lacrosse, Elocution and Drama.