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?

Human Biology. I have a CSE in Human Biology.

Wasn't allowed to do Technical Drawing despite knowing I wanted to be a draughtsman. Had to wait until I went to college.

I hated Home Economics and Sewing; when our 3rd year options came round I chose Technical Drawing, Woodwork and General Workshop. I quite enjoyed those. This was in 1980/81. I wanted to learn German but wasn't allowed, as my French wasn't good enough 🙄

I remember the 3 separate science subjects! I seem to remember we did all 3, then could choose to drop one. I dropped Chemistry, God knows why- Physics was much harder!! I remember Typing being girls only, and Computers was just starting to be taught; I wish I'd done that, but I think it was boys only 🙄

I didn't know that - that sounds really sensible. I wonder why it changed (and why we didn't do both in England - mental arithmetic was part of the GCSE, but it didn't count for an extra subject).

Given the amount of time spent on Maths, it should count as a double GCSE I think!

I remember Commerce was offered in our school too but I didn't do it. Presumably it was just Business Studies in disguise :)

I did Classical Studies and Latin which I know are still offered but it is quite rare now.

Needlework (I hated it)

Yes@enchantedsquirrelwood arithmetic was quite useful and an easy A for bright students. It was quite practical - questions about mortgage interest rates and measuring areas for tiling floors etc!

My school taught both classics and Latin to everyone in y7/8, they were both options to continue to GCSE. This was a state school in the late 90s.

They made us all do a half GCSE in RE too! The logic being, we had to study it til 16 anyway so might as well get a GCSE out of it. I did no revision and got an A (yay for a C of E primary school! And a course which only covered Christianity.)

The only subjects which were split by sex by then was some PE. Some was taught together (gymnastics, dance, athletics) but most was split - girls did hockey, netball and rounders, boys did rugby, football and cricket. I wonder if this is still the case now!

we all had to do all the DT subjects - food tech, textiles, resistant materials (what woodwork and metal work became I guess), and something involving soldering irons, circuit boards, and air under high pressure. And maybe some kind of graphical drawing?

The secondary my DD is about to start at still teaches metalwork, has an amazing department for it. Needlework is now textiles there, but again, has an amazing department.

At my old uni I did a minor in Women's Studies, which I loved and found fascinating. The same uni now teaches Gender Studies instead....

Very sensible girls’ grammar school in the 80s - pretty straight forward English (x2), sciences (usual three plus geology), maths (with statistics as an weekly extra), languages (French, German, latin (with classics as an option for those who struggled), art/drama/music/photography, textiles/home ec/DT (woodwork & metal work) one term of each each year, horrific PE … and five years of compulsory Divinity from an utterly terrifying nun (this was not a catholic school).

My year was one of the last to have segregated classes. By the time my sister started secondary school, 5 years after me, O Grades had changed to Standard Grades, the curriculum was much easier, the housework and etiquette lessons had gone, so had the clothes making and both girls and boys did home eccy and techy.

Computers hadn't been invented when I was at school!

Well they had, but they were giant mainframe things that large corporations had in a special machine room, with a few people sat at terminals.

80's - we were taught Latin for the first couple of years, I didn't have a clue what was going on ! I did typing, office practice and general science (Cse) which covered all the sciences. I'm pretty sure none of these subjects are taught anymore.
Childcare is now called Child Development Learning and Play.

I'd forgotten about Music and RE. Compulsory 1 hour a week for the first 3 years. Only exams I ever failed in my whole life. I am transported back whenever I hear Fingal's Cave 😃

We wasted two years doing a twatty subject called I.D.E Interdisciplinary Enquiry

To this day I can't remember what it was meant to achieve

@HilaryThorpe

And what did you go on to do? It sounds like an eclectic education.

We had CSEs in General Science for those who weren't up to the single sciences. It included photography weirdly enough. There was also European studies, childcare and typing (proper manual typewriters with the letters painted over so you couldn't cheat learning touch typing) - it was actually a really useful skill back then and helped me get temp work in college holidays/gap year which paid better than bar work/waitresses.

I did an O level history in the 1980s which was half Roman History (name that gladiator) and half Architecture which I didn’t find that interesting at the time but actually has proved interesting as I’ve got older and I can tell a doric from an ionic column so if I ever get on Who wants to be a Millionaire I will be hoping for some obscure architecture question!

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

This is exactly what is currently happening in my dc's school.

It also happens in languages, those in the top language set take French and Spanish in the time that lower sets just take one language.

My primary in the late 80’s taught us chess
Latin from yr7 in a state comp early 90’s

Practical music A level (as opposed to the academic one) - people often did double music taking all the academic and practical papers. I just did practical as a standalone as it wasn't much work beyond submitting your Grade 8 certificate and a Grade 5 in a second instrument.

I also did Latin Greek and History. and an extra O level in Greek Literature in translation.

Lower down the school we were taught embroidery and flower arranging as part of art - I loved it as I can't paint or draw to save my life but I can sew and arrange flowers. Think the latter is a highly underrated skill.

At our local non grammar, a whole range of subjects that opened doors for non academic kids are no longer available. Well done, sneering elitists! For example, catering, horticulture, hair and beauty.....

I did my GCSEs in the mid 90s at my local state school in SE London- we had no other option apart from double science, there was no triple science option for the brainy kids.

If I'd had the opportunity I would've opted for triple science!

Bog standard East London Comp in the 1970s

• European studies - compulsory in year 7
• Humanities - no separate classes for English, History and Geography in years 7-9 - all rolled into one and taught in this huge open plan space with 4 classes of 40ish so 120 pupils taught in different "huddles" - unbearable noise
• Technical drawing
• Jewellery design and making - remember enamelling metal pendants and using lathes to make plastic and wood rings
• Russian I took O level - big choice of languages at that time with French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and Latin
• One year they decided to make PE more accessible - so there was no netball, hockey, football, cricket and instead we got to choose several options from badminton, squash, trampolining, dance, keep fit, weight training
• Typing - I hated this with those big, old, manual manual typewriters - used to hurt my hands
• to get out of typing I did a 1 term course on "The Impressionist Painters" - 12 of us plus a teacher spent Thursday afternoons at the Tate Gallery

Typing & Office Practice.

University in 1968, then teaching, ending up as an Inspector of schools (LA and Ofsted). I used to spend spare moments doing retrospective Ofsteds in my head on the teaching in my school and failing them all. 😂
An inspector colleague said she hadn't realised anyone went there to be educated, she thought it was a finishing school.