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?

I’m not sure if it’s changed but I only left school 12 years ago and 3 science was a thing then too, clever people did 3 like you mentioned and the others did one of the form of a btech x

Latin- hated it at the time but wish I'd stuck with it
Classics - as above, much more interesting than a lot of history!
Economics- this should be available to all pupils in every school but hardly any do it
Home economics- split into sewing - handy to know how to fix clothes, and cooking - I found the recipes weird but considering some don't get taught at home schools need to fill the gap
Woodwork - both sexes - I still have things I made
Metalwork - only if you chose to continue woodwork, only boys chose it in my year
Technology- remember this being twiddling with electric circuits??
Drama- most schools don't seem to offer this now?
German and Russian, most schools just have French and Spanish now?
Car maintenance- only remember boys doing it but it sounds useful!

We also did our cycling proficiency.

Emma Thompson - who has made a few quid from her speaking voice - was apparently horrified when visiting her old school that the girls there no longer had a public speaking voice - a clearly enunciated voice that you might use to gain more traction in a medical/legal setting where you might need to self-advocate.
Keir Starmer is keen to introduce 'oracy' to give people skills to express themselves clearly in spoken English.

They don't seem to do German anymore. It's French and Spanish now.

Classics and Latin were dropped when the national curriculum came in at my school. I went from year 2 to year 9 as they re numbered the years too.

They don't seem to do German anymore. It's French and Spanish now.

German has been slowly dying out in English schools since I was at school in the 80s. Spanish has rocketed in popularity and is often preferred to French. I'm a French and German teacher, but taught myself Spanish as an adult because it made it easier to find jobs!

Keir Starmer is keen to introduce 'oracy' to give people skills to express themselves clearly in spoken English.

Hmm that's interesting. I hadn't heard about that! If it's implemented in a sensible way, I'm all in favour of that.

Is that because it could be more difficult?

I remember a lot of the students not liking it much when they had to do 2 languages

Domestic Science (basically, basic cooking and needlework, which then in later years went on to include running a household, budgeting etc

It did sound like a finishing school!

You just needed elocution and deportment classes to it all round off.

We had those!
Walking round with books on heads for posture and how to get into a (sports) car gracefully spring to mind.
Also elocution:
"I wonder I wonder I wonder I do
Why in the morning the sky is so blue".
I had terrible trouble getting my pronounciation of theatre correct (defo only two syllables.)
When I started teaching in a large northern city my pupils said I talked like the Queen. 😂

I (central Londoner) had never heard of Rural Studies until this thread! Meh toned it to DH who knew about it. They had a school farm. PE was sometimes cleaning out the piggeries. At Christmas they had to pluck the turkeys, which they sold to school parents and in the community.,

My dc go to rural schools now. No Rural Studies was on offer for DS' options.

I wonder if the new Natural History GCSE will contain elements of Rural Studies.

There used to be some really interesting subjects before they ditched them all to save money. If you were in the Air Cadets you could do an O level in astronomy. I don't know if you still can.

A lot of people used to an extra O level in geology in my sixth form, my DH did one as he was doing Geography A level.

DD is a research scientist and was helped enormously by doing three sciences. Those that only studied under the 'combined science' umbrella really miss out.
Having said that, I sat through a presentation by a Cambridge don explaining that he only looked at three relevant A-levels - shortly before one from the school HT explaining that 5 A-levels would be studied because that impressed for Oxbridge admissions.

I’m nearly 60 and the girls at primary worked on sewing once a week. Knowing the basics has been useful over the years, would be equally so for boys.

Before combined science was brought in many (like me) only studied 1 or 2 of the sciences at GCSE. I did Biology & Chemistry but no Physics. Combined Science is definitely a good thing. It means almost everyone is studying all three subjects to GCSE level.

Latin, I wonder if it’s a bit supply and demand. I say this because my DS’ state primary offers it as an after school club for £10 a term (local private school sixth formers run it) and (in a school of 450 pupils) there were five children doing it last year. All of whom have teacher parents. There’s a huge view on the school gate that ‘Latin’s pointless, it’s only for elite snobs like Boris’.

I passed Latin O Level & I went on a school trip to Greece. I really enjoyed learning about the history & social lives of ancient people. However, I have never used the subject in my working life, but it has enabled me to have a wider appreciation of language & history.

I passed an OA in General Studies. There was no course for this, just an exam

Boys were taught wood work, metal work & technical drawing

Girls were taught home economics/cookery & sewing

We did metal work and woodwork. The class rooms were set up as workshops with all the machinery. Went to visit a few years ago and the equipment had gone and it was just a normal class room.

I hope you married well and didn't let the school down...

😂

Omg- this is crazy. I can not believe this was UK in 1970! The part in which girls who were not academic did not clean is terrible, the servant class :-(

My grammar school offered Russian as a new option in the 5th form - you could drop another subject to do it. I was delighted to drop physics-with-chemistry!

We had just one year to do Russian O level but obv. they only let you do it if you were good at languages. Our fantastic teacher gave us the Penguin Russian Course before the end of 4th year summer holidays and told us to do the first 5 chapters on our own. Only 10 of us, and 6, inc me, went on to do A level.

I disappointed my mother. She wanted me to do a secretarial course at Mrs. Hoster's and marry a wealthy executive.
University on the other side of the country was not the plan. 😂

Latin helps with the grammar for German I think and 75% of Spanish has Latin origins. I can understand why people view it as 'posh', but I think the children studying it will come to find it useful - maybe in unexpected ways.
My DD found it helpful for Medicine-related studies.

Yes and yes.