To think GCSEs should only be maths, English and science unless request otherwise?

[Conmoenotcalltoe]

DD is beginning her GCSEs this spring and the pressure and stress she has been placed under has been difficult for her.
She has had several pieces of homework a night, plus expected to stay behind for studying until 4pm daily, and a huge amount of weekend prep to do for the following week.
She knows what job she wants and she has been given a placement in college already, so the majority of the subjects she does is wasted on her.
i think it would benefit teens more if schools allowed year 9 options to be optional. For example she has to do history, cooking, German and design which she has no interest in and will serve no purpose for her future (she can already cook) if she didn’t need to take those subjects it would free more time for the important ones, English, maths and science. She doesn’t enjoy these subjects and finds the teachers expect too much from her knowing she is trying to focus more on maths as she struggles in that area.
i know several parents and relatives who think the same and would prefer their teens to study important lessons unless they chose to study all/any of the options as extra.
Would your child prefer to learn the staple 3 lessons or would they still chose their options? What would your opinion be if it was an option to cut out subjects to lessen the stress during year 11?

My DD has found the options difficult because she had to choose 3 but there was 5 she liked. Made easier as she found a college course she liked as she needed one of the subjects. She's settled on Geography, Spanish and Animal Care.

They all want and need completely different things.

Some schools do allow students to pick their options at year 9.
You couldn't really do it any earlier because there's not enough time to try out everything.

That would be narrowing down the curriculum a great deal at an early age. You said starting her GCSEs this spring and she's in year 9? So at age 13, kids should be able to cast aside all arts, music, dance and drama, foreign languages, technologies, and just stick to English, maths and sciences. That would be pretty miserable.

so you only want people to study English maths and science after the age of 14? No! That would be a terrible idea!

you don’t need to have everything focussed to a job - sometimes the value of education can simply be education.

and, logistically, how are you going to supervise the students who decide they only want to study English maths and science?

Why science maths and English though? As long as they can read and do basic maths a lot of jobs don't involve anything past what primary school gives you, can't think of a time I've ever used anything I learnt in science as an adult.

It might work for your DD but she might change her mind on career - and it definitely doesn’t work for everyone. My DD did 12 GCSE’s - 25 exams, definitely a bit too much in my opinion. Thankfully down to 4 subjects now at A level

It’s a rounded education. Your dd may well develop an interest in
another subject

So all they’d study in Y10/11 would be english maths and science? I think that would be really dull and also massively narrow their curriculum. Options choices at my dc’s school were fairly broad so my dc were able to choose subjects they enjoyed.

My DC would be miserable if their whole timetable was maths, english and science!

This might work for your child, but not all children. Mine struggled to drop subjects when choosing GCSE options, and would have happily taken more given the opportunity.

more time for the important ones, English, maths and science.

Important in your opinion.

I had no interest in or aptitude for maths and science and they would have been of no use to me in my career.

I don't think it's necessary to study ten subjects for GCSE, but I do think children should study a range of subjects, otherwise how do they discover what interests them/what they have an aptitude for? I'd make maths, English, a science, a humanity and a mfl compulsory. They all teach different skills, and it's all useful to the accumulation of general knowledge.

Luckily my DC had pretty free reign to choose their GCSE's beyond Maths, English and 3 sciences so they could choose ones that interested them rather than an either or situation.
I know that friends DC at other schools ended up taking subjects they had no interest in simply because they hated the alternative more.
Its not a good way to encourage kids to study IMO

I get where you are coming from. My DD struggled due to processing issues. We knew she needed 4 GCSE passes at level 4 to get on to her college course. One of those had to be English or Maths but in reality if she didn't pass both of those she would need to retake it alongside her college work so it made sense to aim to pass both.

So we made sure she focussed heavily on Maths and English plus food tech , music and child development. We knew she had no hope of passing history and combined science so we told her to attend the lessons but not to bother revising. School knew and were fine about it. They also made her take maths functional skills in case she failed the GCSE.

She passed all of those subjects and even got level 5 in English and Food tech. I'm sure it's because we took the pressure off of her at the right time.

It would be good if schools allowed kids to just focus on what they actually need to progress on to their next stage rather than force them to study subjects they aren't good at.

i know several parents and relatives who think the same and would prefer their teens to study important lessons

And the only "important lessons" are English, Maths and sciences? By all means, let's encourage young people to think less do as few subjects as possible - if they need to know anything about the wider world they can always go on Tik Tok.

She needs to have a good level of general knowledge about the world, as well as sufficient GCSEs to go on to do whatever she wants to do in future. School isn't just about passing exams - the curriculum (whatever you think of it) is there to ensure most people have a passing knowledge of a wide range of subjects.

I would say history is vitally important at the moment. Cooking is probably a bit pointless if she already knows how to cook well, but it's never wasted experience and she doesn't need to focus too much on revision. It's always useful to know a smattering of another language, plus it helps with English grammar and vocab. And design is a nice creative outlet amongst all the academic study.

well, considering that my DD is struggling with all 3 of those due to them not suiting how she learns, its really only her Art & Music which are both all coursework based that are keeping her going.

Cutting all of the other stuff out just to study english, maths, an sciences is a bloody stupid idea.

I can see what you are saying.
The issue would be that if some kids did 9 GCSEs and some only did 5, the timetable would allow free time for those with 5 rather than extra lessons.
I think I might be more in favour of taking 10 subjects in Y10 and then only doing 6 GCSEs (if they wanted that). All round education but not required to sit an exam in subjects that you had decided were less useful. DS would bite your hand off if you let him drop PE at this point.

You’re being ridiculous OP, you need to tell your daughter that she can’t just do English, science and maths and nothing else. There are some fantastic reasons highlighted by previous posters on this thread maybe you haven’t considered those reasons.

Here's another reason why it's a bad idea. There's already a huge shortage of maths and science teachers!

Personally I think you’d just end up killing off the creative industries… even more than they already are. Even if a kid likes Art or DT, most of them won’t take it for fun. Instead opting for the free time and less homework.

And you’ll also end up with even more of a class divide. Invested parents will make their kids take as many subjects are possible, while less invested parents will let their kids take the bare minimum.

When I was at school, there was an option to do the 3 core subjects as GCSE and then a single vocational course with the rest of the time. It worked quite well, opposed to forcing students to take 4 subjects that they had no interest in.

I don't think narrowing the curriculum is the answer.

I do wonder if there should be more variety in exams offered though and possibly a rejig if how they are sat. children are meant to be in education until 18 Now, is gcse then a level the right way to evidence stuff. Are other countries doing this better?

Eg my son did a sports qualification that was gcse equivalent, but had a different structure. It included a bit of coursework and modular test, rather than one big end of two year exam. But they only offered these for catering, business or sport.

Narrowing it down doesn't benefit anyone.
The fact that your Dd can cook is great for her gcse. She can still learn some things and getting a good grade will be good for her self esteem and future.

We need adults in the world who are knowledgeable in different areas. We need historians, designers, geologists and so on.
How do people know this is where their talent lies if they have no exposure?

Personally, I think A levels are too specialised and doing a wider range of subjects at that stage would be much more beneficial.
Many kids are unsure of what they want to do at 16 and by 18 they need to find a way to do something to open a door that closed for them due to their a level choices.

You can not do the gcses. Pretty sure you can opt out of the exams.

GCSEs in year 9?

For those saying that maths and English being important in only an opinion.... almost every college course above level 2 and every job I see advertised asked for min of English and maths grade 4. It is important as young adults face blockers from the start if they don't have these 2 subjects nailed.

OP I agree with you. Not all students can multi focus, my son has ADHD and struggled with every aspect of school. He didn't pass a single GCSE.

Thankfully he got in to college at a level 2 course whilst re-taking maths and English ( again compulsory to resist just these 2 subjects, not any of the others) and he is performing so much better at his chosen course because he can focus on this one subject more.

The current education system is not suitable for all, but the world has made it very clear that without maths and English GCSE's you are doomed