in thinking that DD will get nowhere with these GCSE options...

[PosyPanther]

DD is 13, so, in my opinion still a child, she changes her mind about pretty much everything daily, school shoes, whose her best friend, her favourite colour, you get the picture...

She has just had the first leaflet from school about GCSE option next year and want to pick health and social care (double award)human health and physiology instead of additional science, child development, psychology and sociology. She says she wants to do social work or primary teaching (or win the X factor )

I think she's mad. She's in the top set at school, level 5 across the board at primary school and is working at solid level 7s now. I would much prefer her to take at least two science GCSEs, history and geography instead of psych and sociology and a language with one choice left for whatever she fancies (but I'd prefer a second language or triple science.)

I can't see that having History, geography, french, german, separate science would disadvantage her in applying for ANY degree/career pathway? How do I convince her that some subjects actually are better than others? Her teachers are insisting all GCSEs are equal but I can't see that sociology is as hard as German or Physics? I'm worried she's going to close doors at 13...

OK, narky so a starting wage of 29k was cheap? They are now on over 30k. Check out the national average wage in the UK.

My PGCE teaching student's partner aged 30 is a junior doctor in A&E & is on 22k - even cheaper !

Makes you proud to be British doesn't it !

What's funny about 'service users' as terminology? More appropriate and less patronising than 'clients' I would have thought. Each to his/her own

At £29k they are hardly cheap.

I do worry if they are able to cope with some of the characters they are likely to come across at that age though and I don't mean that as any slight on the posters daughters at all, but Sarah my friend was spat at in the face, kicked by children, had her hand slammed in the door of a caravan. At 23 I'd have been in tears, heck at 28 she was in tears.

Service users implies there is a choice in using the service, there usually isn't.

What would a social worker with 15 years experience cost them?

YABU

my mum and aunt strong armed me into certain gcse options, i hated every second, failed miserably. My best grade an A* was in textiles, the one option i chose thanks to my wonderful pastrol care worker at school noticing my options didnt reflect me.

exactly jjandthe, that is why it is best that ops daughter does a mixture of traditional subjects and the ones that she likes.

Albert, I am in a situation very simmilar to your two. Myself and my twin sister are 22, and just graduated from Northern Ireland's only Russell Group university with geography degrees. Unlike your twins, we're still looking for permanent employment after leaving our summer jobs in September. Unfortunately NI has the highest levels of joblessness within the UK at the moment, which is definately hampering our efforts! It seems even a 2:1 isn't enough to get you an interview, never mind a job.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that your girls are very, very lucky. Not to put a downer on their achievements (and you're obviously very proud of them!), but social work is a challenging field with high levels of staff turnover. They earn that much because, a) they're working for a public authority in London, and b) because they're doing a job that many people couldn't.

The OP was right to rein in her DD- if she could be bribed with a netbook her heart probably wasn't really in it anyway!

She's certainly focused in her ideas. Does she realise that her aspirations are leading her very firmly into a public sector that is being slashed massively?
I think she should keep her GCSE's broad in some ways, as these subjects are offered at university without any prerequisites at GCSE. That said, if she's passionate about them and gets her English and Maths. Isn't human health and physiology just human biology in another guise?
I can see it from both pov to be honest....

Sounds absolutely fine for either teaching or social work.

I really don't understand this thread. Yes, if you want to go to Oxbridge or do medicine straight out of school then your choices at secondary school are more important, but these aren't what the majority of people are going to do (and are fairly limiting in their own way).

School is never going to ruin your life. Doors aren't going to suddenly close. My GCSEs were ok but not straight As and quite a few soft subjects.

I started my first degree in my mid twenties as a 'mature' student and qualifications were far less important than other factors. I've now finished an MBA and am hoping to start a doctorate next year.

Out of school, I found employers far more interested in what I could do and offer than my qualifications (and had a fairly successful job in IT straight out of school with no 'relevant' qualifications, because I could prove myself in other ways).

I really think there should be less emphasis on such a linear progression from school straight to university. Chances are as women, our lives will change and we will have several career changes. It's more important that she does things that are important and interesting to her.

In the current climate, relevant work experience is far more pertinent to the majority of employers and if she does child development, sociology etc. she may well make great contacts and learn more about her chosen industry than she will doing something more abstract.

It's not a race. You don't only get one chance to get all your qualifications. Even medical schools are starting to do fast track courses for non traditional applicants and welcome people with life experience and commitment rather than qualifications.

Your GCSEs have little bearing on who you'll be in life.

I have only read your posts and about 2 pages of replies - you have had loads of good advice and to have reached and agreement with DD (Starbucks never hurts! Not to mention the notepad!!). I agree that 13 is too young to choose your courses yourself - you have no real idea of the impact it will have and although she could make up for it in later years, if you can 'help' her make the right 'choices' now she wont have to 'make it up' later! My Dad wouldn't let me take 'easy' subjects and I am very thankful he didn't :)

Too true Carmen, I hated school, got a smattering of GCESEs, I was dyslexic and not diagnosed until adulthood, but ended up with good degrees as I went to college and studied the subjects I enjoyed and also though my career is on hold whilst i am a stahm, hope to pursue a career in child psychology with it.

I chose 'soft' subjects for my Standard Grades and Highers. I got 9 1's for s/grade and 7 A's for Higher. I stack shelves in Tescos. :( Biggest mistake of my life.

Yes, fine for teaching because teacher don't need to be educated in an academically rigorous way, do they? I mean, anyone, no matter how academically challenged, can teach.

I think her choices are fine.

Look at all the muppets on The Apprentice. I bet they all have triple science and traditional subjects. Still doesn't stop them being losers, does it?

Sounds great options for Social Work or even Primary Ed. What's to stop her doing Geography, English and Maths A levels with these options? Nothing.

Oh bollocks to this attitude of "he who can't, teaches" which still prevails, 100years since it was first voiced.

I am an English teacger with 14 years experience.

I have 8 GCSEs, none of which are soft options (except Drama which I took in 2 terms in Lower 6th)
My A levels are English Lit, History, Economics and Gen Studies - I have AACC grades.I have a 2:1 from an old-style Uni (i.e. not an ex-poly).

I could have done a great deal with that. I chose to teach.

In the three schools I have worked in, I have met a handful of poor teachers. the majority of us are damned hard workers, have good relationships with (often v difficult) students and are more skilled at teaching than anyone you adults experienced when you were at school. We are squeezed and quesioned from above (by govt and Head teachers,always looking to raise standards) and from below (by behaviour of pupils and their parents).
Teaching, especially secondary) is a tough, though rewarding, job and one with two perks. Pretty good salary and great holidays. But no time off to see your kids' school assemblies, no car, no health care, no jollies training courses in nice hotels etc.

OP, if your dd wants to teach, that's fanatstic. Good for her. But please steer her towards a more balanced curriculum in case (a) she changes her mind or (b) people accuse her of teaching just because she was too stupid or incompetent to do owt else.

From a science teacher:

With single award science, she would have the required C at science (you should hope) to get into primary teaching, but she would not be accepted on a decent science AS course (I know from experience that anyone with less than 2 Bs in science will struggle to pass an AS Biology course, my school won't even let them on the course). If she is adamant she doesn't want science at A level, then this is ok, but she probably needs to check uni requirements for the courses she is considering, as some may require double science or a science AS.

The other downside to single award is that she is likely to be put in a set of low ability students, being taught to a level that will not challenge her and drag her grade down.

I wouldn't bother with psychology and sociology at GCSE, the courses are not great and don't get you any credit when applying for degrees in those subjects.

CashierNumber5Please thanks for your thoughtful post. I hope you and your sister find the employment you deserve after all your hard work. It's bleak across the country for grads, but I don't doubt it's especially bad in NI, which, ironically, has some of the highest levels of academic achievement.

Now I have the rant off my chest, it has occurred to me that Op's dd will find herself in an awful lot of bottom set/non-academic groups which she may find boring or uncomfortable. She may also see some rather different behaviours to what she is used to on those groups!

This thread is awful.
The attitudes of some and the offensive sweeping generalisations.
I feel seriously sorry for some of your children. God forbid they should do what they enjoy.
Really shocking that you would think forciably railroading your children into some thing they dont want to do is acceptable, so you can crow to others you feel are as far up the social and academic scale as you. At the expense of your childs happiness.
Say your daughter wanted to be a nursery nurse, had her heart set on it, you would truthfully be happy, because she had done 'suitable' qualifications and then chose, as opposed to done 'unsuitable' qualifications and still wanted to be a nursery nurse.
Its all keeping up with the jones'es on this thread and quite frankly it stinks.

Another thing I forgot to add. I teach a unit of A level Health and Social Care (Physiological Aspects of Health, always falls to a Biology specialist because of the technical side) and frequently despair at the lack of GCSE knowledge in my students, who rarely have more than DD in GCSE science. The unit requires AS level understanding of certain control mechanisms. A single award scientist would really struggle with this, so she may also be affecting her chances at A Level H&SC if she wanted to go down that route.

itsybitsy, you are dead wrong. This thread is (mostly) about making sure that the OP's dd doesn't restrict herself by making choices aged 13 which she then changes her mind about. If a student does academic GCSEs they can still be a nursery nurse or a binman; but if they do non-academic ones they can't easily be a doctor or a lawyer.