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...

friends got similar grades to me or even below mine and are at uni doing really well...grades arn't everthing you know

And that sentence is the reason that graduate salaries are less now than when I left in 1997.
Snowy91 - you wouldn't have been allowed to stay on in the 6th form in my day, the fact that you've been allowed to go as far as you have is more to do with rigging unemployment figures than anything else.

LeQueen
It's about options and choices and possibilities

That is it and I think it is wrong that people mis inform DC about this.

My career choice at 18 was all about avoid being stuck in an office so took degree involving a lot of field work and also had a lot of short term contracts so lots of travel. By end of degree office work looked more appealing and short term contacts and fierce competition for jobs was much less appealing as I had realized I had personality that would stress about where the money was coming from. Good solid education background meant I could get onto courses and change career without to much fuss. I will doubtless help when I change career again after being SAHM. My DH solid academic background has helped him shift areas easily as well.

If as adults our DC choose life avenues that are less secure then DH and I have well that is up to them. We want them to have choices not be mis sold the myth that all qualifications and subjects are equal then bump up against the harsh reality while people who spout this idea do not have to deal with the fall out. So to avoid our DC being sucked in does look like a move is in order.

friends got similar grades to me or even below mine and are at uni doing really well...grades arn't everthing you know

Friend of mine was limited to middle G.C.S.E. maths - meant max grade she could get was C - there had been debate whether to move her up a set and take higher paper but school decided to play safe. She was not warned in advance that this would precluded doing A-Level Maths. She got top marks she could - then found most of the Uni doing the course she wanted insisted on the maths A-level - which she vaguely knew she was just was not made aware no A-level provided would let her take A-level maths having done that G.C.S.E paper.

Meant her A-levels choice was non existent - to get on this course she had to take the other three acceptable subjects - and her choice of Uni very limited. She got in and did well.

So I can easily see how grades and degrees levels do not match though I really hope that situation does not happen any more.

This is getting a bit personal.

Snowy91 I disagree with you on a lot but I think what you're doing will probably open a lot of career options. It's a degree with a lot of practical applications. If you've wanted to do this since you were 13 and got through illness during sixth form you're obviously determined.

I agree narky while some good general points may have been made it is not fair to be so personal and mocking towards other posters, particularly with such glee.

Can't be bothered to read 14 pages I'm afraid, but will tell you my situation;

I did pretty traditional GCSE's, sciences, a language, geography etc.

I did English, sociolgy (well get me!) and history A level, even though I didn't do history GCSE, so clearly my GCSE choices at that point didn't hinder me.

Sociology degree - I know, how rude! But at an excellent university, and my degree was as acceptable as any other to get any graduate job that just wanted "a degree". Lovely Beattie may have ridiculed the subject back the the 80's but it is actually a very sound academic subject with an excellent tradition going back centuries, not something dreamed up in the 1960's!.

I then returned to uni and did a degree in OT.

At no point has anyone looked at my GCSE's.

I think yes definitely sit down with your daughter and explain the benefits of having a language skill (I've tried to learn Spanish as an adult). And also of having a more traditional science, but I honestly wouldn't stress yourself that that all her chances are gone on the basis of these choices. If she wants to go into health or social care, or business, she'll be fine.

if it wasn't for people with my degree then there wouldn't anyone with my degree then your children will all be OBESE!!! It's not a traditional subject done by the traditional universities. If it was not for people with my degree then there would be no public health campaigns, no industries would have any nutritional guidance, no nutrition books would get written, the government would get no assistance with their obesity targets....i could go on...
To do any job in nutrition or health you need a degree in that subject, the traditional uni's don't do that subject so I had very little choice!!!
I'm much more likely to get a job relevent to my degree than someone with a traditional degree from a russel group university.
list some jobs you can do in History other than teach it???
very very few!!!
and whoever said I wouldn't have even been able to get into sixth form well it's a different generation now, I think I've done pretty damn well to get as far as I have having been deemed an 'average student' my whole way through school.
thanks for insulting me!!!

snowy91 don't take them too seriously - some way harsh and unjustifiably personal comments there and may suggest some rather small minded views.

IME some people do really well at higher levels when they didn't do so well at school. Everyone's on their own journey eh?!

I have not meant to insult you snowy91 and obviously some newer universities do better regarded qualifications in certain areas and often have much better links with industry leading to higher employment figures. It is not always the case that Russel or oxbridge is better. That is usually well know within those industries.

IMO at G.C.S.E - it is more clear cut. Some subjects close doors and are judged to be inferior to employers and admissions people. Right or wrong that prejudice exists and to deny it does not make it disappear. I think my DC will have enough disadvantages with out having poor G.C.S.E. subject choices to explain away or overcome.

Incidentally my DC lack of obesity is due to good food and small portions not public health campaigns of dubious impact or government tick box targets. As for the history degree comment ( and no neither degree I hold is in history science babe me ).

People are really funny about spelling. I know I am dyslexic and really struggle with spelling even when people know this - missed spelling mistakes are often taken as personal insults or used to demonstrate moral or intellectual superiority - odd but true IME.

Spelling is a funny one isn't it? I'm an English teacher and have no problem with spelling at all, even backwards or in foreign languages, but some good friends of mine (highly intelligent and can debate me into a corner, although I wouldn't tell them that ) have trouble with spelling and proofreading their own work. I really don't think it's the final say on someone's ability or intelligence. Far too narrow.

I'm an English teacher and have no problem with spelling at all, even backwards or in foreign languages

Show off .
I was very disappointed to find my spelling problems followed me into other languages. Would probably be better at a pictorial language like one of the Chinese ones but then that would be a tonal language and I would struggle with that.

yes but there is an awful lot I can't do

Like add up

Clearly a G.C.S.E option is needed in "adding up" to teach people like you how to do this .

Snowy, I think you need to look at the NHS careers page, because the facts you are putting forward about what qualifies someone to work in various jobs related to food and health are incorrect.

For example, to work as a Dietician the OP's DD would need a Science (usually Chemistry) A level and then a Dietician qualification. Various teachers on this thread have said that she wouldn't be able to do a Chemistry A level without at least having done double award Science GCSE. So dropping down to one Science GCSE and replacing it with Human health and Physiology or Health and Social care is actually reducing her employment options in this field, or at least making entering them more time consuming and difficult.

As for History, many employers think History is an appropriate degree (for finance or media jobs, for example). Employment is higher amongst graduates with vocational degrees such as Business studies or Leisure and Tourism.

It's nothing personal snowy91 but you're a non graduate going into a non job upon graduation.
As somebody else said £20k of debt to do a job you'd be more than qualified without a degree to perform.

Nobody's child would end up obsess without you.

"Employment is higher amongst graduates with vocational degrees such as Business studies or Leisure and Tourism."

No doubt it is with 60% of graduates working outside their field ie call centers.

*obese even - spell checker !

I actually meant to write that employment was lower among these two particular degrees, but obviously my brain has turned to mush.

mamatomany I don't think your comments are in any helpful. You may think whatever you like about snowy's academic ability and choices, but to tell her she is wasting her time and her efforts amount to nothing is a bit off, in my opinion.

There's another poster around who did a degree in gardening basically and then was moaning upon graduation she couldn't get a job paying above minimum wage. I may be doing snowy a massive favor and save her a fortune.

OP- I'm a teacher and I agree with all the other teachers who've said she should consider the more demanding subjects in preference. Not all GCSEs are equal whatever the spin placed on them by schools. Some schools prefer pupils to choose the less demanding subjects as it is easier to get the 5 C-A* that look good on their stats. If they are unwilling/unable to teach pupils to an adequate standard in the more demanding subjects, then maybe a change of school is in order?

duchesse
OP- I'm a teacher and I agree with all the other teachers who've said she should consider the more demanding subjects in preference

She got her DD to agree on page 7 by a trip to Starbucks and a bribe.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree mamatomany. I think you are shattering (or attempting to shatter) someone's dream and hard work, when you don't know them and don't offer any constructive advice. TBH your tone sounds rather derogatory (and was earlier too) and doesn't sound like you have any genuine concern for snowy at all.

Her starting point should be looking at the requirements of the universities where she might go to study for the careers she is currently interested in, not the careers themselves and what she thinks they might involve. The requirements might not make sense to her at 13, but that is beside the point. They are the requirements.