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...

Jesus, you're probably right, hadn't thought about CSI but I bet it's to blame. I have to laugh at the twat or I'd cry.

If he had continued earning £600 per week his DD would have a shot at academia.

Never mind a B at Science LeQ this is a man who owned one book when I knew him. A book about boxers which his grandfather had left him. He carted it around and never read any of it as far as I could see.

When he wasn't lying about taking drugs he used to colour in Disney pictures. He was artistic like that

He thought that WWF wrestling was real.

Oh now I am reminded of your MIL

I have to say, one of the main reasons I have been able to switch my plans is because I have solid standard grades/highers in sensible subjects. Job experience or not, I wouldn't be getting anywhere without higher maths.

I think Alberts crew might need a wee reality check themselves - and I'm neither stuck up nor out of date since I'm 24 and grew up on a council estate. I just know the value of a decent education. Both my school subject choices and exam results have been questioned and commented on in interviews.

I remember there was an absolute SWATHE of young girls wanting to be car mechanics in the late 80s, inspired totally by Charlene in Neighbours.

I never wanted to be a mechanic, but I did get a bubble perm.

I wish I'd done better at maths, now - I deal with statistics in my job all the time and although I had to study some of it during Sociology A-level (yep, not as woolly as you'd think) I do struggle now. Being dyspraxic doesn't help as I struggle to process certain types of information.

I think Neuro-Linguistic Programming will be the next big thing, thanks to Derren Brown and The Mentalist.

Sorry mists for laughing but your Ex sounds like a prize tool.

Disney pictures for crying out loud.

Mind you I have my fair share of tragic stories re dd's inexplicably thick birth father.

I would blame Paul Britton as most people I know had read his books purely for entertainment at one point given that he was involved in some of the most high-profile cases in the country.

But when I spoke to exH he had never even heard of him despise being a year into his "degree".

Is there no requirement to read around any more?

Must be a bit like doing English Lit Lite and never having heard of Blake, Milton, Shakespeare, Dickens or Chaucer I'd imagine

I hope it is DH has been presenting something very similar for the past 18 months and is doing very out of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, he refuses to pay the £10,000 to use their logo though.

My ex trained to be a chef 'in all the top London hotels' (probabbly in reality Holiday Inn Express in brixton).

He couldn't fry an egg.

Oh I would have SUCH conversations with my 17 year old self.

Ha ha at prize tool and inexplicably thick.

I'd love to hear the stories and then of course, which degree course your ex is currently on

(MistsAndMellow - what was good about your ex? Or does that go without saying !)

If I had a pound for every kid I hear saying they want to be a Forensic Scientist... and then say they're doing A Level Media Studies, Psychology and Randomology. Why oh why don't these degrees have health warnings attached? I suppose with a Journalism degree, say, you might become a journalist afterwards, but is there one single Forensic Science graduate who is now actually a forensic scientist? Is there?

Shakespeare?!?! how much of an out of touch fuddy duddy are you? Why would anyone want to read that, I mean, it's totally irrelevant?!

Yes, why bother reading Shakespeare, you will get just as much a rounded view of literature by reading Jacqueline Wilson and a few Penny Vincenzis.

suppose with a Journalism degree, say, you might become a journalist afterwards

Actually that's very unlikely too, The Guardian graduate program requires a first in English, Law, Politics or History with a masters in journalism and lots of work experience.

As for ex's I'm not sure which is worse, at least you have laugh at yours. Mine has done extremely well for himself but considers £200 a month out of an income of £250k to be acceptable and won't meet me half way on school fees because he couldn't afford that for his "real" family.

My ex Gramercy? He had his moments. Prize con-man and later very handy with his fists but he was gone by the time DD was three months old.

Like what you've said about that course. It does sound interesting but when he said, "I'm doing it to show my three kids (none of which I have ever paid for or bothered to see) that it's never too late to make something of yourself" I nearly choked!

Oh GOD the dungarees craze.

i remember having a pair of dungarees, a global hypercolour t shirt and 70s style hooded tops happy Mondays stylee.

Christ we must have all looked like Andrea Dworkin in the early 90s.

Is he related to my brother? Pushing 40, studying sports psychology at a former poly, and determined that he'll walk in to a tecahing job because "he's got life experience, he's raised two children"

Only if "raised" translates to "walked out when they were just tiddlers, paid fuck all maintenance, saw them once a week if I could be arsed and now no longer speak to either of them"

Aye, raised, sure.

I also had hammer pants (first time around, god I shuddered when they made a comeback last summer) in an aztec pattern, worn with puma basketball boots in shiney white with a tongue about the size of a VHS tape.

Why?

LeQ

I could never really get on with dungarees but I did see the very first episode of Neighbours because I was (genuinely) ill and not at school.

The original Scott was quite a nice lad and I still remember "Smash Hits" describing his replacement as "an utter creep called Jason Donovan" - oh fickle fickle fanzines...

scotsgirl no he is over forty now but they do sound very similar...

"suppose with a Journalism degree, say, you might become a journalist afterwards"

...if your degree is accredited by the relevant body (name escapes me now). NCTJ? You need accreditation to apply for most BBC journalist jobs, for example, and it will hold you back if that's what you want to do. Many journalism BAs are not.