To think that there are no actual 'choices' for year 9 options GCSE's?

[gluteustothemaximus]

I don't get it.

Maybe someone can enlighten me.

Such a massive deal is being made of options, choosing options, going to meetings about options, pre-meetings about options evening, how it is the most important time in a child's life at school.

DS has no choices for 7 of the GCSE's. He has to take Maths, English, English Language, Triple Science, RS.

Then he gets to 'choose' History or Geography.

Then he gets to 'choose' a MFL of Spanish or French.

Then he gets to 'choose' one more out of all his favourite subjects. Art, DT, Music, Business Studies, PE. He loves all of these, but can only choose one.

AIBU in thinking, that there are no actual choices but one?

Seriously? What universities are they? I'm aware of UCL only. My brother doesn't have a language GCSE and he has offers from four universities, all of which are really good. Having looked it up, others mentioned are Edinburgh and York, but even then not necessarily for all courses. My brother is looking to study politics btw.

I too am only aware of UCL & even there there is an option to study a language course in lieu.

dyslexics often find languages hard & at ds's school although a language is compulsory dyslexic children are exempt.

My ds1 has conditional offers from 5 universities none of which require a language

When we were looking we could only find one i think it was that required a language

That may obviously change

Not RTFT but when I was choosing options (about 6 years ago now??) we had to take core English Lit and Lang, Maths, Science (we did RE GCSE up to Year 9 and got the GCSE then.).

We then got given three lists and had to choose one thing from each list, it prevented a clash of timetables and also prevented too many 'art' subjects being taken without academic. As a result I took two academic subjects I liked and a MFL which I didn't want to do but it was either that, drama or art.

I have to say though, only those who were getting a B or A at GCSE in Year 9 were allowed to take separate sciences (it was harder). This meant if you were getting C grade or below you had to take collated science.

Its really important to have separate science in school (I'm studying for a science degree now but shhhh! Its lets kids explore the different sciences and find one they love the most and I think the longer you can keep girls in science the better. Only 12.8% of the STEM workforce is made up of women.

I remember this, & then finding that you couldn't choose 2 subjects if they clashed on your timetable, which limited you even more. Not a huge choice, no.

Haven't read entire thread but YANBU. And am I correct in thinking that this is the first year of the 'new' gcse system, and RS is no longer a core subject??

Their complaints are not reasonable and wouldn't stand a hope in hell if they went to the council. You are out most of the day, and the noise they are experiencing is everyday noise, during reasonable hours (and even if a baby cried after 11pm, you can't actually help that!)

Three complaints is two too many and suggests that they are completely unrealistic about the level of noise a family will make.

I agree with your husband, now is the time to say 'you know what, we are doing our best, not wearing shoes, out most of the day anyway, but the rest of the time we need to enjoy our house and that will include our dd playing and having playdates and using the garden'. The more you retreat, the more that they will complain, they've already shown that.

Their quiet life can't exist in their type of property, and you have a right to enjoy your own home, even do DIY if you feel like it! You don't have to live like mice. The people I know who complain a lot tend to be people with anxiety/mental health issues who are very noise sensitive (I have a relative like this who has found fault with every single neighbour he's ever had in terms of noise), and people who are older who imagine they are living in a retirement village but actually live in a block of flats with all the noise that brings. I wouldn't be mean to them but I would not pander to it in any way.

Oh dear, wrong thread!!!!

why

RS has never been a core subject in our school

I took two languages instead of one language and an art/DT/food tech/textiles subject. My school allowed me to do this as I was good at languages but had no interest (or proficiency) in the other subjects.

It would good if more schools could exercise this freedom imo.

Not RTFT but there are some choices - just not very many. But I don't think kids should cut off lots of options at the age of 14.

I'm not sure about double science, I would have thought requiring one science as a minimum would be enough, as it was for me, but I guess a knowledge of all 3 sciences is a better foundation for future study than a deeper knowledge of one.

DS' school is going for quality over quantity so the majority of the kids will do 8 GCSEs (I did 8 as well, in a grammar school) - Maths, double science and English Lang and Lit - plus three options, one of which has to be a humanity, MFL or computer science.

If the kids are particularly good at Maths or science they can do additional Maths and/or triple science. There are also some after-school options eg statistics and business studies but ds doesn't want to do extra work.

In my school we had to do Maths, English x 2 , one science and one MFL and had three options.

Foureyes is following the same threads as me !!

Rufus, it has been here, for years. This is the first year it hasn't.

DS' school is going for quality over quantity so the majority of the kids will do 8 GCSEs

I would have loved this! I had to do 14 and 1/2 in the end. It nearly burned me out.
I think non-academic GCSEs like art, music, drama, MFL and DT should be an option but also something that not all kids have to do. For example if a kid wants to do it they can have Additional maths, History and Business without doing the ''art'' subject however those who do want to can have Additional maths, History and Art.

Forcing a kid to do a non-academic option, simply because the school think its more well rounded is silly. Especially if the kid doesn't want to and has no career goals in that area.

why weird isnt it

I think the gcse system is fucked anyway

No continuity

In ds' school they've decided to do 8 GCSEs as core, but some kids will do more.

Maths, English lang and lit and either double or triple science are compulsory, so 5 or 6 GCSEs there - if you are particularly good at Maths you may also be able to do an additional Maths GCSE (whatever it's called now) and Statistics.

Then you get 3 options, although one of the 3 has to be an MFL, humanity, or computer science.

And there are a few after-school options but ds has said he's too lazy to do extra work. He is doing an MFL and history and geography as his options and does not want to do triple science. So he will get 8 GCSEs - the same as I got (in a grammar school, you only got 9 if you were in the top set for Maths and did additional Maths).

Sorry I seem to have posted twice! Internet connection went down, I didn't realise my original post had actually gone through :)

There are three different models at dds private school. One contains triple science one double, you can do full or half RS. She is doing double science (not interested in doing sciences at a lrvel), full RS. music, drama, history and Spanish are her chosen subjects. I would rather she did computer science than Spanish as she is brilliant at it but they may not run it

Totally agree Rufus - nobody knows what they're doing anymore. God knows how our kids are supposed to..

Seriously? What universities are they? I'm aware of UCL only.

This was four years ago and he was applying for History. As far as I can remember it was Kings College London, LSE, UCL and a couple of the other Russell Group.

Kings College is now AAA including history

UCL does require a language but if you hsvnt got one they won't discriminate but students will have to study for a specially designed language certificate
I can't find any reference on LSE criteria to needing a language qualification. Wonder if they've changed it.

I did my "options" in 2004, the year when PE became compulsory. We had 4 groups, every group had history, geography, art and PE in it. One group had double award science, one had Drama, one had spanish/french. We had to pick PE from one of the groups, your form was rejected otherwise. There was also an option of choosing a child development course instead of group one and two, as that took up twice as many lessons and was done at the college next door. There was also another college class that could be done instead of group 3 and 4 (i think it was hair dressing/beauty therapy), but you could not do both college classes. A few people got their forms rejected for not choosing enough "academic" based choices (say they chose the child development classes, and then in the 2 groups left one had to be PE, they weren't allowed to pick art for the last option, it had to be history/geography.)
I loathed PE, and was so angry it became compulsory, i had been looking forward to dropping it as being the "fat girl" i was so self conscious about changing, and on top of that i was unfit and got out of breath and was constantly embarrassed and anxious. I understood why it became compulsory, but everyone felt like they had one of their "options" taken away from them by insisting it had to be picked somewhere, especially as in only one of the 4 columns did it count as a GCSE course, in the other columns it was for no grade. Thankfully double award science and drama were in different columns, as they were the 2 i really wanted to do from year 7. Add on i had to pick PE (not GCSE in my case, clashed with drama), my last "option" came down to history, geography or art. I'm rubbish at art, knew it was one of the most unruly classes with a lot of bullying going on, and i hated geography, so i took history as the "best of a bad bunch" option and ended up absolutely loving it. I had to drop out of school only half way through year 10 though due to illness, so i only did 6 months of the actual options classes.

PE has always been compulsory though not necessarily as an actual GCSE but a certain amount of physical excercise has to be done.

At dds school they dance instead of doing PE.

I meant to explain, double award science for us meant 2 science GCSE's at the end. Everyone had to do single award where you got 1 GCSE that covered all 3 sciences, biology, physics and chemistry. Double award you did twice as many lessons and took 2 exams not one so got 2 GCSE's (both of which would be the same letter grade. If you had to score 80% to get an A and got 90% on one test but only 69% on the other test you'd get 2 B grades, not one A and whatever a 69% was equivalent to)

PE was actually not always compulsory as an option. The School i went to you could drop PE completely from year 10, it was as i said, made compulsory the year i was was going in to year 10. It is now compulsory to do it every single year, at every school, but it wasn't always compulsory every year at all schools. Same way it also became compulsory to ban fizzy drinks sweets and crisps when i went in to year 9. Years 7 and 8 the canteen sold all sorts of chocolate bars, sweets, coke, fanta, sprite, crisps and interesting sandwich fillings like chinese chicken, tikka, coronation chicken etc. Year 9 onwards only sold flavoured fizzy water, and tuna mayo or ham salad sandwiches. No crisps or sweets. The water was horrible flavours and i didn't like ham or tuna so i had just the plain salad barm and the god awful water each day.

My son's school sells crisps & chocolate. Don't know about fizzy drinks as he doesn't like them.