GCSE options hell

[Unusualusernames]

Please don't flame me but AIBU to let my 13 year old daughter choose her own options even though they might limit her.

She's academic but also really good at PE. She says she wants to chose PE, media studies, geography and french.

My mum's a retired careers adviser and says media studies is useless but I know my daughter would find it really fun.

At 14 my mum basically imposed her choices on me and I ended up choosing subjects I wasn't necessarily great at.

75% of me thinks it's better to let her just do whatever she wants, even if PE and media studies aren't highly regarded. Then 25% of me feels bad for not being one of these tiger mums who ensures her child is a success academically. I'd feel bad if it meant it really limited her university choices (if she wants to go to uni , I wouldn't force her)

Please help

We're good friends with someone who works in a college as the secondary school student link who says when it comes to gcses and a levels, the subject is pretty much irrelevent. The grades are like currency and as long as you have enough of the right grade, the subjects they're in aren't looked at.
Obviously if you knew you wanted a career in something pretty specialised, your a levels may be more important but gcse subjects aren't relevant at all after secondary school.

I desperately wanted to do art gcse but was not allowed to (parents).
They basically chose for me and it was shit.
Did shit, shit results, shit lessons- you get the picture.

I'd 100% let her choose. You could maybe look into them with her to see what the coursework entails if you feel like you need to do something.

Sounds great to me.
Media is not necessarily an easy option and in today’s society extremely relevant and useful.
PE is certainly academic-plenty of science in there-human biology, nutrition etc. It’s a good grounding for many other subjects and later life. Plus she will be keeping active and developing skills-what’s not to like?!

She should be choosing her own subjects and if you had choices imposed on you when you were 14 and you chose subject that you weren't great at as a result then arent you actually doing the same to her if you choose for her?
When I was at school we were allowed to pick subjects but English,maths and science were compulsory.
Good idea to pick a language.
Wish I'd taken French too but I had no idea then that it would very very useful only a few years later.
Oh as for media studies, yes it is useless. I have two qualifications in it although they're very old and probably most of what I learnt is obsolete now and the courses I did no longer even run but even so it's not a good idea.

To attend a level 3 course so btec, A level or apprenticeship you need english language, maths and 3 other subjects at grade c or above so doesn't really matter which.
One person I know degree in PE and now works for the uni not related to PE travelling the world as an international recruitment officer for the uni itself.
70 per cent of all graduate jobs are open to any degree subject. Eg police. Eg marketing.
Media gcse ties in well to English, and also politics. Its also one of the fastest growing employment sectors.. Media, marketing, PR, PRESS office for a charity or organisation, media studies teacher or lecturer.
Your mums out of touch x

@katy1213 - Takes a lot to offend me, but you have managed it.

Immensely proud of my 18 year old who took PE after an awful time in year 9 with her choices. The school use a computer program to determine a timetable that accommodates the majority of choices for the majority of students. The clue being in the word 'majority'. My child and a few others had to choose at least one subject not originally on their list, this was PE for us.

My child was fairly 'middle of the road' in terms of predicted grades (worked very hard nonetheless) and we were concerned as to the highly academic content of the course.

Add to that some unforeseen personal challenges throughout the next couple of years, including a question mark over being well enough to sit GCSE's as they approached and we were definitely worried as to how she would cope.

The Grade 5 that she went on to achieve means every bit as much to me as the predicted Grace 8 will mean, should my current Year 10, more 'academically able' child achieve that result.

Oh and my eldest still volunteers 2 nights a week with our Beavers and Cubs as she has done since the age of 14. Is currently applying to be an NCS mentor this summer. Will finish her Gold DofE this summer, only delayed from last year as she was awarded a place on the World Scout Jamboree (places on the trip highly sought after/competed for) Works part time and is well respected there. And is preparing for Uni later this year.

Our school has long warned about the intense nature of PE as a GCSE subject and now offers BTEC as a way of accessing the subject. Again, they advise that this still requires commitment and isn't an easy option, but does offer an alternative route to studying the subject.

The comments made regarding being 'thick' are disgraceful. Thanks for labelling both my daughters as thick, but I think I'll stick with my assessment of them being mature, resilient, kind and perfectly able young women.

Idiotindisguise- another poster who clearly has no idea what the subjects, especially PR, involved and therefore has no idea why suggesting just joining a sports club would be the same

OP, her choice of options wouldn't limit her at all, it looks like a great range.

Your mum is out of date (as are many of the PPs) the world has moved on. Most of the kids doing GCSEs now will end up in jobs that we don't even know about yet so basing decisions on what we believe about current opportunities is a bit short sighted.

What I am very aware of is kids need to enjoy school, the ones who were forced down a path by their parents often rebelled or felt miserable. Many have not ended up where their parents would hope and in some cases have a dreadful relationship with their parents now and/or poor mental health.

As an adult, I'm very glad I did Media, it may not have had direct links to a sure fire career path, but what does? The combination of that and English fired a huge passion for me which meant I was very driven and have done well for myself. The skills learnt have served me better in everyday life more than many other subjects.

Is let her go for what she wants, it's a good variety, she'll enjoy it and be more likely to succeed all round if she's happy.

Ours can only choose 3. Not sure why. Maybe because they àll have to do RE. But standard is a language, a humanity and a less academic, more fun one. As long as she's doing her sciences and maths and English, there's no worries.

The ignorance and judgement in this thread pisses me off.
Media studies is comparable to English lit or language, only you study aspects of media across a range of types - radio, tv, magazines, online- instead of books. The specification is large and the exams extremely demanding in terms of response rate. It is by no means a "doss". My son is in year 11 doing it now and it is not a subject you laze around in, do nothing, and walk away with a grade 9.

Here is a practice paper. Note the amount of extended written responding required in 1.5 hours.

filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/media-studies/AQA-85722-SQP.PDF

So many of you have disappointed me with your lazy stereotyping.

Let her do what she wants! I wasn’t allowed to do a GCSE that I wanted to do as it was a ‘doshers’ choice ( really wasn’t !)And I was gutted. I have 11 of them so why letting me do one in a subject I loved was t possible I don’t know...

@aragog, I studied media, was great fun but as some other people have mentioned, not exactly the best path to a career. But not all people want careers and some few people would be able to succeed and create a career even if they have a degree in candy crush so each to their own

Her academic friends won't be taking PE, for sure!

On the contrary they will be. PE GCSE is a choice in the academic schools thar MN’ers wet their knickers over. It is pretty tough, lots of science and it’s hard to get top marks on the practical. In my sons school the less academic kids did the PE BTEC, they would only let them do the GCSE if their science was up to it.

My academic child, almost all 8’s with a couple of 7’s got his lowest mark in PE GCSE and that’s with being outstanding at sports, school captain in 2 sports and captain of a division one county football team

No idea about media but my equally academic Dd is taking BTEC business along with her her GCSE’s. Why? Because she wants to and so long as her other subjects are good it won’t make a difference

Since the curriculum changes, GCSEs are even more stressful than they used to be. Many students suffer from anxiety and stress at the amount of work and the expectations put on them. Her choices of PE and Media may be the highlights of her week. She will still have the sciences, English, Maths, French, etc. so there is no way that she is jeopardising her chances by taking those two - that is the only area in the curriculum that she is able to exercise some personal choice. Don't make her doubt her own choices - let her enjoy the subjects she wants to do.

What do you think is more important - a happy child or academic achievement? It sounds like your DD is a sensible young woman who has the intelligence to have worked out what really matters for herself. You should be proud of her.

Ignore your mother’s opinions because she reinforces the stereotype of career advisers being a bit useless!

Definitely let her choose what she wants to do. I've met many people over the years who were pushed into things because they were academic. It's a route to unhappiness. I was an academic child who wasn't allowed to do art, drama etc at GCSE. In fact, because I was academic, I was made to do media studies as my art option. And I loved it! Almost thirty years later, I still remember some of the things I learned and actually apply them, which is more than can be said for some of the other subjects I did.

No one cares what you do at GCSE as long as you do the core. A level choices can be more limiting if you want a traditional course at a traditional uni.

Only thing I would say is try to limit the coursework subjects. DD did drama, art and music - life was hell for a while... but it was her choice.

Katy1213:
"Media studies is useless. Couldn't she join a sports club rather than waste a choice on PE? Is PE even a subject????
Does an academic girl want to spend hours marking time with the kids who are too thick to be doing anything else? (Her academic friends won't be taking PE, for sure!)
One lightweight subject perhaps, but two - out of only four - would be ridiculous."

I disagree with all of that. Totally.
Ds1 is it a very good secondary with very naice children from Naice families who are very bright, doing lots of sports, DoE etc, got everything going for them, and they have taken a variety of GCSE's.

nothing wrong with PE, which is now more academic and there's nothing wrong with media studies !

it's actually preferable to have a couple of slightly softer GCSEs when you're studying 10 or 11 and the chances are you could get very high grades in all of them.

you should do what you like to do and what you're good at at GCSE level. in fact even at A level.

Unless she'll be giving up a subject she might need later (Eg she loves languages and is only taking one) I'd let her crack on. Even at a top uni if she has a good set of gcse grades it will be fine.

English teacher here - Media Studies isn’t anything like the doss subject it used to be. Many kids take it thinking it will be the easy option and are badly surprised. We do try to stop them making the choice for that reason. As long as her GCSE options don’t hamper her A level choices and therefore her university choices then I see no issue with Media Studies or PE (which is 2/3 classroom based).

Employers care mainly for skills. Qualifications are gate ways to careers and further study.
Choose which ever options she's likely to pass and enjoy. The careers adviser sounds absolutely useless.

Not sure the OP has come back? But anyway to throw my two penneth in...

I am in marketing and the number of people I know with media studies qualifications is pretty high especially on the PR side. All doing very well director level jobs of global organisations etc. Many of these are well into their 40s and did their qualifications years ago so it really is an out dated view your mum holds.

Let the child choose themselves and give advice.

One more thing. One thing she definitely shouldn't do is choose media, PE or anything else because she thinks it will be a light option. I don't think any GCSE options are a light option and some less traditional subjects can be quite different from what you/they might expect. My son did Drama because he was enjoying it at the time and probably thought it would be a fun option. In fact it is very challenging and he hasn't enjoyed it as the work is quite different from what he thought it would be. I know lots of people who found Art GCSE took far more work than any other subject and often very stressful. Fine if you really enjoy it. Not if you think it would be easy. .