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

@MAFIL brilliant 😂

Best of luck to your delinquent son!

Let her do what she wants.

PE is actually a hard gcse with a lot of biology/physiology content so it being ‘a waste of time’ is nonsense.
My DD is academic but chose art and drama for two of her options. Is now doing science-based A levels and has all her uni offers for a science degree.
As long as your DD is doing the core subjects and does well in them, having a couple of non-academic subjects mixes it up.
When it comes to A levels, it different as the choices are narrowed massively.

My university would not accept art or general studies gcse for example!

Do you mean A level?

My university would not accept art or general studies gcse for example
That can’t be right. It’s normal in lots of schools for everyone to have to take a creative arts subject at GCSE. My DC all had to - to get a rounded set of GCSEs. I had to do the same back in my day.

I’m a teacher. We had an A level Arg student accepted to a top university to do medicine.

They like her breadth and depth of study

Art student even....

These sound like good choices. In hindsight I would have done 2 languages rather than a soft subject, but not for career reasons, just because they are more useful for holidays!
It's unlikely to make any difference career wise as she will still be doing science as well presumably.

Universities do accept art, they won't accept general studies in most cases.

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

They will be if they have organised activities like swimming, fencing, netball, football, etc out of school. Modern GCSE PE gets taken by very academic kids then, because they can use what they do already for the coursework, and they may already be interested in the physiological side of PE.

PE is quite scientific nowadays and if she enjoys media then go for it. She still has plenty of academic options for A level and once she does these or an apprenticeship then nobody will really look at which subjects she did for GCSE as long as she has Maths and English

I know several who are studying medicine or physiotherapy at university who all took PE at GCSE. It’s a good subject for those interested in how the body works.

Our school were very clear that enjoyment of the subject was very important to GCSE selection. Has she picked subjects that will enable her to do 3 A levels and get a place at university if she wants to? It sounds like she has so leave her to it.

PE is one of the hardest subject my daughter is taking over the over subjects inc Chemistry and Physics, It’s 85% academic and 15% practical, the practical has taken so much time. The knowledge is very intense. PE is certainly not an easy subject, their are two versions and the one my daughter is reading is taking up a huge amount of her time over the over 10 subjects.

OP we are having the same discussions with DD at the moment, she already has Maths, English x 2, Science x 3, French and German, with two more to choose from History, Geography, PE and Food & Nutrition. At parent's evening this week the subject teachers (and other teachers) were very clear that PE and Food shouldn't be seen as easy options, and there is a lot of theory involved in both. The main advice was to look at subjects she enjoyed and was good at, she's probably going to go for Geography and Food but we are letting her make the decision for herself with the knowledge that we will support her in whatever choice she makes. Good luck to your DD

Thats a fine set of options.
She has Maths, English x2, and Science (at least Double), a humanity and a language (and maybe RE). The other two options should be things she is interested in.
My highly academic daughter did Drama and Business Studies. Its not limiting her at all.

Here is an idea on the content and she has to know every bone and muscle in the body on top of this, easy subject no it’s bloody note. She is finding Biology incredibly easy compared to this.

I can't imagine telling my children what GCSEs they have to take. I gave advice to my DD but she had the final say.

*not

Absolutely everyone I know who’s parents meddled in their GCSE options, A level/college course choices, or degree choices has ended up either dropping out or generally performing badly. If she enjoys the subjects she’s chosen, she’ll be motivated to study. If she wants a career in the future that requires different GCSEs, she can do them later when it’s her choice and she wants to.

Nothing wrong with geography or French (MFL teacher talking). Don't know personally but I can well believe that PE is not that easy these days.

Media Studies does sound a bit Mickey Mouse if I'm honest but doesn't really matter if she is doing the above plus presumably English x2, Maths, Science.

However what you do need to speak to her about is her a-level plans given that what you do at GCSE can be restrictive in that respect. She won't know what she wants to do yet but clearly in most cases you are limited by what you chose at GCSE.

Please let her choose whatever she feels comfortable doing.

My Dad pushed me into doing subjects that I really didn't want to do. I wasn't naturally academic ( so needed to have an interest in the subject) and I ended up failing them all . I didn't excel in anything until I went to college and specialised in the subject I wanted to take at GCSE.

My eldest DS is just about to take his GCSE's. He's different to me in that he's naturally academic. My Dad tried to steer him towards certain subjects but we didn't tell him once it came to filling in the option form...

Forget "hell", GCSE choices are really meh, by which I don't mean 'aren't crucial', but rather 'don't matter a jot'. Her choices are perfectly OK.

There's no A level or degree that she's ruling herself out of as a result of this choice, other than possibly something that revolves around one of the modern languages other than French.

PS GCSE PE is hard work! DS is doing it and it's a lot harder than I was expecting

Applauds MAFIL

I'm pretty sure my DD would have much preferred media studies to Eng.Lit., which totally put her off reading and going to the theatre with us for quite a few years (she did do drama, fortunately, as her 'fun' subject).