To insist on science GCSEs

[Hippolyte]

DD is yr 9. She's a bright all rounder on paper but no real interest in STEM. She is keen to ditch a science for GCSE so that she can carry on with more of the humanities subjects that she enjoys. This would leave her with 2 sciences (which ones to be decided) and an extra humanity that she will probably get a higher grade for. I think she should do the 3 just because I don't want her to rule things out too early but aibu? Will this impact on university entrance at all ? She's obviously thinking arts rather than science degree at the moment. Thank you all!

Science is compulsory. Even if she doesn’t do a GCSE in it (which is very rare and reserved for the students who aren’t capable of even coming close to passing) they still have to do lessons in science.

I know that science is compulsory but 3 separate ones aren't. This is what is offered at her school

Sorry. The bottom half of your post just loaded, now I look dense 🤐

Let her do double - many schools don’t even offer triple and, if she prefers humanities then she’ll likely perform better and that with massively benefit her in the long run. If she doesn’t want to do a STEM degree then she’d be worse off having triple science at the expense of humanities.

Science is a compulsory GCSE subject - schools either do combined (worth 2 GCSE) or separate (worth 3) but it still has to be studied.

I don’t think you can drop any of the science separately - so for instance just study biology and chemistry and drop physics.

There’s no point forcing her to do 3 sciences if she doesn’t enjoy them I don’t think. If she is going to get a better grade in humanities she also isn’t entirely an allrounder. But do a quick Google so you can point out to her that she won’t be able to be a engineer if she dumps physics or a dentist if she dumps chemistry.

When you say, 2 sciences to be decided, does she attend a school that only offer GCSEs in Biology, Physics and Chemistry?
When you take “2 sciences” that usual means you take two thirds of each science and get a double award for it.

You can take any of those sciences at A level with a double award as your background. You might have a school with their own rule - but then you just transfer for Y12. Many secondaries don’t even offer Triple Science.

Can you explain why you value a third Science over a second humanity?

STEM is awesome, but you sound like you’re attributing a greater value than you should.

Double science is compulsory (I think) and triple science is recommended for most students. I would let her decide what she wants to do as she will work harder in a subject she enjoys.

It's a choice of 2 from 3 separate sciences rather than a dual award. This is allowed

That’s not how it works. You don’t “dump” any of the sciences - you do 1/3 less of each of the three. She could become an engineer or a dentist with double award GCSE as long as she did the appropriate A Levels.

Most schools offer double (combined) which still means studying Bio, Chem and Phys to get 2 GCSEs, to call it double is a bit of a misnomer that often confuses parents. The scores across all 3 are added up and converted in to a dual grade eg 6-5, or 7-7.

Separate/triple science means studying all 3 but with more content and getting 3 individual GCSEs.

She is highly unlikely to be able to study 2 of the 3 sciences without a unique timetable being created.

I only did two sciences at o level (I'm that old)

I'm a humanities arts brained person. They were torture for me and did me no good at all.

I just think if later she did want to do something sciencey she might struggle with say just biology and chemistry

Do you think she's going to turn from an arts person to a stem person?

Double combined science is what the vast majority of children do and will allow her to go on to A-level science providing she gets a reasonable grade (5 or 6 at our local 6th form college). I think there’s greet value in humanities myself.

im surprised there’s a choice where I teach and at my kids school the top achievers in science are expected to do 3 without additional lesson time, they don’t have it as an option but take 10 instead of 9 GCSEs.

“But do a quick Google so you can point out to her that she won’t be able to be an engineer if she dumps physics or a dentist if she dumps chemistry.”

I’d never phrase it that way to my child. I’d say, if you then decide to be an engineer or a dentist, you’ll need to pick physics / chemistry back up - so may need to slot in an extra year. Don’t ever tell a 13/14yo that doors close permanently on decisions taken this young!

That’s not how it works: double or dual award science is 2 GCSEs but which cover the content of all 3 sciences. They don’t go into as much depth as 3 GCSEs but they still cover all 3.

Probably not but I just think she's quite young and we specialise so early in the UK anyway

It won’t make a difference to university entry.

Even if she falls in love with science, she can still progress on to a stem degree with the double science.
However, this is her chance to explore the subjects she is genuinely curious about. Let her be curious!

Essential to do the three sciences at GCSE.

I’d let her do the double, you want her engaged and happy as possible at GCSE, not resentful and not enjoying them.

We convinced DD to do maths A level because she got an 8 at GCSE. She didn’t want to really, felt out of her depth and dropped it pretty quickly.

Just to re-emphasise it isn't a dual award although I know this is common. 3 are offered separately and she can take them all or replace one with something else. Unusual but this is the offering

Op have you name changed?

Why?

I would let her study what she wants. Give her some ownership of her choices. However doesn’t she have to do 3 now or 2 combined?

It is still possible for a bright kid to study an A level science with very high grades in the double award she want to (harder than coming from the triple background but perfectly doable for a capable student). This buys her a bit more thinking time.
Let her pick what she enjoys. Science is very heavily timetabled at GCSE anyway compared to options.