GCSE Options Problem.... Choices Blocked!

[IJustWantAUserNameThatDoesntExistAlready]

Hi there, looking for advice from anyone who may be in a similar position with a bit more knowledge. My first post here, so apologies for any presentation errors...
My son is about to select GCSE options. He has the core, plus 3 optional.
Core is English Lang / Lit, Math, Combined Science and MFL (French). All good so far.
For his options, he needs to select one from each of the following blocks:
Block 1: Geography, History
Block 2: RE, Sociology
Block 3: Triple Science, Art, Geography (only if History chosen as Block 1), Computing... plus a bunch of vocational stuff.

Here's the problem. He's academic, and is determined (since he was 4) to make a career in the historical sciences (details don't matter). As a result, he wants to take Geography, History and Triple Science. All 3 would be very beneficial to him, and allow him to select the A-levels appropriate to progress into a degree in the appropriate area.
But because of the structure of the options, he can't. He has to drop one of these in favour of RE / Sociology, both of which are utterly useless to him (I'm not knocking them as subjects - I personally took RE to A-Level - but they're not suitable for his purposes).

Does anyone have any experience in how to approach the school to try and get this limitation changed? I'm quite happy to play softball or hardball with them to get the options he wants. Or does he just have to do a subject that is a waste of time for him, and get whichever of the preferred subjects we can't get through school privately (he already has private tutoring, I'm not bothered about the cost, but the additional schooling on top of what he already does might be too much?) If I say to the school "fine - force him to do a subject he doesn't want to do that will be a waste of time for all concerned, but don't be surprised if this straight-A student lands an F and brings down your school when he could get an A in his useful subject" - will this bounce back on him?

So frustrated that we're being blocked from GCSE options that he wants that could hinder him through the rest of his education!
Grateful for any advice...

"Combined Science" is a required core subject, "Triple Science" is an option. If he does Triple, it will be in addition to Combined. Apparently Combined there is physics & chemistry, but very light on biology, which is folded in with Triple. It seems a nuts arrangement to me, but with his focus being Biology, he needs to effectively do both. Of the 3 "optional" the Triple Science is #1 for him.

Hi OP, you have said which A levels he wants to take. Most DC do three not four – no uni course is going to require four. I see others say the same. Which one would he drop? As others say, he can take history A level without the GCSE. I agree you might ask why no GCSE – but there is a perfectly good answer right here. I would suggest history rather than geography as I think geog feeds a bit more into A level. If he took RE GCSE the skills would marry well with A level history

Alternatively, he can take A level science with double science for sure. But if he wants to stay at the school and most taking science A level will have triple, then I think the no history option is better.

Would history, geography and biology answer for his choice of degree?

TBH while questioning things is a good skill to have (a good flipside of being stubborn!), he could also do with learning that sometimes you have to knuckle down and do things you don’t want to do, as a PP notes. My DD was not a fan of maths, but knew she needed to get a 6 ideally, so she did. DS2 was the same with Eng lit – would gladly have dropped it but did enough work to get the grade needed to progress. Could you put it to him that sociology links well with history and geography and biology so he might even like it?

I do think the option blocks at your school are very narrow tbh – is it a private school or just a very small state school? My DD took Geography, French, music and drama (plus automatic triple science) and my DS took CS, history, PE and Spanish (plus triple) – both perfectly good sets of choices but which would be impossible at your DS’s school. Tbf DS would have done RE instead of CS *he almost did) and DD hmmmm maybe sociology instead of drama? That would have been less good tbh.

Still tho the school has to work within the parameters it faces. Is it actually the case that every single students takes either sociology or RE? That must be either a very small school or a n academic grammar school – only one creative option (under which I put art, DT, PE, music, food, textiles, drama) per child appears to be possible.

I am a bit shocked by those options.
I've had 3 go through school and not one of them would have been happy with those options.
And there are so many subjects missing! (or have you just put the ones relevant ot you?)
2 of mine did drama, one did DT - they don't appear on your scheme at all.

But all three did triple science and computing, which is not possible under your scheme and a pretty normal combination.

So yes I would be complaining.
RE and sociology are not GCSEs that most are interested in. they are both low take up subjects. So you have to wonder why they are being pushed.

Combined science isn't light on Biology.
It is 1/3 of the combined specification - and examined as 2 of 6 papers to get the combined qualification.

Triple science involved extra material for each science, and is examined as 2 papers per subject, with a longer exam duration but sat at the same time as combined science.

Not sure where you’re getting that information from but that is not the case. There are 2 papers for each of the sciences all equally weighted.

Combined Science" is a required core subject, "Triple Science" is an option. If he does Triple, it will be in addition to Combined. Apparently Combined there is physics & chemistry, but very light on biology, which is folded in with Triple. It seems a nuts arrangement to me, but with his focus being Biology, he needs to effectively do both. Of the 3 "optional" the Triple Science is #1 for him.

sorry but you are not correct.
combined science does all 3 sciences. It is not light on biology at all.
triple just does more in each subject.

Can he select history, re plus triple science and geography? It may sound like a lot but once he starts he can maybe drop re closer to exams? It is ridiculous but maybe opting for more GCSEs is the way to game the system. I did 11 back in the day so not impossible or unheard of? Not sure why they only want him doing 8/9....

It is indeed, though sadly not particularly uncommon. I had to take RE at school, too, but in my case it was because I was in the top Maths group and for some unfathomable reason, everyone in the top Maths group had to take RE! RE also appeared in several other subject blocks too!

In reality, the reason was a surplus of RE teachers so they had to "persuade" pupils to take RE to fill the lessons!

Sounds like a similar situation in the OP's case - probably they have RE/Sociology teacher(s) needing lessons filling, so they've adjusted the subject blocks to do it.

Very unfair on the pupils.

I can only go by information provided by other parents whose kids are older - "concentrating more on physics and chemistry" has been a recurring theme. It's something my son has said has been stated by the teachers as well, so it's seemed pretty consistent. I have zero first-hand knowledge as it's been so long since I was at school (where it was split sciences).

Are you in England? Combined science is 1/3 each science, and so contains biology!

My child would also have struggled with those option blocks. But I think if I was in your situation, I would get a tutor for the extra science content, and request the school to enter him for triple.
Then take history sociology geography.
I think that would be more manageable than a whole different GCSE outside school.

This is my conclusion as well. "We have RE teachers and they need something to do. We don't have enough history / geography teachers so we need to limit how many people take those subjects". Infuriating!

E and sociology are not GCSEs that most are interested in. they are both low take up subjects. So you have to wonder why they are being pushed.

They're being pushed to fill the lessons so that they don't have to put an extra group/teacher on for a more popular subject. They obviously don't want a group/teacher with half a classroom of pupils, so they're fiddling the option blocks to have fewer, but fuller, groups/lessons.

That is a very interesting option - I wasn't aware I could ask the school to enter him for something he wasn't studying there - I'll have a chat with the private tutoring company I use to see what their take on this is. That would definitely be something to investigate, thank you!

There aren’t enough teachers full stop so of course this will impact on the curriculum schools can offer.

Combined science is absolutely fine for Biology A Level so he can do history and geography.

Just in case……
One of Mine was going to be a French translator, working for the government, from the age of 4-16, she’s a doctor now!! Don’t ask…..

That's an option I hadn't considered. I'll investigate that one, thank you for the suggestion!

The science teachers at the school told your dc that there is less biology content than physics/chemistry is combined science?

It will be about teacher availability or lab space. My DD wanted to do Spanish, French and German and did not want Art, Drama or Music. She wanted to do a language degree so Art or Music wouldn't help her. It was about teacher shortage in language. In the end instead of having 4 lessons in each language they finally agreed to her doing 4 hours German, 4 hours French and she copied up notes from her friend for Spanish and I got her a Spanish tutor 1 hour a week. She got an A* in French and Spanish and an A in German. She had exactly the same problem at A level too. It was exhausting. Your DS's best option is a tutor in the evening for Geography. Pick triple science at school.

Double science is 1/3 each science. It will not hinder any future career choices.

No offence but you are putting so much weight on GCSEs, they're just there to get you to the next phase, nothing you learn in GSCE is in depth, science is so watered down it's in the realms of not being factual.

5 a to CS including maths and English plus science if you want science a levels is more than Enough. It's a level 2 qualification that after 18 no one will ever ask about or care about again

As mentioned elsewhere, I'm basing this on feedback from parents of kids who are doing combined science Y10-11 at the moment at that school, plus what my son's told me he's been told by the teachers. It's very possible they're all telling me incorrectly, I guess, but it seems more likely that the school is light on biology teachers and are therefore concentrating less on that element?

but it seems more likely that the school is light on biology teachers and are therefore concentrating less on that element?

But then they would get worse results. Because, regardless of staffing, a third of the exams will be biology. So they do need to teach it. And any science teacher can teach biology gcse.

I did skip some from block 3. DT / Art, Construction, Drama, Music, Hospitality, a bunch of others. I just didn't want to overload the original post with options that weren't relevant to the question (or at least any more than I already had!!). But putting all those into block 3 and saying "pick 1" seems pretty restrictive - not allowing drama and music to be selected together, for example.

All three of my children took/are taking both history and geography for gcse at a mix of private and state schools.

OP - I'd just find another school, they're not going to back down.

so even if you add all the other options in, block two is still only RE and sociology?

That's bizarre!
So they can't do 2 arts subjects (art and DT or drama and music etc) because they all fall in block 3?

They are going to get a lot of kick back.

I can only go by information provided by other parents whose kids are older - "concentrating more on physics and chemistry" has been a recurring theme. It's something my son has said has been stated by the teachers as well, so it's seemed pretty consistent

That's more a comment on the relative difficulty of the P and C components compared with B. Triple won't be any different - the extra P and C modules will probably also be regarded as more difficult than B!

Content wise all three are the same, and equally weighted.