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...

Exam boards won’t allow this to happen. I’ve been through this with dd as her combined grade was bringing her down. As is, she’s dropped the desire to do A level physics.

Your ds can do A level Geography or History without the GCSE and can do the A level Biology with combined science. Sociology or RS are not bucket qualifications, are very interesting and worthwhile. So no, not a waste of time. It is important to get a broad base of learning under a child’s belt.

Sociology or RS are not bucket qualifications, are very interesting and worthwhile.

That’s your opinion - they are definitely not interesting to everyone! It’s really restricting options for people who are more interested in science, arts or languages - why should these be deprioritised because the school had some kind of weird RS / Sociology fixation?

I agree with you regarding the poor explanation of timetabling issues.

At my daughter’s school there were no blocks. All children have the core 6 which includes triple science (although those kids who really struggle can opt to do double award) plus 4 completely free options, although 1 does have to be a language. You can opt for any combination you like.

If her school with 168 kids in the year can manage it, I don’t see why all schools can’t.

I'm pretty sure RE counts as a humanity under most measures!

Actuslly under the (pretty stupid I can’t lie) ebacc measure, only history and geog count.

@IJustWantAUserNameThatDoesntExistAlready I agree with others, I’d be amazed if unis specified history and geog A levels for archeology (or anything tbh). Not many students actually take both. In fact only being offered one or the other is not unusual.

He has no interest in the syllabus of either RE or Sociology as taught at this school and I know he won't apply himself - honestly, I'd have no inclination to push him to apply himself - I'd sooner he spent his time on something useful!

Can you find some inclination? To do well in an adult career he needs to be flexible as well as bright and he needs to apply himself to things that aren't his choice. Can you emphasise that you are proud of his mature attitude in doing something outside his first preferences and encourage him to do it really well?

I would have thought that Sociology would be relevant background for archaeology anyway. How people live today relating to societies in the past.

If it's any reassurance, plenty of the students at the sixth form I work in are studying Biology A Level after taking Combined Science GCSEs and doing very well with it. Your son's enthusiasm and motivation will play a significant role in his success and it sounds like he has a lot of both.

I had exactly the same issue as your DS at GCSE in the distant 90s. I wanted to do history and geography but they were timetabled so you could only take one. I ended up taking history with latin to fill the gap. I was swayed by the amount of coursework involved in GCSE geography.

Has your DS talked to his teachers? As someone who studied history at GCSE and A level I can say that though you do carry over some skills eg how to treat a source document, there wouldn’t be a knowledge gap if your DS took A level History without having a GCSE in it. Would he be doing A levels at this school? Would they object? He’d need to talk to someone about whether the same is true of geography. It would also be worth checking if they timetable the subjects in the same way they do at GCSE?

What coursework is involved for each option? If your DS knows any handy yr11s he could ask about how much time it takes. For DC who are self motivated and hard working, coursework is a bonus and takes some pressure off for the exams - the exception being art GCSE where coursework seems to take up a disproportionate amount of time and effort for one subject.

As schools are required to cover religion/ethics during year 10 and 11, they often insist that students sit a GCSE in it. It’s annoying but non negotiable.

Does he know what periods of history the school cover for GCSE? I’d go for triple science and geography with his interests.

I agree sociology is quite relevant to archaeology. Sociology is the study of society. The archaeology & anthropology course at Oxford looks quite sociology-based in the second year. I think if I were him I’d do geography, sociology and triple science GCSE then geography, biology and chemistry A-level, assuming things like archaeology or classical civilisation A-levels aren’t offered by his school. I say chemistry over maths because it might be useful to build up practical lab skills but maths would be fine too given what you can find online about entry requirements.

I’m personally very interested in early to early modern history so I didn’t take history at school because it was all modern history that didn’t interest me - I’d check the syllabus before choosing it.

Education is also about creating a well rounded human. I felt the same before dd went to secondary school and she decided to take RS GCSE rather than history (she is doing geography but can do both history and geography at her school but that’s only because it’s private, the state schools don’t offer this option). The essay skills necessary are similar to those in history and A level history as I and others have mentioned can be taken without the GCSE.

The problem was that he was looking to do A-level of History / Geography / Biology / Maths- so the pre-requisites for these would be covered under GCSE History / Geography / Triple Science. Degree to be in either paleontology or archaeology, with a postgrad in a specialisation

Most students do 3 A Levels by their second year. RE will be really useful if he wants to be an archeologist. If he chooses triple science then he won't do combined science. I think your son should choose history, RE and geography (and combined science).

My son goes to a grammar and did double sciences - I was told there were about 6 subjects difference between double and triple science. He got a 99 for double science and was allowed to choose science for A levels just needed to catch up on the subjects he missed during the summer term.
So I would miss the science.

As much as he doesn’t want to take RS or Philosophy, they’ll fill the skills gap from skipping history.

sorry I should have said combined science rather then double.

You could ask if he could not pick a block 2 option at all (if he's going to bomb them anyway because he doesn't want to do them) and have self study periods instead.

In the self study periods he could teach himself extra science content guided by his private tutor, then enter for triple.

Optional GCSEs don’t hinder a child’s ability to study subjects at A Level or Degree. We have plenty of students taking A Level subjects they have no GCSEs in. They have to block options off because of timetables and staffing, it would be a logical nightmare (and probably impossible) to give every child a choice of every subject.

It may not be ideal as he doesn’t want to study R.E or Sociology but it will not prevent any future life chances.

Logistical*

In short OP, this is a useful and important lesson for your DS and you too that it's not always possible to have a perfect set of choices always, and that sometimes a compromise is needed. The fact that you say your DS will definitely do badly in RE or Sociology if he is forced to take these over History (which is after all a fairly similar subject learning and testing similar skills) suggests that this lesson is much needed.

I don’t know any state school who offers 14 year olds self study periods. It would be chaos.

My DS in Y9 has self-study periods and he gets a lot done, even though he sits with a friend. It's not a state school, but are you really saying only children in independent schools can be trusted to work independently? OP's child sounds very motivated.

If no other kids at OP's school had self-study, then it would just be him and the librarian anyway?

As a head of geography I’d say you’d really, really struggle at A level if you’d hadn’t done GCSE. A level really builds on the stuff taught at GCSE, it’s not entirely different stuff. If you do end up doing one privately I’d suggest doing geography at school and history at home. This is because of the paper 3 exam where you have to talk about fieldwork that you have undertaken.

I'd do history. Geography it might be possible to jump in at a level

Oh ignore my last post. A lot has changed since I took it!

As someone who cannot bring any Dino related stuff into the house because of scientific inaccuracies, no offence taken! Yes I'm not that bothered about his ambition to be a palaeontologist because he's only in year 8, and if it means he works hard to get into triple science and does science A Levels, because hes motivated to be a palaeontologist then he will have a good basis to do other things later on. Good advice thanks!

Well they’re wrong, the school has to teach the national syllabus. They don’t get to decide to teach more physics than biology. I’d really recommend you talk to the school and not listen to rumours.

i get that your ds likes science and would rather do triple. But the lack of triple science really won’t hold him back, some schools don’t even offer it I believe.

RS is not necessarily as religion focused as you might think, Dd did it for gcse and there’s a lot of more ethics rather than religion. It’s also a good subject to hone essay writing schools which may come in useful for degree study…..I assume archeology would involve essays.

when he gets to university he is likely to have to study core modules which he wouldn’t have chosen which he may dislike.