Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

Grammar school subjects in NI

2 replies

mynameisblah · 11/12/2025 14:47

Looking for general thoughts and feedback on certain subjects in my boy's education (year 8).

He's generally a bright boy and largely a straight A student, who struggles with subjects he has no interest in. He loves Math and all 3 Sciences, enjoys English, Geography, History and many other subjects.

He despises Art, Music and French. He has no interest in any area of these subjects. My thoughts -

If he deliberately makes little effort in those subjects, it will give him more time in all the other ones. I resent that he has to spend so much time on homework and multiple tests/exams every year for subjects that he will ABSOLUTELY be dropping for GCSE etc. I estimate we could save over a hundred hours over the 2/3 years by 'virtually ignoring' (and therefore accepting very low grades) these and use those hours to further his knowledge and skills in all other subjects.

Controversial perhaps - but what can the school do? By doing this he is more likely to get higher marks in all other subjects and enjoy his schooling more. He is legally obliged to attend the classes, submit homework and sit the tests/exams, but I'm assuming the school can do little else regarding grades if I'm honest with them? He will remain a straight A student in all other subjects

OP posts:
Cappuccino5 · 11/12/2025 19:36

To be honest OP I think you’re being very over dramatic about this - you really need to think about the message you’re sending him. Telling him that it’s ok to put 0 effort into anything you don’t like simply isn’t representative of real life.

DD also went to an NI grammar - like your DS, she also had to do art, Latin, music, French etc for the first few years before picking her GCSE choices. She absolutely hated those subjects but it didn’t stop her from doing very well in them with little effort. It really wouldn’t hurt your DS to do the bare minimum, nor at this level is negatively impacting his other subjects a worry - he should be able to fairly easily fit it all in.

Original poster
mynameisblah · 12/12/2025 18:38

Cappuccino5 · 11/12/2025 19:36

To be honest OP I think you’re being very over dramatic about this - you really need to think about the message you’re sending him. Telling him that it’s ok to put 0 effort into anything you don’t like simply isn’t representative of real life.

DD also went to an NI grammar - like your DS, she also had to do art, Latin, music, French etc for the first few years before picking her GCSE choices. She absolutely hated those subjects but it didn’t stop her from doing very well in them with little effort. It really wouldn’t hurt your DS to do the bare minimum, nor at this level is negatively impacting his other subjects a worry - he should be able to fairly easily fit it all in.

Edited

Thanks for the reply and your point does not go unnoticed.

I wasn't talking about zero effort, but yes the effort would be less than he is capable of.

I don't agree that he should be easily able to fit it all in. If that was the experience of your DD then well done them. A considerable amount of time outside of school hours is required for him to keep up a level he is happy with. I think a better balance of social activity/family life and education would be more beneficial to him long term. One way of achieving this is to reduce the time spent on all subjects as suggested. Once again, thanks for the reply - I do appreciate it

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page