I wanted to put this in AIBU but didn't. What subject do you think my Year 9 daughter is NOT studying this year?

[NotanOtterOHappyDay]

Does Media count as an English GCSE then? I take it they are starting GCSEs in year 9??

Haha!! Media studies takes over the world!But seriously thats a very sad situation -its all about results for results sake.....

I am sure she will do English lit and lang in years 10 and 11 if she is in top schools - you have too - this is a way of boosting schools gcse figures - get year 9 to do an easier GCSE

Or...it could be taht they chose to make the kid stake their SATs a year early, and intend to start GCSE Engalish in yr 10 along with te rest of civilisation, so this gives them a year to play with and do something most children wouldn't get to study at GCSE level.

me being cynical teacher reckons its for the tables...no school in top flight would give them a year to 'play around' with something.

wouldn't be happy about that. Is this the first year they'll have done this?

I could sort of understand not doing English language as such in the pre-GCSE years if its in a school where they are all good English speakers/writers anyway and if it was to make timetable space for other worthwhile subjects ( extra foreign language, that sort of thing). But media studies?

They must be going to do the GCSE in Eng later.

i have NO interest in anyone doing media studies nor ict but her timetable is dominated by them

I'm glad my kids' school is less, um, progressive, then.

This is pure shite and I think most of us know it. English is a core subject and it is not allowed for a school to not teach it to all pupils in KS3 and again for GCSE. ALL students in the school under age 16 will do the legally required ammount of English.

SATS last year, alot of schools choose to do the optional SATS in Yr 3,4,5,7 and 8. My son did his optionals last year in Yr 8 and would have done the 'real' ones this year had the government not scrapped them.

Most schools do media studies now and also most do the ICT GCSE early, 'banking' most of the coursework in Yr 9. ICT is one of a few GCSEs that are predominantly coursework and can be started early.

yes they are doing media and ict early i think and they WILL do the englishes but not this year

they want all the girls to come out with a superficial clutch of 12-14 gcses whereas the boys school next door do 9 GCSE's and come out with a sound in depth knowledge of those 9 subjects

traffic she did her SATS a year early

A lot of schools with able children do Media Studies in yr 9 - but in addition to studying English. However, this may be a response to the SATs ending, perhaps? In which case schools are not legally obliged to publish levels at end of KS3 anymore.

Oh god but media studies is rubbish and English is essential (I speak as a journalist and English grad!)

Just seen that she did SATs early - some schools do that in order to allow an "enhancement" year in Yr 9; in which case, I'd be less concerned. But only if she was L6 or 7 in SAts - otherwise I'd be v cross!

If other schools do media studies AND English in year 9,your school must have spare hours left over that would otherwise have been allocated to English. What are they being used for?

Feeling a bit confused by this. I don't see why they cannot continue to have English lessons and have media studies as an optional extra but maybe I'm missing some glaringly obvious fact here.

My guess is that they are cramming in the GCSE in one year for the stats and then will return to the proper subject

ridiculous - and as for the History/Geography thing - they will do one subject for half a year then the other one for the rest of the year, so the poor Humanities staff have to teach a subject that isn't their specialism for 6 months.

Some schools do this termly and RE is the other subject. I'm so glad that my 'outstanding' school (Ofsted said so last week )doesn't do this.

it's all about the results not the children.

isn't it just

IS there anything you can do about it Notanot?

If the GCSE English course only takes 2 years and they've done SATs early (and presumably got good enough scores that resting English for a year isn't a concern), then why not study something else for a year & broaden themselves? The logical alternative would be to sit Eglish GCSE a year early & presumably if she did that no-one would object to her dropping English for year 11, but it might be harder to do something else with the time that year what with the pressure of other exams etc.

I expect the problem arises from the English GCSE not being stretching enough to occupy some bright minds for 3 years.

Whether media studies is making the best use of the extra time is a whole different debate.

i agree snorkle

ANYTHING else ( bar ict) and i may view the whole thing differently but wasting time ( and money) on this is a waste of bright minds imo

i am horrified

How can they not be doing english? surely this is compulsory?

so if she did sats early then they deduce she has done yr9 required learning so cram in a few extra things to broaden horizons
Let's hope they covered yr8-9 English really well then...

Think I'd be doing some ENglish at home just to be on the safe side, time and energy permitting