Creative subjects Vs academic

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My DD is having to rethink all of her A Level options as she did not get what she needed in English Lit or Lang. That’s a whole other subject which could go on a tangent and it is what it is. We knew it was coming as the English department were frustrating us a year ago with such slow and chaotic teaching and despite being in set 2 and working hard, the whole class was too far behind to benefit. And I know it is the case that the whole set 2 class with the same teacher did very poorly.

Unfortunately so many of A Level courses require English so she has had to write off about 9 of them as options.

She is both creative and academic in all other areas with 7/6’s, but the A Level timetable is very mismatched and she is struggling to choose.

She can’t do art and maths for example, both of which she got a 7.

She is considering doing Art, Product Design and History.

My questions are, are the 2 creative coursework based subjects together going to make life very difficult as they are both 50/60% coursework? Has anyone’s DC done these together?

If she can’t do maths (due to a clash with art) Should she choose another maths based subject?

Her chosen path was media which she now cannot do.

2 Creative subjects can work if you really enjoy them. Has your dd decided she would like to take a creative path for a degree or would she prefer to keep her options open?

Media is the sort of subject that can be taken up at a later date without the A level. You/your dd could try working backwards and see what type of A level subjects would work for a Media degree.
Is A level Film (studies) still possible without the required grade in English or is this one that has been ruled out?
Does the sixth form offer A level Photography and could that be done alongside Art?
Did your dd take GCSE Product design so is she aware of what it may involve or is this a new subject?

Thanks yes she did art and design tech separately.

Problem is there was virtually no graphic design element in GCSE (said there would be) Which is why she chose it, and I don’t think there are other elements, like marketing or media involved much? Not sure how much RM will be involved either which she didn’t like that much!

Film is also ruled out
No photography!

Career wise, she feels like she would have liked to go towards media in the sense of perhaps advertising/marketing - from the creative art side not the business side.

She was interested in journalism as she loves to write and loves English a lot, before we realised she was going to not get the grade she wanted to go onto something perhaps like journalism, copy writing, editorial. She can’t do any of that on the path she has to take now really I think

Is it worth retaking the English GCSE? If her achieved grade is really low (not clear from the OP) it could close other doors in the future.

It’s a 4. And she’s not had good teaching in my opinion all of year 11, then nothing for months I am really not sure she would be ready to sit it but I did suggest this

My dd was told the same thing about Product Design GCSE OP.
She took Graphics Communication at A level, but not many sixth forms offer it.
Her back-up option was an extended level 3 BTEC in Graphic Design at a local FE college. There are also BTEC level 3 Media qualifications available.
Does your dd have any other options for post 16 study local to you?

She doesn’t seem ready to leave the school yet, she’s a young 16 has only just turned and I think she needs to grow her confidence in the real world a bit! She so badly wants to stay at school I’m worried though that at the detriment to her education if she picks the wrong choices

Very on the fence about product design!

Yes two creative subjects together are bloody exhausting. Dd did Art, Graphics and Psychology. She was warned by her college to think long and hard about doing two creative subjects because of the workload and the fact that the deadlines for the NEAs (non exam assessment which must be completed and submitted and account for 60% of the A level grade) tend to coincide - but we thought we knew better

She wants to be a creative as a career so she focussed on Art and Graphics and Psychology became her Cinderella subject which barely got a look in. Consequently she got a C in her psychology A level as it was squeezed out by the two creative subjects. She could have got an A / B otherwise - easy (she found the subject v straightforward but no time at all to revise).

Completing her NEAs for Art and for Graphics in January nearly finished her off. Over the Christmas holiday she worked solidly taking just Christmas Day and Boxing Day off. She ended up with a A in art and a B in Graphics. Graphics should also have been an A but art was her priority of the two and something had to give.

Now she may have made some self sabotaging choices by doing highly intricate pieces in both subjects - e.g her final response in art took 70 hours to paint (it is fabulous though). I suppose if you are really savvy you can produce art which is quick to do (as long as you can reflect and naval gaze over it and write lots of analysis of your paint splotches!)

If she had her time again she would have done Art, Sociology & Psychology and had a bit more time and higher grades (not that she is all that disappointed with A,B,C)

I was wondering whether Psychology A level would be a good fit for OPs dd.
There are 3 years funding for post 16, so if things don't work out after the first year then it's possible to start again elsewhere e.g. with a BTEC.
I am not sure if I would recommend PD to someone who isn't sure about it to be honest. dds sixth form had a similar timetable to what @LimitisUp described with an exhibition in the January of Y13 and it was very hard work for those doing 2 Creative subjects and having to produce 2 sets of work for the exhibition.
Parents had a private viewing so we saw examples of all the possible creative Art work. From what I remember the PD work looked like an extension of GCSE with physical products using RM type skills sometimes with added electronics. I can't guarantee that the task is like there every year, but most of the people I know who have done this subject at A level have gone into Design engineering rather than the Creative side.

Psychology A level is a really interesting and engaging subject

Are there any other 6th form colleges nearby with a less restrictive timetable?

Still there OP?

Still here! She got into media after all, I spoke to the school

So we think media, art and history?

So we think media, art and history?

Sounds like a plan to me, if those are subjects that she enjoys. Does the school acknowledge that the English teaching for the cohort was poor, though, as there is a lot of essay-writing with History and she may need extra support there? (depending on which aspects of the English really pulled them down, of course).

(I'm afraid we've rather laissez-faire re our own DC's subject choices, though. Though I was completely flummoxed by the first choosing all sciences and Maths when he wanted to be an English teacher - apparently I was at least one potential career choice behind and in the meantime, he had received advice from school on the selection of subjects which was entirely appropriate for someone actually applying for Biochemistry).

The Whatuni site has a tool where you can put in subjects and projected grades and ot will tell you the most popular courses taken by others with the same combination.

Sounds like a good mix!

That sounds more like what she is really interested in OP. Hope it all works out for your dd.

School tell me they are looking into the English issue. She was a consistent 6 since year 8, then began to struggle in year 11 with this teacher in set 2. DD kept telling me that she wasn’t able to communicate with the teacher well, and I also tried by email her and never got any replies. She wasn’t getting constructive feedback to any of her work and handed in a few practice papers and never got them graded or returned. They did the mock in Nov 19 and got a level 3! This is when I ramped up trying to communicate with English to no avail. We had our hopes on the exam because I got DD some extra tutoring and that tutor explained more of the mock and what to do/not to do

Up till year 11 DD’s favourite subject was English and what she originally was very keen to do. I don’t think it was her ability that was the issue but the quality of the teaching at that crucial point to get her exam ready. She was missing out on understanding some of her errors and lost her confidence so wasn’t expanding on her writing

And thanks all

I was worried about the essays but her history exam seems to tell a different story and she says she likes writing essays. Shakespeare is always challenging with the language and I think this is the area she had the biggest issue with looking back now

Good luck to her going forward, glad it's all resolved