Are facilitating A levels still a thing?

[BoofTheFloof]

DD is reasonably bright but not a big fan of school. Predicted grades for GCSEs range from 9-6 (more at the lower end!) She has ADHD which she manages well with medication but she hates writing long essays.
For her A levels she wants to take Sociology, Sports science and business studies. To me these sound like "lighter" choices although the school are clear that they get kids into good universities with these subjects. She gets excellent marks in geography (predicted 7/8) and I've suggested that instead of business or sports but she's not keen. School say that as she isn't a fan of school in general that she will do better doing subjects she enjoys rather than forcing her into something she doesnt really like (she is a bit bored by geography). Honestly I know she's not oxbridge/ Durham/ UCL material but I was hoping she could go to a reasonable Russel group (no idea to do what!) Will these A levels be a problem?

So you'd rather she did subjects she isn't interested in in the hope she'd go to a uni of your choosing?

Absolutely agree with the teachers. They won't spend the time revising and learning the material if they don't enjoy it so worth picking subjects she enjoys. She is far likely to get higher grades if they want to learn.

All three of those can lead to a decent uni I really wouldn’t worry. Not everyone has to study History at Durham or Physics at Imperial. There will be valuable skills in all of those.

I totally agree that she will work harder at subjects she is interested in and enjoys. Sociology definitely will have some essay writing though.

The thing that rings alarm bells us more the ' three subjects that sound doing, new and fun' as students assume they are easy and more 'interesting', so issues over facilitating subjects aside, she needs to know she will need to work as hard in those as she would in anything else.

As an aside, sociology and geography is an excellent combination...

I am not sure what doing was a typo for but you get my drift!

I'm not sure why everyone is so hung up on Russell group universities. The Russell Group didn't even exist when many of us were at university. It is at the end of the day a marketing group.

You should want your child to go to the university that best suits her. She shouldn't be ruling out some of the fantastic universities in this country just because they're not in the Russell Group. Would you really rule out St Andrews, Loughborough, Lancaster, Bath etc, all of which are top 15 universities and none of which are in the Russell Group?

Really good points everyone. I work in HR for a big company and I know we only recruit from certain universities which I think colours my thinking a bit. However she'd not enjoy most of the things my company does!
It would help if she know what she wanted to do. She fancies physiotherapy but I don't think spots science is enough- she'd probably need biology as well and whilst her gcse predicted grade is a 6/7 it could be a stretch.

One of mine did sociology, photography and media studies at A level, and went to an RG university. There wasn’t an issue.

So you have a child with additional needs, and you want her to do A levels of your choosing so she could theoretically get into a university of your choice, but you don’t know what to do?

Why is university the default, does she even want to go university.
Maybe you could spend more time with her figuring out what she wants to to, rather than what you want her to do.
College or an apprecticeship may be better options for her - depending on what she wants to do, not what would suit your company, even though she is unlikely to ever work there

Physiotherapist is hugely competitive. DN did Spanish, psychology and BTEC sports and is now doing sports therapy at uni... but definitely not at a Russell Group uni.

What industry do you work in, and is it something your daughter is likely to want to go into?

I've never heard of a company only recruiting from certain universities - how incredibly limiting for recruiting managers!

Yes, physiotherapy is extremely competitive. One of my nephews got A*/As in maths, biology and chemistry and went to an ex-poly university to do physiotherapy.

I do think physio is a bit of a dream for her. She's just thinking of careers where she won't be behind a desk all day. She's fun, sporty, charismatic and very organised when she needs to be (using the techniques she learned to manage her ADHD.) She just hates school!

I recognise I am very old fashioned in my approach and knowledge. I went from a super selective girls grammar in the 80s to Oxford to a career where those things counted... I'm now 50, new to all this and trying to support my oldest into doing something that will make her happy.

Honestly she's SET on university. I have suggested lots of alternatives as I know her ADHD and lack of enthusiasm for school don't make it an ideal choice. However she's at a selective school and all her friends talk about going, and their older siblings come home from university with wonderful tales of the fun and the sport and the parties so she's determined.

Frankly I hope 2 more years of 6th form do make her reconsider.

I do feel better about her A level choices though!

She may well do a lot of ‘growing up’ (can’t think of another term right now) in these two years. University is also a different beast to school, I don’t think dislike of school negates university as an option.

Does she have a good careers service? We are finding it pretty lacklustre but a good advisor might be able to point out careers she may not even be aware of. There is a thread on here at the moment about degrees that are off the beaten path. I once went to some training in the property industry where a recruitment consultant came and said most young people assume a career in property means an estate agent then he had an amazing slide that showed about 50 different careers.

What I am saying is that there will be MANY careers within the areas that she is interested in that she won’t have thought of so someone more knowledgable needs to help her find out what they are.

@StColumbofNavron

She may well do a lot of ‘growing up’ (can’t think of another term right now) in these two years. University is also a different beast to school, I don’t think dislike of school negates university as an option.

Does she have a good careers service? We are finding it pretty lacklustre but a good advisor might be able to point out careers she may not even be aware of. There is a thread on here at the moment about degrees that are off the beaten path. I once went to some training in the property industry where a recruitment consultant came and said most young people assume a career in property means an estate agent then he had an amazing slide that showed about 50 different careers.

What I am saying is that there will be MANY careers within the areas that she is interested in that she won’t have thought of so someone more knowledgable needs to help her find out what they are.

@StColumbofNavron I've just found the thread. So amazing- thank you! Honestly university would be great for her in many way. She just needs to pick carefully. She'd be a catastrophe in a staid desk job like mine but there must be many careers that someone with her skill set (people skills, emotional intelligence and organising skills) would thrive in. However she's also quite financially motivated so any career needs to pay well... There are two full time careers staff at her school but I'm not overly impressed. They seem very good at arranging work experience for the many medics but my daughter seems to stump them a bit.

Why not ask if they could get her experience in physio or occupational therapy? Sports Science is a great course.

My Sociology A level was just essays on the Gender Theory of the 1970s and a bit of Functionalism. It filled a gap in my timetable, but really hasn't been particularly useful.

First step - find out how essay based those subjects are?

@SheWoreYellow

First step - find out how essay based those subjects are?

The school have been great and she's done taster lessons plus spoken to sixth formers currently doing the subjects and seen their work and text book. All of the subjects obviously have elements of writing essays etc but not as much as say English or history or politics. They're also subjects she's either currently good at or which fit her skills and interests. Sociology is taught by her favourite teacher of all time which frankly helps as she knows and likes DD as well. She thinks DD will be good at it.

I just still struggle to see what she'd do with this combination though.

The other problem is I'm seemingly the only person worrying about this. DD plays county level in one sport, first XI in another (at school), has a boyfriend, bustling social life and a shed load of school work in between. She really has no time!

I however should be working in my actual job but am looking up A level requirements for interesting degrees....

Everything you've said about her says sports is absolutely something she should do for A level.

After all, there's Physio, Occy Health, other health related careers, PE teaching, sports management (making Business Studies a good choice), HR, coaching, food, fitness and sports industry careers - a huge range of things that suit somebody who is smart, very active, but not hugely keen on sitting down in front of tons of paperwork.

Was just abojt to type a reply and person above pretty much said what I woùld!

I did grammar/oxbridge and taught in a grammar.

I still would say hoose what she enjoys and then a career that suits her. I think when youve gone down a narrow path yourself its sometimes hard to see outside of it.

What about OT? Id loved to have known more about what OT was then as it has so many diverse and interesting amd active careers within it.

Facilitating A levels do exactly what they say. They keep the widest range of degree SUBJECT options open for someone who doesn't know what they want to study yet.

Sociology, Sports Science and Business Studies will narrow options down a bit. Biology combined with Sports Science would keep more Sport science related degree options open and English Literature with sociology would keep more essay/humanity subject options open for example but with that combination of A levels you could still do one of numerous related degree courses.

Would she be better off perhaps looking at a Sport Btec?

@BoofTheFloof your dd sounds very like my ds - also year 11, ADHD, not a fan of school or studying, bright but does limited revision. His end of year 10 exams suggest he’ll get mainly 6/7 at GCSE although he’d be capable of more.

He’s obsessed with weight lifting and martial arts, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of fitness and nutrition and definitely wouldn’t want to do a desk job like mine! He wants to be a UFC fighter but knows he needs a sensible back up plan too!

At sixth form he really wants to do Food and Nutrition (a level 3 diploma), PE or Sport BTEC and Business, but it will depend on option blocks.

I’ve come to the conclusion that he probably won’t get into an RG uni - but that’s fine because he’ll likely be studying something like Nutrition/Sport Science/Physio where RG is less relevant. There are quite a few Physio courses where PE/Sport is accepted instead of Biology by the way - I found Keele and Hull yesterday.

All of the subjects obviously have elements of writing essays etc but not as much as say English or history or politics.

This is literally not true for sociology...

I teach it. I also teach English. And DS does sociology, history and economics A Levels. Sociology is entirely assessed through essay style responses!

@NeverDropYourMoonCup

Why not ask if they could get her experience in physio or occupational therapy? Sports Science is a great course.

My Sociology A level was just essays on the Gender Theory of the 1970s and a bit of Functionalism. It filled a gap in my timetable, but really hasn't been particularly useful.

Was that quite some time ago??

Today with one class I was talking about differing responses to the pandemic, with another we were looking at confluent love (1992 postmodernism...), and with another current government education policies and funding. I don't teach Crime but it is a popular and very contemporary issue in many sociology courses. I teach a Health and disability unit which would be v helpful to any aiming for healthcare professions. It is massively varied and endlessly interesting and relevant.