gcse choices time. What is your g+t teenager choosing be how much say do you have?

[Piffle]

not specifically g+t I guess but as ds1 is and his subjects are pretty academic I reckon. He is doing 3 gcses in yr10? IT Chinese and stats. I'm trying to convince him to do history not geography. He is choosing French. Engineering, art and geography. I wish he would choose history though! Did you get any pressure from the schools about what they should choose.

Make sure DC chooses what they want and not what het school wnt. My sister got in a right state with the school making her take subjects she didn't want to, and was not interested/skilled in. Do your research yourseld, and if you know that DC struggles with some areas - you need to be prepared to fight for them to get what they want.

I was very angry with the school for what they did as it knocked my sister right back in confidence as she struggled and ended up with very little qualifications at the end. She could have had something reasonable and alot more confidence if she had been allowed to choose 'easier' subjects or less. BTW, just saying 'easier' for her aptitudes adn interests.

My dd has opted for Meeja Studies as one of hers - to be honest I'm not bothered as she's doing proper subjects otherwise. She loves film so may as well do a doss subject. Wish they did Latin at her grammar school though.

Slight digression here: re swedishmum's Latin point - does a lack of Latin impact on a state-school pupil's chances of studying English at a top university?

Ds's future comp does not do Latin, but I notice that an increasing number of state schools are reintroducing it.

My blood pressure is already starting to rise that there is a whole "dance" department at his future school. GCSE Dance indeed.

Doing double science at GCSE is no impediment to doing A level science. I have just had a student acieve an A grade in his first AS level examination with a perfect score, he didn't drop a single mark. He did double science at GCSE

fircone, I really, really doubt that not having done Latin would affect a state school pupil's chances of studying English at a top university. Even 20 years ago I knew people studying English at Cambridge who hadn't done any Latin (and some of them had been privately educated).

I loved Latin and really think it helps with spelling and understanding of English. Boys' GS in our town do it, but dd's school stopped a few years ago. I think it's a pity - don't mind if they add non-traditional subjects but I'd like it if they stuck to some of the old stuff as well. Dd likes the idea of Law at the moment so would be useful.

It really annoys me that schools can still be dismissive of art if you are at all bright, it happened to me 25 years ago and still goes on. Creative subjects are going to be more important in the future not less, training your imagination and creativity has a positive effect on many academic subjects and careers and pushing yourself to be good at art can be genuinely challenging which is beneficial for kids who otherwise find school work easy. Being good at art in combination with maths and science opens up really interesting and potentially lucrative careers such as architecture, industrial design or like my DH running his own animation company (computers and art combined). Getting a good mark for A-level art is Hard Work! nor a skive IMHO.

ally would love to hear more about the animation. This is ds1s aspiration I think. You can actually do a degree in it now!

I am getting confused cos there are so many subjects dd has to take and can only pick a couple.
She is going to take,
Maths
Maths stats
English
Science, has to
PE, has to, but has picked the dance GCSE
RE, has to
Graphics, had to pick one of i think it was three, either graphics, woodwork or something else....
History, has chosen this
Drama, has chosen this.

Fircone, my dd has chosen to do GCSE dance and will go to dance college later, our school is a Sports College and we are actually over the moon that we have a dance department.

the subjects ds could take were so confusing.

piffle surely you mean three SEPARATE sciences?

in ds and dd's school they have dropped the double award science thing as they said it is not taxing or in depth enough

ds has chosen double science, instead of triple science, why they aren't divided up now seems weird to me

bm, you're right, there are very few actual choices; my DS had 3 choices because he did dual award science but if he'd chosen single sciences could only have chosen 2.

There are probably more than 3 tech subjects - ours have graphics, resistant materials (=woodwork), systems (=electronics), food, & textiles.

Also English is usually 2 GCSEs (lang & lit) and so is Science (dual award). PE & RE can often be a ½ GCSE each. It looks as if your DD is doing 10 or 11 subjects??

they are at ours
they just take physics chemistry biology - much simpler

it is simpler, i lost it with the teacher at 'choices' evening. they seemed so disinterested.

sea, double science covers all 3 sciences, but gives a bit less time to each one than if they were studied separately; but as mb says, if they want to go on to do science at A level, dual award gives them a good grounding.

yes about those choices i was horrified at the minimal choice
you are rather FORCED into doing things i think we chose 3 subjects and ds would rather poke his eye out with a sharp stick than spend two years doing ict

the whole thing seems unclear

ds is doing rs and on his term report the rs was listed as 'short course ' ( easy) and 'long course' not so!

odd

And it gives them one more free subject choice at GCSE, which is great (unless they know they want to go on to do sciences at A level) - more like the IB concept.

my son has chosen to do a btec in it and business, it's weird to me, i tried to persuade him to just do a gcse. you can do a btec in aviation studies here and hairdressing. these are 14 year olds it's mad.

Yes, my DD is doing a btech in business studies too.