So this ebacc thing, does it matter for university?

[Neverthelessshepersisted]

School is saying DS should take the ebaac-qualifying GCSE subjects or he will be looked on unfavourably by "Russell Group Universities".

DH is a professor at a Russell Group University and has never heard of the ebaac. So he reckons it doesn't matter provided you take testing subjects.

I have politely pointed out the the undergraduate admissions team might know a bit more.

The issue is that DS can't speak French. I mean he has a "level 4" but trust me he can't speak French and we reckon him spending two more years passing tests about using the conditional whilst being unable to say "he is going" is a waste of time and he'd be better off doing computer science instead.

He is v.good at the core subjects and can pass French tests.

In fact my father had to take German O level just after world war 2 in order to get into his course at Durham university. I think most of us have always thought knowing at least one other European language like French or German was a sensible thing in a rounded education to have. I am glad all my 5 children and their cousins and indeed my siblings and parents all did at least one language at GCSE (I did 2 - French and German).

We feel that understanding computer languages is as key to "literacy" as a human one. It also means you are more likely to be telling the robots what to do rather than vice versa.

Horses for courses. A 'rounded' education is a good idea in theory but in practice trying to enforce it may not serve everyone well. I had a colleague who turned out to be a genius at writing scientific algorithms, but was dyslexic so had a hard enough time passing English O-level, other (human!) languages just weren't on the cards. At the time this precluded him applying to Cambridge, but fortunately not everywhere was so prescriptive even back then. He's nicely ensconced in a Cambridge research institute now.

As an MFL teacher, I think that speaking a foreign language is important. We do read things like L'Etranger, but not until A level.

However, as other people have said, an EBACC isn't important for university admissions although doing a broad range of subjects at GCSE does leave a wider range open at a-level and so eventually at university.

Your DS' school may insist on EBACC (my school does for all but the lowest achieving students) because it's good for their league table position, but if they don't then I wouldn't force him to do all EBACC subjects.