S3 to S4 subject choices confusion!

[LezJustBeHonest]

Ds needs to submit his choices by today, with a million things going on right now I misjudged how soon the cut off day was.

I’ve read all the coursing info from the school which says, ds currently studies 5 subjects which he chose at the end of s2 plus 3 mandatory subjects (Maths, English, French) total of 8.

For s4 he’s allowed a total of 7 including mandatory Maths and English, he’s to continue with the courses from s3 and can drop one. So he hates French, dropping this will give him his 5.

The part I’m confused about is, firstly it says not to choose any subjects that haven’t already been studied in s3, however he must choose 2 reserves.
Secondly the coursing sheet shows subjects that weren’t available in s2 how could anyone choose these when they must use the same 5 subjects from the previous yeah? Am I missing something?

I agree that doesn't seem to make sense but without knowing the school's policies it's quite hard to know the answer. Can you ring them or does he have a class whatsapp group or similar who might have already resolved this?
Are you saying that he currently only studies 5 subjects plus Maths, English & French? That doesn't seem like many?

Are some of them badged together such as "science" or "social subjects" and they want him to pick specifically i.e. Chemistry/Biology?physics or History/Geography/Mod Stds? But he can now choose something like Home Ec or Art if he didn't have them last year?

sorry, I mean he CAN'T choose Home Ec or Art if he didn't take them before.

ah yes, has "science" now got 3 options for Biology, Chemistry & Physics? That would make sense.

His subjects for 3rd year were
Business
Computing
Graphics
Chemistry
Art
Plus the three compulsory subjects for a max of 8 all together.
This year for 4th year he is allowed a max of 7 subjects including the 2 mandatory, as language is no longer compulsory.

The leaflet from the school reads
‘When selecting subjects it is important that you continue with the same subjects. In the simplest terms you should be thinking about which one of your s3 subjects to drop, not which subjects to select’

So why bother selecting at all, and why lots of new subjects such as web design, design etc as options. Makes no sense to me. Ds is ASD and doesn’t have a clue either. I tried calling school but they had closed. What a mess

Are there any others he wants to drop or any that he really wants to pick up?

I'd say that swapping out similar for similar would be ok. so swapping computing for web design or art for design. Or indeed dropping something and taking something with a similar base to something he has studied. So could drop Business and pick up Physics as it has a basis in maths and science. Or drop art and pick up web design as it has a basis in Computing. But it would be more difficult to maybe start History or PE or Home Ec.

Are they using columns?

He wants to drop Chemistry, his main interest is any computer related. Yes, I’m just wondering if picking something similar would be ok. It seems silly these choose all their subjects in s2 and are meant to stick with them.
I’ll upload a pic of the form, incase anyone sees something I’m not.

Course sheet

oh i see now, I read it as in he was S2 going into S3. So he just needs to pick which 7 of his current 8 subjects he wants to continue with. i think it's just a generic form and they've only customised the top section, hence the list of subjects he doesn't currently study. This is key, he's decided which one to drop, not which to start.
In the simplest terms you should be thinking about which one of your s3 subjects to drop, not which subjects to select

My dcs school does the options in columns as some classes clash on the timetable.

In reality the school just wants them to drop one of their existing subjects and continue with the rest but by the sounds of it your dc wants to drop 2 of them and take up a different one? The school may not be very amenable to that but you can ask them anyway.

okay, i see on some of his subjects he's being recommended for nat 4 rather than 5, and he wants to drop 2 of those, so maybe look at subjects similar to hi strengths but you also need to consider what he is likely to want to do. If he drops Chemistry then he will have no traditional science subject. Might he need that?

Otherwise, i'd make his choices and put that as one of the back up options?

The web design says its a NPAS? I don't really know what that is and whether it is stretching enough for him compared to his computing where they think Nat 5 is his level.

My ds (14) had to pick his Nat5 subjects at the end of S2 which I thought was very early. Dd (17) did the same as your school and had 8 up until the end of 3rd year and then dropped to 7 for 4th year

Just googled NPA5 and its a National Progression Award so isn't the same as a Nat5

I’ve had another chat with ds, he wants to drop French and stick with the others, using other interests in his reserves. I know he hates chemistry but I do think he should continue a Science. Thanks for all the comments

Sounds like a good plan.

We had a similar form and initially DS was wanting to drop two subjects so we had a call with the school. If then turned out he only wanted to drop one but had got confused about the language options. He's got the National Progression web design as a reserve.

My son is still doing 10 subjects in S3 and that includes science as a single subject! Seems a lot compared to what folk are saying here. Does anyone know what the ‘norm’ is? He will drop 5 subjects in June to do 7 Nat 5s.

Although it was due today, the school will be well used to people not returning it on time, and they won't just kick him out of school if it's a few days late

@Flossy05

My son is still doing 10 subjects in S3 and that includes science as a single subject! Seems a lot compared to what folk are saying here. Does anyone know what the ‘norm’ is? He will drop 5 subjects in June to do 7 Nat 5s.

ds did 9 subject choices in S3 + core PE and something else I can't remember now (might have been PSE/health/RE related).

He dropped to 7 subject choices + core PE + something else when he went to S4.

Are all S3's in your school taking science as a single subject or did they have a choice of physics/chem/biology at the end of S1? Science stopped being only available as a single subject at the end of S1 in our school, although there was a general science option in S2/S3 for pupils who were not taking science to a NAT5 in S4.

@WeAllHaveWings yes, all S3s are doing science as a single subject. It is taught as a single subject.
He is currently doing maths, English, science, French, Mod.studies, geography, history, engineering, computing, music and core RE/PE/PHSE.
He will keep maths, English, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and geography so he will drop 5 of his S3 subjects when they start the Nat 5 course in S4.
I just thought from what others had said that he seemed to be doing a lot of subjects for S3 Just wishing he could ditch the ones he isn’t doing sooner rather than later!

My ds is S3 and chose the subjects for Nat5 at the end of second year which I thought was quite soon. He is doing 7 - maths, English, French, pe, physics, modern studies, computing

My dd is S6 and was doing 9 subjects up until the end of 3rd year and then dropped 2 of them for Nat5.

The end of S2 does seem quite early to choose. If my son had chosen at the end of S2, his choices would definitely have been different.
The thing that worries me now is that they can’t start the Nat 5 courses for science until the S4 timetable comes into effect and that is going to be delayed until mid-June. I am just hoping there is time to teach the course.
Some subjects are already teaching Nat 5 work but unfortunately not science.
Seems strange that some subjects are teaching the course in S3 and others aren’t. Doesn’t seem very equitable.