year 9 options, tied to ceratin subjects by the "speciality status" of the school. Is there anything I can do?

[happynewRia]

Had our "options" meeting tonight for DS1, yr 9.

He has chosen well, but there was a course he wanted to take, which took up 2 of his options (and would be perfect for him, and go so well with his other subjects and interests), but he is not allowed to do it, because the school has a "status" as a "specialist college" and "it's not on the list of approved subjects" (quoting HT), of which he has to take one, because the school would lose the funding if he didn't. So he has to do 2 other subjects (of less interest to him) instead.

Am not blaming the HT here BTW.

Just wondered if anyone could give any advice. It is that a school cannot accommodate a child and their strengths and interests, purely based on funding matters.

*(I can spell "certain" BTW, just can't work out how to edit thread title!)

No idea how school funding works but do you mean the school does offer the subject but won't let him do it? I know lots of schools have "rules" when it comes to options - eg my dds school specifies which of the two languages they have to do (but can do the other as an option).

I would have thought it would be more a timetableing issue rather than funding....

Is it possible for him to do the subject outside of school?

thanks for answering. He has made his choices for block 1 and 2, this other course covers blocks 3 and 4, but even though it covers more than one of the subject areas of the "required" subject, it isn't on the list of one of them (is hard to explain without going into too much detail). I don't know if he could do it out of school.

My DC's school is like this - they have to take
a Design Technology subject (lot of work, dubious benefit) and RE. However although they don't advertise it if you speak to the head of year and your child is doing well at school they will often let you take an extra subject that you particularly want to do and try to fit it round the timetable. My DD had friends who wanted to 3 sciences, a language all the compulsory subjetcs etc and music and art - the school let them do art and music half time and go to extra sessions for practical work after school. Some girls also too art outside the timetable so they could do a vocational course that too up 2 or 3 options. They have also let students sit exams and mark the coursework as external candidates if their parents arranged to do the subject at home.

It was a case of having to ask and push as the students were all told originally it wasn't possible - easier for the school to slot them into standard timetabling - however, none of them managed to avoid doing the DT.

DS has rung me 3 times today -a record! he has been to see a different member of staff about it (Asst. Head in charge of vocational learning) and they told him to make the choices he wants, and they will try and accomodate him as an "alternative learning package". So fingers crossed.
In the meantime I am contacting the LEA and the speacialist status people, to get as much information behind me as I can, ready for when we have to go and see the HT again.

I'd go in and quote Every Child Matters and 'personalised learning'. sounds more of a timetable issue to me though than funding. speak to the parent govenors about it as well to see what they can advise.

Apologies OP but I would really like to ask a related question as I have a similar problem with my DD's options. She wants to do a lot of academic subjects as she is good at languages and sciences, the usual maths, English and IT which are compulsory, as well as geography, art and textiles, which she loves, but we have been told the last 2 are very heavy on coursework. Worry is that she will burn out with too much work, but she doesn't really like the other subjects she could choose. We asked if she could drop RS given the number of other subjects she is going to take, but we were told it was a legal requirement to do RS. Is this right anyone?

It is a legal requirement to do RS but not necessarily to GCSE level. My DCs school do a compulsory RS GCSE and there would be no option to drop that. Art and Textiles together will be a huge amount of work and not to be recommended (DD1 did Art GCSE and it just expanded to fill all the available time!) to be honest dropping RS would not make much difference to her workload.

I don't know anything about this beyond reading another MN thread on it once, which indicated someone had challenged it with a HT and discovered they cannot force your child to take the specialist subjects. It might be worth searching threads on this? Good luck. My son's school is a specialist ICT place and there is no way ON EARTH I will be letting him do 4 crappy IT things in place of something else he wants to do...

thanks webwiz, that is really helpful. She told me RS was a half GCSE but I didn't understand what that is, makes more sense from what you say though. We will explore some of the other options more then. I might suggest she doesn't do textiles (Art is her first love..) and doesn't replace it, as she would still end up with more than 9 GCSEs.

I'm very about this specialist school status business.

My old school (work) was a Tech College and they told everyone they had to do a tech subject. But if parents objected vociferously, they were allowed not to. But they didn't advertise this.

I think they maybe get measured on some sort of figure for uptake of the specialist subject.

The boys' school is a performing arts school and they do have a high uptake of music, drama, dance, etc. But there's no suggestion that everyone has to do a PA subject.

Silverstreet - agree completely with webwiz. RS is not a heavy workload. It can be academically challenging (although no more so than other humanities) but does not have a large amount of work. If she's doing a half GCSE, the most likely way they'll do it is a short course so she sits the exam and gets the qualification at the end of Year 10, then they might timetable Year 11 for minimal RS. Either way, it is a legal requirement to study it at some level during KS4.

Art and Textiles is a very heavy workload. You can get by in both without too much effort, but to get a good grade/do your best in either involves hours and hours of extracurricular work, to the extent that a hardworking person who did both would probably not have time to socialise for most of KS4. The pupils I have taught who have been quite bright & hardworking who did Art & Textiles would regularly spend 12 hours or so on a weekend researching and touching up work. As well as the final pieces, they need huge portfolios of work explaining how they made every artistic decision, what influenced & inspired them, how they decided to interpret the theme creatively etc.

By all means, let her do Art & Textiles, particularly if you think she's be interested in taking them further, but I wouldn't suggest them as 'extra' courses for someone who was vaguely interested and wanted to make up the numbers. In most cases, unless someone was clearly looking at a career in Art & Design or similar, I would say only one of the two would bee fine, especially if, as you say, she would like to take an MFL as well.

Webwiz and Fink

Thanks for your help, very good advice and meant we could ask the right questions at options evening.

She is now looking at doing music instead of textiles, as she already plays an instrument well so would be able to get a good grade with minimal work, but it is still creative. She should then have more time for the art and all the academic subjects she is doing, which still look like a huge workload to me, but this is more manageable than before.

Silverstreet - it's great that you and your DD are happier with her choices now .