Year 9 - choosing options - how is it going?

[roisin]

I was looking back at an old thread and wondering how everyone is?

MaryAnnSingleton
LadyGlencoraSnape
bellavita
OrmIrian
Polgara2

magentadreamer

deaddei

cocolepew

GrapefruitMoon
stleger

cory

.. and I'm sure lots of others I can't recall!

Are you all into the swing of options choosing?

Ds1 has to do Maths, Science (2), English (2), IT (2); the has thre options.
He has very high end of yr9 targets (mostly L8), but is on/above target for almost all, so has plenty of choice.
His current thoughts are triple science, German and History. He would have liked to do Spanish or Latin as well, but I think that will be plenty to keep him busy!

This is the 'discussion' we are having. He wants to do hist and geog which is goo, which means he is only 1 subject away from the Bacc. But TBH if he's not going to pass it, he won't get the bacc anyway.

I think it would really be a shame if he is able to get at least a C for him not to do it. He has said he will consider it, mainly because he doesn't want to do some of the other options!

verybored is your DS' school not making Bacc subjects a requirement? DS' kept the language requirement when they were made non compulsory but I'm not sure whether they are going to insist on history or geography or just recommend it. DS will probably do both if he can but that is more due to not knowing what else to do rather than a love of geography.

Nope. History, geography and French are not compulsory!

we have ds1's options evening next week, but got the booklet this morning

he's got to do English Lang and Lit, Maths, at least one MFL (he's doing Spanish and Latin - OK, I know Latin isn't technically a MFL!), 3 separate sciences, at least one humanities subject (History, Geography, Ethics & Philosophy), then he can choose two out of Art, Art Graphics, DT, Drama, Economics, ICT, PE, Music, or another humanities subject.

He has a sports scholarship so is expected to do PE GCSE so that only leaves him one choice - he's torn between ICT, graphics and Ethics Philosophy - frankly I'm not sure why we need a whole evening ...

Thankfully his school don't want them sitting ludicrous numbers of GCSEs so they have a limit of 11 (12 if they do additional maths) and several are IGCSEs so no coursework (yippee) - at some of the girls' schools round here it's de rigeur to do at least 13 or 14 ...

just to add cory I'd be very surprised if your dd really had to do compulsory PE GCSE - at ds' school although everyone does PE and games throughout KS4, only those on G&T list for sports can do the GCSE as such a lot of it is performance-based

DD will be doing
Eng x2
Maths early then half A level
Science x 3
French
Latin
Greek

Then one from history geography RS

She has filtered out all things creative which I think is a shame.

RBOTP - My DD would kill for the opportunity to do your DD's choices. She will be forced to take one creative and one technical subject even though she would rather do all academic subjects. She is planning Music for creative, which is fine, but graphic design is the only tech subject that appeals and she won't do well in it because of her dyspraxia.

LGP - I really am pleased that DD gets to do what she wants, I just wish she couldn't narrow it down just yet. She has already eliminated some subjects as of this year. She is only 13 and will never do art, drama, music etc again.

Yes, that's sad, isn't it?

RBOTP - do they not do it at all?

That is a shame, my dd does not have to do the following as GCSE, but if they choose not to they still have to do certain amount of pe, drama, music, art etc each week.

It is a shame. She filtered drama, music and art out at the end of year8. She still has to do DT but will ditch that in the summer. They do alot of games/ PE all the way through. There is no ditching that, but she loves sport. One if the PE rotations is dance, but that is only a 6 week stint once in a blue moon. There are plenty of clubs she could join ie drama/ dance/textiles etc but given a choice she wouldn't. Her favourite subjects are sport, physics, chemistry, maths.

Apparently we are getting a booklet next week.

Triple science does not count for three options. That was an urban myth. They had an assembly. LOL

RBOTP - is your dd lovely 95% of the time, horrid for 5%???

If so I think we may have split twins at birth

As your name suggests with skiing - does your dd love the slopes, and is a great skiier???

If so snap!!

Oldbeforetime - why yes and yes!!

DS1 doing compulsory
Eng x2,
Science x3,
Languages x2 he has french and latin as his, maths,
plus 3 others, in the running at the moment and the final choice need to be in a couple of weeks, are
economics(subject to passing an apitutde test),
RS- Philosphy and Ethics (don't ask me why!) and music.

He may change his mind after parents evening tonight.

LadyGlencoraPalliser, DS is also dyspraxic, so was trying to avoid the subjects with a lot of handwriting as although can do very well in history, the problem is finishing the papers when it comes to exams even with his extra time. It is such a shame. I'm sure RS must have a lot of handwriting in it also, which may change his mind about taking it.

Yes, that's a consideration too Cooney, although DD1 is managing alright at the moment. She has played violin since she was seven, mainly to build up the strength in her hands and improve her fine motor control. They worked hard with her in primary school on her handwriting and it started to come together in Year Five, but I've noticed it is deteriorating again - it's a lot less legible than it used to be. She hasn't got a lot of strength in her wrists, has problems using scissors and cutlery for example, but she is keen to take History so we'll have to play it by ear. It is good your DS gets extra time - we haven't gone down that route with DD, because we've never had an official diagnosis - maybe we should have done.

Gagghhh!

Really?

I don't think DS1 has done anything about it yet. He sort of knows what he wants to do but we've heard nothing from the school.

Oh dear. Is it something else to fret about?

DS will have had his meeting today, we have ours tomorrow. So far it looks like he will go for History, Geography and French, but not sure about the reserve.

There is also a choice to do a Diploma, which apparently is the equivalent of 7 GCSEs and specialising in Business studies, with just basic skills it seems in Maths, English & Science. This is being offered to ALL abilities. No way will he be doing that!

I am also shovked that if he wanted to he could take no academic options at all, in fact there is a chance some students could take Health & beauty and child development, with no humanities or languages!

Stupid mother! I just filled in a form to say which teachers I wanted to see at a parent's evening. So we'll be discussing it then.

I'll tell you something, it only feels like 5 minutes ago I chose MY options!
[getting on emoticon]

ds1's school are quite late in the process.
He's had a meeting with his mentor and an introductory assembly, but the major dates/deadlines are not for ages yet:
23 March - options fair = info for parents
28 March - yr9 report due home
4 April - deadline