German/ drama?!

[loopyluna]

Firstly, I live in France which explains the strange choice.

DD1 is starting seniors in September. She's a very academic child and is a year ahead of her peer group. (This is something they do in France, bright children "skip" classes and struggling children stay back.) DD is also perfectly bilingual as I'm English and we speak English at home, have regular trips to Grandma's in the UK, English and American friends over here etc.

The senior school DD is going to offers 2 language options:
just English for the first 2 years, then choice between German/ Spanish from the 3rd year
or
English and German for the first 2 years then possibility to add Spanish as a third language in the 3rd year

Originally it seemed to be a no-brainer that DD would do English and German from the start but she has just discovered that the children who do just English have Tuesday afternoon free to do drama/ dancing/ pony riding or football. DD really wants to do drama!

Now, I'm not particularly bothered about the German and wouldn't mind her doing Drama instead but all the (French) parents I've mentioned this too are shocked at my attitude as it seems that the brightest pupils are all in the English/ German class and this is what parents strive for! I don't want to do my daughter a disservice but don't want her to feel she's missing out on the fun...

If she is bilingual why does she need to take English? Surely she will be too good for the rest of the class and would be better off taking German and Drama.

My son has a friend at school with him who is bilingual English and German (at an English school). The school allowed him to take GCSE German without taking the classes to allow a different option instead.

I would approach the school and discuss whether she should be taking English lessons with her peers or whether she could do German and Drama.

I would love her not to have to do English. She finds it very hard to bite her tongue when the teacher makes mistakes Unfortunately this is not an option. Maybe if I kicked up a fuss, she could be exempted from the English class but she would just have to go to the library during the time of the classes. It would not allow her to take a different option as the school time table is not flexible like that.

In that case I would encourage her to take German (3 languages would be a great asset). Try to remove her from English (if she needs an English qualification later on she could always sit an iGCSE in English). She can use the time in the library to do her homework which will free up her evenings to do drama/ dancing/ pony riding or football ect.

That's a thought...
Will have a word with the headmaster.

I would have thought that if she is bilingual that she would be able to take the English qualification early. This does sometimes happen in the UK is children are bilingual in a European or other language.
If you are aiming at University in the UK then a GCSE or iGCSE in English language probably would be needed. Most high ability pupils in the UK also study English literature at GCSE as well.

I agree with SUffolkGirl, the English classes will be for children beginning to learn the langauage - she is already a 'native speaker' so would be wasting her time in the lessons. See if she can get other work done in those lessons (if there is no timetable flexibility) and do the 'fun' stuff after school. German would be a great asset IMO, and probably not too much work as she won't have to be working on the English.

I'm a drama teacher with a German degree (long story), even I would say take German and find extra-curricular ways to do drama. I like the idea of catching up on homework during English then freeing up evening time for drama!

She needs to experience learning a foreign language so German. Plus if you stay in France it matters what languages you take - German is still equated with high achieving, intelligent, academic types.

We're also a bilingual family (english/german) living in Germany. Dd has just started at high school and there was no way to get her out of doing English but she also has to do Latin. So for the other dc, its hard to learn vocab/grammar for both but dd only has to learn her Latin. And she seems to find it easier than the mono lingual dc.

I would recommend your dd did German - she'll benefit from learning a 3rd language esp when the other 2 are her mother tongues.