AIBU to want my son to take 11 GCSEs?

[mamaliv]

He's currently in year 9 and is having to finalise his GCSE choices. At his school it is normal/expected to have 10 or 11 GCSEs- the normal 7 plus either 3 or 4 electives. DS1 is very very bright and would definitely be able to cope with 11, but has always preferred to coast as much as possible and is insisting he only wants to take 3 electives (so a total of 10). I'm not worried about how this will look to universities etc (he's a bit young for that) but I do think it's not good for him always to take the easy way out! DH is "not going to interfere" which doesn't help...
AIBU?!

They still have to do PE. You don't need to make them do a GCSE in it.

Wuldric - indeed why narrow it down by forcing kids to do 3 sciences and therefore limiting their opportunities to do multiple mfls, more than one arts subject, or heaven forbid geography AND history.

As I said. Witless orthodoxy.

My ds1 and 2 did 10 each. Dd will be doing 10. All could have chosen 11 but we saw no need to push this point. All are/were at highly selective schools (think top 2-3 in UK). Ds1 on gap year, ds2 headed for Oxford and dd doing fine too. Look at The Student Room: Oxbridge and many other universities have a 'page' there setting out applicant profiles, inc GCSE results, whether or not an offer was made, etc. Looking at the page relevant to ds2, most successful applicants have a run of A grades, and although some have 11+ GCSEs, with most if not all at A, most have 9-10 GCSEs of which all or the majority will be A*. 10 is plenty!

Russian- we agree on a lot. We just use language differently.

I don't think we do agree on a lot. The use of language, is, essentially, what I do for a living so I'm reasonably relaxed about my ability in that area (although this morning's emails on the work front have made me doubt both my own sanity and that of many people I formerly thought were perfectly sane. So maybe I've been labouring under a delusion.)

I know several teenagers who have taken the GCSE PE route as they have to do PE anyway and if they do the GCSE a proportion of lessons is spent on theory- and therefore not on actual exercise. Things are not always what they seem

I agree with the poster who says we need more competent science graduates in the UK. I disagree that separate science is the way to go abut getting them. There is nothing on the separate GCSE syllabus that cannot be caught up and the surpassed very easily at A Level. Whereas duel award leaves space for more curriculum variety and choice and doesn't limit A Level or University choices.

Until quite recently (about 3 years I think) I was still being asked about GCSE grades when I applied for new jobs as a lawyer. Bear in mind I was about 5 years qualified and over 30 at the time.

City/profession jobs DO care about GCSE grades. Whoever said up there that you only need 6-8 to get into A levels was wrong. Perhaps that is a consideration if you have no desire to enter a profession or banking etc but those employers do care now. They need a distinguishing factor.

As for the snobbish "anything less than triple science is worthless", I think you will find you are wrong. My husband, PhD in Physics, and I, degree in chemistry, both from RG universities, did double award science and it never held us back. It takes up an option you could use for history or music etc.

Why is it nonsense for a bright child not to go 3 sciences. If dd were to take triple science she would have to give up an arts subject in an area relevant to her choice if career, or possibly a language which if she goes pursue her chosen career she is likely to word abroad is madness.

She's ecstatic thAt she will be able to drop PE completely at the age of 11 at her hew school!!

Yes you are if he doesn't want to!

flipside. B and C at GCSE to get into Cambridge is very very very rare. Both now and then. And I suspect less now. Using such an anecdote as a potential encouragement to not be too bothered about GCSEs is misleading. If you look at that stats of those who have 10 As and As at GCSE and against those who haven't, I know which group I'd be trying to put my DC into to better their chances.*

I'm not trying to be misleading! And this was very recently. Only two years ago. I'm just saying that OPs son won't lose anything by not taking 11 GCSEs. My example is an extreme one of course.
But I won't go into the Oxbridge thing. I've been down that route and the admissions are a bit of a joke in some cases.

Boos "My husband, PhD in Physics, and I, degree in chemistry, both from RG universities, did double award science and it never held us back."

Did you have the option to take triple at your schools? Genuine question.

DS will be doing fast-paced triple science (taking up 2, not 3 option spots) which I'm nervous about as his school doesn't offer triple at 'normal' speed.

I believe he needs triple to keep as many doors open as possible for himself. He is not particularly 'gifted' or even that interested in other subjects, rejected the opportunity to do a second MFL and tends to write English essays as something akin to bulletin points!

He'll do 11 GCSEs, one at the end of Y10 (Business and communications). I think it's too many but I don't know what he'd drop as there's only one humanity (Geog), one tech (electronics) and there's computer science (note, not IT!). The rest are "Eng Bacc" inc 2 x English

And I too think it's a fallacy that 'no one cares about your GCSEs once you're doing A levels'

10 is enough!!!!!

He doesnt need certain grades to get a job....

I failed all my gcse's, but have since done alot of nvq's, Diplomas....

Always had a job.... Very highly paid

I wish the sciences were broken down, too. DS isn't very interested in biology- one reason why he'll do triple, as a 'fail' as it were in bio GCSE won't bring down his 'double award', being 'stand alone'.

I'm not unhappy with his choices, by and large. He's not sporty, or arty (and, if I were to be honest, imo if you have a genuine talent and commitment to art/photography/dance/drama/sport, you don't need a GCSE to prove it- in fact, I imagine you'd get into further ed art courses, for instance, on the strength of a bloody good portfolio and a decent body of work; or music college on the strength of a virtuoso performance, or a sports course on the strength of being the best U16 runner in the county, or whatever. You won't get onto a RG science or maths course without the right GCSEs or A levels!) or particularly talented or interested in his MFL tho I think he'll get a B.

Erebus - no. Wasnt an option at our comps.

TBH I wouldn't have done it anyway. It would have cut out my only "free choice" of music.

I obviously don't know your situation, Boos but I'd have to say that where I am, a 'double science' at GCSE taken at a school that offers triple would shove you down the list for acceptance into 6th form science A levels. A music GCSE won't bridge that gap!

IF triple wasn't an option, you could well (and obviously were) 'triple science material' but it wasn't on offer.

Russians, running is fine for GCSE PE, as is fitness and a host of other activities that don't actually need advanced coordination. I've long suspected dd is mildly dyspraxic actually - she did GCSE and it was really good for her. She also got a lower grade than in her other subjects, but really, who cares? it's PE! The important thing is that she kept exercising through her teenage years.

If your dd was dyspraxic you'd know., to be honest.

Still I do accept that the concept of a trashed cv will vary according to your own life experience.

And as yellow hinted, up thread, we will all probably be revising our own definitions as we embrace the new govian paradigm come August. :(

Erebus, that may well be the case.

Personally if you can only do 9 (as at the majority of state schools) it seems a waste to do 3 science when a double award is thought of as highly by universities.

And if a school didn't know that a child who - say - got A/A GCSE was bright enough to do physics A level but chose to expand their learning by taking music (or another language, or drama or art) at GCSE and consequently didn't let them take Physics A level I would really question whether they were the right place for my child.

Given how hard it is to persuade kids (girls in particular) that science is cool I would be very very surprised.

Anyway - what do I know eh? flicks through pile of CVs

that was meant to be A / A - stoopid bolding.

she has the floppy arm thing I've noticed in other dyspraxic children russians (I notice it swimming especially - a swim coach friend of mine reckons you can tell dyspraxia from the way dc swim), she still can't hold a knife and fork properly (very awkward looking), handwriting virtually unreadable (and hates, hates hates writing), very clumsy, messy & disorganised, accident prone etc, so she certainly has some of the characteristics. But it's never been formally diagnosed which is why I said mild. In any case there's a very wide choice of sports to use in PE and one of the 4 can be coaching rather than participating, x-country is one and fitness another, dd also did lifesaving, which seems to involve the ability to swim in clothes and not much else. I stand by my view that the benefits are likely to outweigh the disadvantage of an outlier gcse grade in a subject that employers are unlikely to take seriously.

Thanks for the reply flipside - you're right, the main point here is s about the number of GCSEs and we went a bit off piste there! I agree that 10 is enough - that's the normal number for both my DD and DSs' schools, both of which send 1/3 of their kids to Oxbridge or med school every year......

Erebus, as you may have seen I have started a thread about double / triple science as my DS's (otherwise very good) comprehensive offers only double and I am starting to challenge this.

Part of my point is how future employers / educational establishements will tell that he has double from a school that only does double, rather than double because he wasn't considered bright enough for triple? I mean, is there a secret code?? If he does do double - he is able, so is likely to get decent grades overall though perhaps a little too quirky [ASD traits] to manage the exam technique to get stellar results - then I want to be able to help him to communicate that it does not reflect on his abilities, the opportunity to do triple was simply not available.

Any advice or insights?