Pressure on daughter

[Kara742]

My 14 year old daughter is in yesr 10 at school and has recently received her predicted grades for gcse. She is taking English language, English literature, maths, further maths, Latin, classics, triple science, food/nutrition, drama, pe, Greek, philosophy and is predicted an A or A* in all of these except Greek (B) which is excellent and I have told her how proud I am. The problem is that now she has seen what she is predicted she has been panicking about the tests and seems continuesoy stressed and worried. It doesn't help that recently she had to miss a few weeks if school because if a burst and infected appendix... How can I get her to stop panicking so much?

she wanted to keep her options open

OP, I'm not sure what you want anyone to say.

It's a ludicrous collection of GCSEs. If she's targeting As and A* then presumably she intends to do A levels and go to university. Six of the GCSEs are either so overlapping as to be pointless or are low value anyway. The combination excludes huge ranges of potential degree courses; unless she wants to do science of some sort already rules out a substantial portion of humanities degrees.

But you seem confident that you, she and the school know what you're doing, so it's not really worth anyone giving you advice. Good luck with it.

Philosophy isn't a Humanity according to Gove (and hence probably most Universities), but isn't it basically very similar to RE?

At my DCs school students who want to do Latin but won't get the highest grade are encouraged to do Classics instead. To be honest the only students I know who study both Latin and Greek want to study Classics or Ancient History at University.

On the other hand my year 10 DD is very stressed and is studying a more normal balance of subjects. The Media doesn't help.

14 GCSE's is far too many. Now that the OP has clarified that her daughter is at a selective state school I'm not surprised.
Independent schools dont usually go above 10 GCSE's as they know that it's better the child get 10 A's than 14 Bs/Cs.
I thinks you should book an appointment with the school and see if any subjects can be dropped.

As someone who with all classmates took Latin O level back in the 70's, just before my all girls private school dropped it because it was a dead language I am left wondering why state secondary schools are now advertising on their open day that they do Latin.
Not one of my friends who like me were forced to do the subject ever found it to be useful so why are we going backwards?

To the poster above- Latin gives a fantastic grounding in grammar and it allows people who are intellectually curious to go on to study medieval texts and texts printed right up until the seventeenth century, as Latin was the language of scholars and it was the international diplomatic language. It is not dead in academia. Sometimes it is worth keeping something alive because it allows us to access our past. Also, if you want to read Hobbes in his original textual form, such as De Cive, you need Latin. He is the forefather of our rights and democracy. I think it's great that more schools are offering something that is purely for the joy of learning and unlocking texts. It won't suit everyone but at least it's available for those who want to do it.

Your daughter should probably drop Class Civ and Greek. CC is not as well regarded by universities unless applying to read that subject or Ancient History. Greek because it isn't going so well.

It isn't the greatest combination of subjects as they are disparate, but agree that subjects such as drama should be dropped if the pressure gets too much, rather than sacrificing English or another core subject. Better she drops it than gets a C or D.

"...go on to study medieval texts and texts...allows us to access our past"

Indeed. The sort of thing you'd find very useful were you studying, say, History at university. Which the OP's daughter isn't doing at GCSE.

Write down all the subjects for which Latin or Greek A Level are useful at university. Cross out all the ones which need or strongly recommend History. Interesting, no?

If your daughter is panicking and continually stressed and worried then this is is not the best choices for her. She does not need so many GCSEs and is unlikely to fulfill her academic potential long term if she is already struggling to cope with the pressure.

I think you need to have a rethink and regroup with your daughter and the school, so narrow the number of subjects she is taking so she can maximise the opportunity to learn, enjoy and achieve in the remaining subjects.

I am . I accidentally gave myself 2 extra O levels. I only have 11, I did 1 early, 9 at the normal time and 1 late. You wouldn't believe I have 2 O and 2 A levels in Maths, would you.

I blame senility.

How on earth does Latin qualify as a MFL though? No one outside of Vatican City uses it on a daily basis to communicate, so it surely can't qualify?!

It is very useful though, especially if she goes into any medical field.

It doesn't. Count as a MFL, I mean.

OP- there are people on here (not me, I hasten to add) who are experts in this sort of thing. Please listen to them. She is being badly advised.

mummytime Gove is not reflecting uni policy on GCSEs anymore than than unis have any time for his prescriptive baccalaureate. Certainly for humanities courses at my uni they like to see Religion and Ethics (providing the pupil has studied the thinking of more than one religion) since belief systems underly a lot of aspects of culture and behaviour. Not sure about Philosophy though, religion and ethics is the GCSE most good schools would offer as a pathway to Philosophy at A or degree level, and unis would not need you to have studied it even at A level to go on to do a Philosophy degree. It is hard to see how you could have any useful study of Philosophy at GCSE, might as well read Sophie's World. However what they do like to see is a sensible spread of academic subjects, even in Scientists or classicists and this spread would look odd to them. The school should as my DDs's school did, guide them to a sensible selection based on their ambitions and only allow them to start narrowing at this stage if set on a career for instance in the arts and want to keep up art music and drama. This sounds more like a lucky dip or someone going a bit mad in the sweetie shop.

And my DDs' indie have only five rigid prescriptions Maths, English Language, English Literature, at least double Science and one MFL and that does not include Latin and Greek.

OP, your DD is not the only on panicking - my DD is too! Well she has settled a bit since the start of term, but as she is doing 15 (yes, you read that correctly) GCSE's and has good predicted grades for all, it's not surprising.
It would be 14, but she wants to do PE as an extra. This is the norm for her comp AFAIK. They also started in Y9. And have been getting predicted and current grades since then.

FWIW, I don't think your DD has that weird a selection. My DD is doing She is taking English language, English literature, maths, triple science, drama, French, Spanish, History, Art-textiles, compulsory RE, ICT and Citizenship/PSHE (all of which I would be happy for her to drop) and the PE. She also keeps on top of everything and chooses to do over 10 hours of gymnastics a week and have a healthy social life

We spoke to the school/individual teachers quite a bit at the start of term and that has seemed to help (for the minute at least)

It does seem strange to do Latin etc. but not history.

She is sounds worried and under pressure. If she were my dd I would want to relieve some of her concerns by telling her to drop some subjects to reduce her workload. Perhaps start helping er decide what she wants to do next so she can focus.

but as she is doing 15

Let's hope the teachers at these sort of schools aren't to be heard whining that privately educated children are more likely to get into selective university courses. Fifteen. FFS.

It's not the teachers' fault - it's the Head!

We are wavering between wanting her to have as long as poss to get the best grade she is capable of and wanting her to do some early to relieve the pressure

Friday16, I am far from confident as I have said I would i talked to her and am going to phone the school. Maybe I'm defending her options where I shouldn't but I never claimed to be an expert and I'm genuinely grateful for everyone's advice. Also, I have been told by many of dd teachers that Latin is a mfd and philosophy is a humanity. Also, as I previously said dd wasn't stressed by the workload which has been the same since the beginning if year 9 but from the thought that some of her gcses will be taken this year.

The Philosophy, if it is a GCSE exam with a UK exam board, is in fact Religious Studies. There is no GCSE in philosophy. The closest you can get, is a GCSE in thinking skills.

However, many schools offer the GCSE RS with the philosophy and ethics modules (OCR B for example) and they then call it 'philosophy and ethics' or just 'philosophy', but believe me, as a philosophy teacher it is anything but!

I also teach RS, and I'd say take the pressure off the RS GCSE. Honestly, it really is quite easy, embarrassingly so at times, and does not prepare the students well for either the philosophy or the Religious Studies A level, which many students find quite hard. I know many of my AS students at the moment are struggling with the step up. You don't need to drop it, but if your child is bright, (and you certainly seem to be suggesting that she is), students can get a good grade by just understanding the basics and learning a few Bible quotes.

Kara, DD wasn't stressed with the workload last year either, but is now. It is really hard to know what to do for the best.

OP
your DDs set of GCSEs is very odd, and I wonder how her SuperSelective let her pick them.

DD is at a comp and is doing
English Lang, English Lit, triple Science, Geography, History, Maths, Further maths (because the top set do mathis in three terms), Spanish, Latin and a fluffy tech one
that is 12 - which will be a bucket load of exams for next summer
but its the Ebacc (no matter how Gove plays it)
its minimal duplication
and the set leads neatly into her planned A levels

what does your DD plan to do in the long run ?
like when she's 25

NB
RE is not compulsory in years 10 and 11 : there is an opt out form if you ask for it
PHSE and PE are not examined subjects even though they are timetabled
and nor is RE unless you choose it ...

Friday, you can do History as an A level without having done it as a GCSE. So although the op's dd's GCSEs don't look ideally "broad and balanced" (to steal a quote from my dd's school) to me, I think she could probably still do a wide range of A levels, which are going to matter more than her GCSEs.

Talkin, that is really interesting and useful about the RE.

Ehhn

I did Latin and the connection between Latin and making you better at English is in my case lost as I gained an "impressive" U in both English Lit and English Language.
In the real world how many people in any school year make a living out of studying medieval texts or read Hobbes etc.
Far more practical would be cookery lessons, how to feed a family on a budget and lessons on how to budget money, pay bills, buying and selling on Ebay and how to use comparison websites. Learning these are what is going to keep this country out of future recessions not spending hour upon hour studying a dead language. Let Latin be a frilly add on for those who really want to do it not a subject everyone has to do for the benefit of a handful of students countrywide.

Unfortunately, Cookery, however (or even old style Home Economics) doesn't exist at present. It's Food Technology, and that's not going to help you IRL much.