Yr9 Options... two MFL, two humanities, no arts - feasible?

[MrsMot]

Dd's options booklet came out today and she's really swithering about what to choose.

Basics will be Eng Lang and Eng Lit, Maths, French, Geography, triple science. She is desperate to use her 'optional' slots to take German and History - she's currently 7B for both humanities and 7C for both languages.

She does Drama out of school and is working her way through her LAMDA exams - if she had an extra option this is the subject she'd take.

She genuinely can't choose which humanity to drop should she have to, she loves both and it's already been suggested she'd be more than capable of taking both to A-Level. There is the possibility of short courses in Geog and History but they would limit her ability to take them further.

Her school will let her take that combination but from people's experience is having an arts subject important? Dd is my eldest and it's sooooo long since I did GCSEs I've nothing recent to base anything on!

I think what your DD wants to do is great as she is doing LAMDA outside school. I really would not worry. An art type subject is ideal to have in the mix because it shows breadth, but in my opinion, two languages is better as this gives greater flexibility at A level and eventually at degree level than Drama would do. As the school are ok too, go with it.

My DD also in yr 9 soon to choose options. She is determined to do drama though she has passed LAMDA grade 5. I'm worried she will find the drama GCSE a duplication. Anyone any experience of this?

At my son's school they have to do a creative subject (art, music, drama or one of 3 DTs) but they do all 11 GCSEs.

One of the other local schools suggests if they don't do a creative subject they try to stay involved with school drama productions or concerts. My DD doesn't act but she works on the technical side of theatre, sound board, lighting, painting sets etc. Are there lots of drama opportunities at your DDs school?

Our school doesn't have Drama as an option. I would say 2/3 of each GCSE year don't do an Arts GCSE. But at least 2/3 of each year will be involved in something artistic in school or out.
2 languages and 2 humanities will be tough during controlled assessment (can't remember when that's meant to disappear) but if it's what your child will enjoy I say go for it!
It's been a while since I looked at the specifications, but while there'll be overlap between Drama and Lamda in terms of performance the GCSE covers other aspects as well.

not answering the arts question, but I took A level history without taking o level (I am old) and as your daughter is pretty bright no reason why she cannot pick history up later.

A lot of schools won't let you do History A level if you don't have it at GCSE.

When DD had problem cutting down choices, the school said to do extra MFL as history A level could be done without GCSE but MFLs couldn't!

I did exactly that German French history and geography (plus the other core subjects). I also did drama outside of school.
I liked all of my subjects but I do remember wishing I had a 'downtime' subject as my school life then became very much about writing writing writing. There was no creativity and I missed that even though I did drama outside of school I now wish I had done something lighter in school too.

Thanks for your replies. Her school won't let you do A Level Geog or History without the GCSE. We'll need to look at the requirements I think to get a feel for what the workload will be.

I advise my students to find someone who is doing their proposed option choices and speak to them. You'll get an honest response of what the workload is like that way.

is having an arts subject important?

No. Not unless she wants to take that subject further. If she is passionate about the subjects she wants to do, she should do them.

I'd be encouraging her not to more than one language and to take history. History really develops their essay writing and analytical skills.

It can be pretty tough doing both language orals at the same time, as well as other exams.

My DD did Lamda and is doing gcse drama. The gcse seems to have a different approach and she is enjoying it.

The 2 languages and 2 humanities sounds fine to me.

DD1 has found geography a grade A pain in the neck.

There are masses of examples (case studies) to learn as well as the general theory.

Your DD may really wish she didn't have these, history and two MFLs worth of vocab to learn.

My older daughter did two MFLs and History and Geography. In fact though a Scientist and now doing Natural Sciences at uni she sacrificed triple Science in favour of double Science in order to keep them all up, along with RMT (woodwork and metalwork in old money ) School advised the breadth would be in her favour and that as others have highlighted it is good to have a subject that gives you a taste of something different, a change being as good as a rest. She really enjoyed RMT and can actually wire a plug / change a lightbulb I think getting 10 A* and doing 4 science /maths subjects at A level were far more important in terms of uni entrance. I understand that some unis will even count Geography A level as a Science for entry purposes.

History does have a heavy workload at GCSE but the other three were about average. Drama also has a heavy workload though (though quantity rather than quality, a lot of writing up of the practical stuff) and I have known DDs' peers give it up feeling it wasn't worth the heavy workload whereas History most definitely is. It has a reputation of being demanding of skills as well as knowledge and being a good preparation for A level. My other DD is doing humanities so doing the two plus one MFL was a no brainer.

Both my DDs carried on with LAMDA to grade 8 which I gather counts as an AS level in terms of points on your UCAS form? Anyway neither saw any point in doing O level as well, and both were in theatre groups outside school as well as one appearing in a west end production. She just completed her UCAS application and to be honest her drama merited only one sentence and that about what she learned about Shakespeare's writing through performance. They want evidence of your enthusiasm for your chosen course and that you will succeed, as practically every pupil who has had the opportunities will have lots of extra curricular, and they cannot disadvantage those who have not had the opportunities. And as uni admission officers on her have admitted most of the time they don't have the time to look much beyond predicted grades at A2.

Starball really? both my DDs found Geography relatively easy.

not answering the arts question, but I took A level history without taking o level (I am old) and as your daughter is pretty bright no reason why she cannot pick history up later.

Beat me too it.

She can obviously write an essay (English lang and lit) and be a diagnostician (sciences) so should be able to pick up history at A Level if she wants to.

Also she is doing an art, she is doing drama.

And though my DD didn't do two MFLs because she expected to need them in the future she was offered an internship in scientific research in Germany this summer and having German at GCSE was actually a requirement.

You might be able in some schools to do A level History without GCSE but the experience you get with interpretation of sources etc. is invaluable. Interpreting sources isn't quite the diagnostic process you learn in Science, especially since it is all about subjectivity. There are skills of empathy you need in History to perhaps an even greater extent than when interpreting literature! Not quite the same signposts. Plus my DDs enjoyed the curriculum and found the knowledge they gained of the lead up to WW2 and the American Civil Rights Movement worthwhile in itself.

Check the topics being studied for History.
It could be 20th Century History or it could be Medicince Through Time and Wild West.

Also, might sound stupid, but does she have to stay at her school for A level, or could she go elsewhere? The 6th form colleges round here don't require History GCSE to do A Level. But you can't do langauges from scratch (except Italian).

That said, she looks bright enough from her levels. If I were her Mum I'd be nudging towards 2 languages & 2 humanities. At least they are under her control, whereas drama depends partly on skills / inclination of other people on the course.

We're just choosing now . . DD is academic and will be taking the obligatories (Eng x 2, Science x 3, Maths and French as her MFL). She's choosing Latin, History & Geog as options. If she gets the chance to do an extra, it'll be creative but, TBH, drama/photography/dance is something she can do extra curricularly. I really wouldn't worry about the lack of an "arts" GCSE, esp as her CV will detail her LAMDA stuff, thus demonstrating her breadth of interests

DDs school only allows 9 GCSEs to be taken so leaves few choices.

I'm not convinced that drama GCSE is the best choice for her as it seems to rely a bit too much on group work so will be assessed partly on other people's work. May be bad news if others in the group are not pulling their weight.

She takes part in several local drama, dance and performance groups - is always rehearsing for one show or another - so not sure what the GCSE will add.

I'm a bit concerned it may be quite time consuming for very little gain.

My DS is Y9 and soon to take his options. He is academic and won't be doing any creative/practical subjects. He doesn't enjoy than and isn't particularly good at them, although bizarrely he often gets high levels because most of these subjects require a certain amount of academic input in terms of planning/writing up etc and he is always good at that.

I can't see the point of forcing him to do these subjects in the interests of being more "rounded". I'm a firm believer in kids being allowed to go with what they're good at, what they enjoy and, if they're really focussed on pursuing a particular career, what might help them with that.

My DS is quit literally counting down the days until he doesn't have to suffer art and textiles any more.

DS1 has to do Maths, English x2, Science x3 and German.
He's also going to do History & Classical Civilisation.
This leaves one slot, which is likely to be filled with ICT or Economics.
He has no interest in arts subjects and we're not going to force him.

My DD1 is in Yr8 and we are already thinking about this... Her school allows 10 GCSEs and our instinct is to do double rather than triple science so that she can do either Art or Drama - she really wants to do an art subject, but definitely wants to do English x2, History, Geography, Maths and a MFL (probably German). Doing triple science would give her one option, but she would like two and she prefers chemistry and biology to physics. She is also very academic and I worry that the school will push her towards triple science because she is more than capable of doing it, at the expense of one arts subject.