Options, anyone?

[lljkk]

DS-y9 got his booklet home today. Anyone up for chat?
(am half excited, half dismayed).

That's good info

That's good info

...regarding Economics, thank you.

They don't offer Business Studies or Child Development. I think he's hoping that ICT will be a soft option.

His Latin teacher agrees with us that Latin GCSE would not be a great idea for him. He is good at Maths, Science and essay subjects but has little aptitude for learning foreign vocabulary or grammar. The German will be challenging enough without adding Latin to it.

Just had a friend round whose son is going to find it difficult to choose because he is good at everything and all the teachers are begging him to do their subject. ODFOD.

MMM re your comment - If children can do languages, they can get onto degree courses with lower offers

Is this just engineering, or anything offering a year abroad?

TeenAndTween DD1 (yr12 now) did compulsory GCSE equivalent ICT last year. Nothing difficult, but very time-consuming and 'bitty'. Most of her group were told they had A*/A but all ended up with B/C. It was DDs only C equivalent, and very disappointing.

A bit of hindsight now GCSEs are over for her:
DD1 loved Geography in yr7 to 9, but hated the GCSE course, mainly the case studies. Think history would have been worse for her though, because of the essays. It may have been better with a 2nd MFL and forgetting the Ebacc.

Really glad I helped talk her out of Drama or Catering, would have had to cut back to double science to fit it in, and not worth losing a more academic subject for when they only do 9 proper GCSEs). The workload on top of Music would have been too much. All her (A grade) friends that did two of Art/Drama/Music/Catering ended up with a B or below in at least one. And for them it was at the expense of MFL which they would have done better in.

Psychology is like science too.

I've not heard of a language GCSE giving you a lower offer for engineering at uni.
Further maths A-level helped DS get the slightly lower offer of 3xAs for an A*AA course

I haven't read all of the replies but I wish that someone had told me to do some thinking about careers and college/uni course requirements before choosing my options. It all worked out in the end, but there were a couple of nervous moments! Some simple online careers questionnaires might help to see the sorts of subjects which your DS might need to have under his belt later on. Good luck!

Update:

History is still in the running (and will probably remain there, as he's very good at it and enjoys it).

Classical Civilisation is still in the running (and damn well better be, as we're forking out £650 for a trip to two cities that make up 50% of the syllabus).

ICT is out.

Latin is back in! He has been going on the CLC website regularly over the holidays to catch up on his grammar and vocabulary, and now says he likes Latin again.

Pros: it goes well with History & Classical Civilisation.
Cons: he is not a natural linguist and will be one of the weaker candidates in the GCSE set.

More cons: the Latin course they do is a lot of work (WJEC) and this combination of subjects seems quite skewed towards the academic side.
To recap, he would be doing:
Maths
English language
English literature
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
German
History
Classical civilisation
Latin

We have our first parent info evening on Thursday; either 7 or 14 days later is the afternoon to ask questions about individual syllabi,I think (we've been given 2different dates but I think only one date is right). They got other dates mixed up, not very impressed with their organisation right now.

Yesterday evening I watched him trying to do a Latin translation from Book 2 of the CLC. He had to look up nearly every word!

Because of his complete lack of interest or aptitude in creative/practical subjects, he will have to choose one from:
Latin (he is up for it but I really think he will struggle).
Geography (hates it).
RS (hates it).
ICT (not good at it, not interested in it).
Economics (interested in it and will be able to manage it, but 100% of the marks are from 1 exam).

Dt does not have 40 hours of assessed homework.

It has 40 hours of assessed coursework.

My year 11's would die if they had 40 hours of homework.

I don't want to speak too soon, but at this moment in time we actually have a consensus (reserves in brackets):

History

Classical Civilisation
Latin
(Economics)
(RS)

We had options evening last night. It turns out DS will rank everything on offer and is guaranteed so many out of his top 5 choices.

Actually DS only gets 4 options; it seems so narrow. I really don't like the way the English system makes them narrow & specialise so early! He's thinking he'll put down
iMedia,
Computing,
music
and one of German-geography-triple science-PE-French-history-DT graphics or further maths.

Choice four not exactly narrowed down then!

well it kinda doesn't matter, because he only gets to express preference priorities rather than choose for certain, iyswim.

Yes, I was just kidding.
His 'one of...' list just seemed a bit... erm... extensive.

Good tip about looking at Revision Guides to see course content before deciding - thanks

Okay .... can someone guide me through BTEC Vs GCSE?

DD is bright but finds written work difficult (very left-handed) so we are suggesting subjects more 'practical' as a good move. But how are BTECs actually regarded by employers etc? Are they seen as 'CSE' and therefore as only for the 'thick'?

I think you would do well to talk to a load of careers advice people, but the main thing is that the BTECs target different subjects by and large. So you wanted to go into construction then BTECs are the way to go. Whereas a future geography teacher needs to think geography GCSE now. Some of the wealthiest people I know are self-employed electricians; they needed business studies & vocational courses to get there.

Checking in!

Dd has to have her provisional choices in by the end of the month so they can start working out a feasible timetable - they start some courses in the Summer of Yr9. Parents evening is at the end of the month.

We though all was plain sailing - she effectively only has two option choices. Eng Lang, Eng Lit, Maths, one MFL, Hist or Geog, triple science are compulsory. She wants to take the other humanity as one choice and she wanted (before Christmas...) to take German as the other as she's a v good linguist. However now she's changed her mind.

So the alternatives she's considering are Classic Civilisation, Computer Science or Drama. Nice random selection.

It's a shame about German, we've been told on current levels she'd be looking at A* without much difficulty.

I pinned DS down yesterday with rope and a weapon because I drove him somewhere for 45 minutes we got to talk. His choices are now something like, in this order:
imedia, computing, music, triple sci, further maths, PE, german, geography, history... and a long list of stuff he really does not want. He's surprising me with mature thinking about it all, long may that last!