Dd needs to choose two options in year 8, form in tomorrow. Help!

[VivaLeBeaver]

Letter came back today and form needs to be in tomorrow.

I'm worried that if she drops a period it'll affect gcse options.

She has to do,
Maths. 3 periods
English 3 periods
Science. 3 periods
Re. 1 period
History. 1 period
Geography 1 period.
PE. 1 period.
Art. 1 period.
Drama, music, ict, dt all one period each.
Mfl, 2 periods.

Then she has to pick either history or geography for a period.

Plus one more period from,

Extra history
Extra geography
Extra art
Extra drama
Extra dt
Extra citizenship.

She wants to do geography for the first choice which has to be history or geography.

Then she wants to do art.

Will this mean she cuts off the chance to do history for a gcse? She'll just do one period a week whereas geography will be two periods.

She's not sure if she even wants to do history as a gcse but if there's a chance she may want to I don't want her to make a decision now which means she can't.

A lot of schools get them to choose between history and geography for GCSE- my ds has had to make that choice in year 8 too. Does the letter say whether not choosing the extra history means you can't do it for a GCSE?

And why do you think that history is a better choice than geography?

Letter doesn't say whether or not it means she won't be able to do history as a gcse. I didnt know if anyone knew if only doing it for one period in year 9 would mean she couldn't?

At dd's school they can do both at gcse if she wants.

I don't think that history is more important than geography. If anything I'd say its less important. At the minute career wise she seems interested in doing something to do with science, environment, ecology, etc. so she'll need geography as a gcse.

stick with geography for sure.
You need to ask school if she's burning bridges for history if she drops it now (would that be so bad? it's lots of essays, she doesn't sound like a big writing person).
If she loves art I'd let her choose that.

Thanks. She's definitely not keen on essays so maybe would be better not doing history for gcse then. She's dyslexic so prefers more sciencey subjects.

Drop an email to the school and check the implications.

Given that you don't even have to do History GCSE to do History A level, I don't suppose that dropping 1 period a week in y9 will stop her doing the GCSE.

The only thing would be if they are actually starting the syllabus in y9, but I doubt they will do that for History/Geog. (Though they may well do it for science).

I don't agree that Geography is more important than History, but if she is dyslexic, she might be better choosing less essay-based subjects (of which History is one) and Geography does link well with sciences.