GCSE options - any comments

[Lottie4]

DD is in the process of choosing her options. They choose six options and get five. She has chosen French and Geography from Box A and they are guaranteed to get these choices. They choose four choices from Box B, putting them in order of preference and get three. DD has chosen Music, Art Textiles and Ethics. DD thinks she will put history as her spare choice (in case they can't do one of the other five), but an element of her is wondering about DT Textiles (ie making garments).

Jobsize DD is interested in something musical or design. Not necessarily for a job, but she is interested in the environment and preservation of old buildings so I feel she needs to keep this in mind.

Compulsory subjects are Eng Lang, Eng Lit, Maths and Triple or Double Science.

Does anyone have any comments?

Would art textiles and DT textiles be too similar?

That's what I thought to start with. My DD understands art textiles is designing patterns using materials like cardboard, making 3D models and printing different medias. DT textiles is designing and making up garments, and having general knowledge on fabrics. She originally wanted to do DT textiles, but became interested in art textiles when she saw the examples of students work - also the fact that if they want to do an A level in an art subject in sixth form, they must have a B grade GCSE in an art subject - doesn't matter which one.

Whatever she chooses will be her backup if one of the others is fully subscribed, but it's hard to make that choice when you don't know which subject might be changed - ie if she looses an art subject then DT option would be good, if she looses ethics then history might be a good replacement.

One good thing, she is already guaranteed a language and humanity. She's in the set that will be considered for triple science (but still has to do well in a school assessment), so could possible be doing this.

My word - do they really do 11 or 12 subjects!! I think in that case I'd be encouraging my DD to choose something fairly 'easy' for the 11th/12th slot!

If she loses her art GCSE choice, she doesn't have a back up one and so she will not be able to study an Art one at A level? Does DT textiles count as an art subject, a technology or both?

I would consider ensuring that her back up is arts based so that her options at A level are kept open

Something to do with old buildings may be a conservation officer or an architect. If she looks towards Architecture, Art GCSE would be better than textiles if she really wants to do 2 Arty subjects, the other being Music. Environmental jobs are often Engineering based, therefore it won't matter a great deal, but triple science is better. GCSEs should not really be chosen around loosely developed career ideas. They should be broad and cover all bases. Nothing wrong with what she has chosen really.

Bramshott - yes, they can do up to 11!

ShipwreckedAndComatose - no, DT textiles doesn't count as an art subject - she just enjoys it, although, it could come in handy if say she wanted to do costume design for theatre. We have just been talking about this, and I've said if she doesn't get Art Textiles, then I suggests she goes and argues her case for doing an Art subject of some sort, ie she would need a B Grade GCSE to do an art A level with them, and by not giving her an art subject at this stage, will totally restrict that.

MillyMollyMama - thank you. She could choose Fine Art, but doesn't feel this is her strongest subject. She feels art textiles would allow her to be creative in a more successful way.

She's having a good look at all your comments. If she gets her first five choices, I think she has a good all round selection, but the difficulty is not knowing which one would be replaced.

We had this problem with DDs options when we had to rank 3, of which she would get two and her third choice would change dependant on which of the others she didnt get. After discussion the school allowed us to rank two subjects at 3 with a note that said " if she cant do spanish then german, if she cant have music then drama".
So it may be worth asking if you can put more than 4 choices.

I would attach a letter to the form explaining that the back up choice has to be an arts subject for the A level choice (if textiles is not possible) but, with coursework overload considerations, it can't be a second arts if its substituting for one of the others. They should discuss this with you if it ever does become an issue.

In our school the vast majority get their first choices so this would be unlikely to arise as a problem.

Thanks everyone. She's decided to put history as her last choice, but is going to state her choices are given in order of preference, with ethics and then history. She tells me that where they are oversubscribed, they check on performance levels, luckily for her she did very well last term got mainly A and B performance levels. She did get a C in Ethics, which doesn't make sense as apparently she got the highest assessed level in the whole year, but this could possibly be the subject they look at if it comes down to performance.

Anyone got a view on whether my niece should pursue German or French for her GCSE? She likes both, I get the impression German might stretch her more but i also look round the world where these languages are spoken, the. French shines....does it come down to that?
Any views?

If she wants to do languages at university, it might result in a slightly lower offer to do German. Fewer people study German, so less competition. At GCSE you are hardly going to set the world on fire conversationally! I would do the one that suits her best and will result in an A*. Or do both if she is very good at languages.