Sixth form- would this bother you

[dingit]

Dd has a conditional offer for a selective academy. I was chatting to someone who has a dd who has been there since year 7 about A level choices. Dd has chosen her 4 subjects, but apparently existing students are allowed to pick 5. Not that I want dd to do 5, ( that's too much IMO ) but can anyone think why this is. Surely they would all be capable if that's what they wanted?
It's already made me feel a little uncomfortable about her fitting in, they only take 16 from other schools.

I'd be just relieved tbh. It confers no advantage for uni and unless there are 5 subjects she really wants to do then it adds extra work load that could be spent on getting better grades or a part time job or external interests.

Its a status thing, some students will be doing 5 subjects partly becuase their parents will have pushed for it and partly because the school likes some students to do it. The fifth subject is likely to be something like the CoPE award for alot of those students anyway as opposed to a 'proper' subject. Alot of students will drop it when they start struggling with the workload anyway.

The 5th subject she picked is dance, which dd would have liked. Hopefully she will still be able to do it as an extra curricular activity.

I agree with headlesslambrini .... it's possible that in the '5 subjects' your friend references, she has inadvertently included the fact that many 6th forms require the students to do General Studies (or something like that)

It might be best to do three subjects really really well... and then do a cracking good interview on the university rounds... your dd sounds conscientious and focused... best of luck to her!

dingit existing students may be allowed to pick 5 (particularly if GS, CT or further maths are in the mix) but I am sure the teachers will have been involved in advising for who that is not appropriate.
I can imagine that they apply a more conservative approach for outside students as they do not know them well enough to advise.

DD is dong 5 at AS and its killing her.

She is bright and motivated and with a good group of friends at a supportive college but she is counting down the days till she can drop two subjects.

One of the ones she is dropping is Further Maths - it was always planned to just do Maths to A2
The other one she's dropping is her MFL as the work load is massive.
Once she is down to her 3 main subjects (2 sciences and the maths) she'll pick up an EPQ for year 13

Taking 5 to A2 - unless they are all numbers based - is blerdy hard work.

That's interesting talkin. I was wondering whether dd should do further maths, as she wants to do engineering, there was at long discussion on another thread.
I know that doing maths, 2 science and graphic design ( which will be masses of course work) will be more that enough.

Ah, but for engineering, AS Further Maths is so, so, so utterly useful its worth the pain.

TBH its the language that is giving the stress - lots of essay writing.

For your DD it will be the project work in Graphics that will swallow the spare time

My problem is for the selective academy, she has a conditional offer for the subjects she has chosen. I'm not sure if they would allow her to change. If she goes to the sixth form college, they don't offer it.
Argh! It's all so complicated.

She can but ask. Some sixth forms offer the Further Maths AS spread over 2 years or the second year which might be more doable especially if she is only taking the Design to AS level (or one of the sciences).

Thanks summersend, I hadn't thought of that. That's a brilliant idea.