Dd in tears over gcse options.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Aggh.

She's been told she can't do art and graphic design as they're in the same option block. Which is a bit shit when you want to be a graphic designer for a career and have been told you're amazingly talented at both subjects.

She's got to pick an option from a different block, so drama, music, computer sciences, history or geography. None of which she wants to do.

When the bloody forms came out the subjects weren't in blocks. I can't understand why they don't do options forms with the subjects in blocks and tell the kids months ago they need to pick one from each block.

Dd asked if she could carry her second language on rather that do something from block D but was told that's not possible as all the languages are in one block as well. Which for a language specialist academy seems stupid. Surely they should put similar subject areas in different blocks?

Anyway, what do you think my chances of arguing it with the school are. Apparantly head of yr 10 told dd he'd try and sort something but he doubted he'd be able to do it. I want to tell the school that unless they're taught at the same time on the same day I want her to be able to do both. Is that unreasonable?

VivaLeBeaver it speaks well for her future that she is strong minded . However if you really think that's her future lies in design then perhaps a bit of pressure bribey as suggested before. However if she is so adamant at least it opens up the possibilities of another academic subject. What are the choices again that she might consider in that block?

It seems unlikely that the teacher will continue to have the time to do extra art particularly at the same level as those doing it for GCSE. She's also going to want time to do other things like socialising after school is n't she?

Yes, I think she's unrealistic in her expectations of how much she'll do in her own time.

The one silver lining if she drops art for graphic design is that I hear the workload is less. Seeing as she will be doing photography as well which is also coursework heavy then that would be a good thing.

We're still no further forward in what to choose from The other option block. I'm still waiting for a phone call back from the school.

Options are geography, history, drama, music, computing, business studies.

I imagine she will end up doing geography.

If she wants to be a Graphic Designer having basic ICT skills does not hurt at all. I've worked with Graphic Designers and they all have some basic programming understanding - particularly javascript

Daughter is a graphic designer, had some amazing jobs. She didn't even do Art at o level. Took it up after a monumental battle with school at A level. Then did a design degree at Uni

And don't get to hung up on a particular programming software - they will all have changed by the time she gets there ! The important thing it to be willing to keep learning new stuff. Daughter doors coding for websites, apps and also does print . But the jobs do tend to be mostly digital - that's were the earning potential is. I think she got an f at goes , she only got into it when it was useful to her !

Gcse not goes !

She has some basic ICT skills. God knows she spends enough time on minecraft, but has set her own server up and has had to do some type of coding for setting up white lists and adding stuff to her server.

I think two years of programming would bore her to tears though.

And I do also think she really ought to choose a more academic option. Fair enough if she had a real passion for computing but she doesn't.

mrsmuffetisin. That's good to hear. Did your dd cope with the art a level ok?

I guess if she does go into a graphics degree they will cover the necessary ICT then. And it will be up to date stuff.

Yes she did. Took at little while to get going, then to quote her art teacher " it all burst out of her '" . She took Art. English, Sociology and History at a level. They seemed to quite like the sociology, perhaps it helps to understand your market ! Must admit I am quite envious of her job Although it has stresses like every job, must be nice to create something for a living .

Computer science is an academic subject, it is classed as a science and is included in the ebacc as a science. (Not that the ebacc matters for parents or for choosing options, it's really only the school that should worry about the ebacc).

She sounds competent enough with IT from what you've described, and I do think that options should be chosen with some regard to what will be enjoyable. 2 years of a subject you're not interested in will be a challenge!

Just found out today that ds can have all his choices: art, graphics and history are all in separate blocks. That's a big relief as his year group is quite small so we thought they might suffer on the option choices.

Congratulations! We are still waiting confirmation that nothing was oversubscribed. Need to know where you stand on the Oxford comma - unnecessary untidiness or necessary clarification?

It's my favourite punctuation... except maybe the ellipsis ;-)