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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

DD wants to drop a GCSE subject

40 replies

BlueBrightFuture · 24/09/2015 13:25

DD is sitting her GCSEs next summer. She has decided she wants to drop a subject. She finds it hard work and says that she would prefer the concentrate on her other subjects instead. (she will still be taking 11)

The subject teacher said that DD is doing very well and tells DD that she should not drop this GCSE.

Now the teacher is telling DD that I should make the decision as to whether she drops the subject or not.
There was almost no parental involvement when the subjects were chosen so why do I now have to decide if she carries on with a GCSE that she no longer wants to do… Ideally I would like the school to decide together with DD if she will continue …

What if she drops out and regrets in later or decides to carry on and does badly in the exam?

Shall I suggest she carries on until half term and see if she still feels the same? DD is asking me to speak to the teacher but I’m not sure what to say tbh. Anyone has any similar experiences please?

OP posts:
Longstocking2 · 25/09/2015 11:47

Go and talk to the head of year and the form tutor. Someone with experience. Get another opinion, I would. You need more advice.

titchy · 25/09/2015 11:54

No that is not true Autumnsky.

The school has to use the grade from the first attempt in its performance tables, but there is nothing to stop them entering students for some subjects in year 10, or year 9 or year 8 etc.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 25/09/2015 13:00

I dropped Physics O level after the mocks - I had really struggled with it all through the O level course, and when I tried to revise over the Christmas holidays, the combination of not understanding the work, and the stress and worry of the upcoming mocks left me in tears.

I talked it over with my parents, and we felt that I was doing a decent array of O levels without physics, and that it would be better for me to drop one subject that was causing me real stress and anxiety and to concentrate on the other subjects, than to keep on struggling with physics, and risk it dragging all my other subjects down - so we decided I would talk to the school about dropping it.

The school were not particularly happy with this plan - I was in top sets for everything, and I think they wanted every good result they could get - if I dropped physics, that was one less result on the school's record, if that makes sense. I was told I should sit the mock and see how I did - so I failed the mock on purpose. I did a whole question we'd been told not to do, and tippexed it out, and made no effort at the rest. I got 29% - my lowest ever mark - and was told I could give up the O level, but could do the CSE if I wanted to - and I refused.

I have never been more relieved by a decision in all my life - I am sure it was right for me, and I got a slew of decent O level results, got decent A levels, got into nursing, and eventually went on and did a degree - losing that one subject has never held me back.

Only you and your dd can know what is right for her, but if this subject is causing her real stress, I would say let her drop it. She could always do it as an extra subject later on, if she wanted to - and all the Latin she has learned will still be of value to her. I did Latin for fun, at VIth form college, and I love the way that I can use that knowledge to see latin roots to words, and to help me work out meanings of words I don't know, for example. No learning is ever wasted, even if it doesn't have a certificate attached.

Lurkedforever1 · 25/09/2015 13:06

I too think 12 GCSEs is unnecessary, unless they are predicted a* in all and it's done to keep them occupied.
However I think Latin is a really good subject, therefore unless her other subjects are all equally important, I'd look into dropping something else.

beaucoupdemojo · 27/09/2015 12:18

I am having this issue with my ds at the moment. He is in yr 11 and wants to drop a language. He is at a C/D borderline and feels the level of work needed to raise his grade will affect his ability to do well in his core subjects. The head has said no - I think because they have nowhere to put him during lesson time and because it affects their stats. My question is, who has the final say, parent or school?

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 27/09/2015 12:48

Beaucoup - if he does have to carry on with it, could he just coast - do the minimum - or would he still be stressing about the exam?

beaucoupdemojo · 27/09/2015 13:45

He's supposed to do a controlled assessment. Tbh he's got no interest or inclination to carry on. He does 2 languages, one is compulsory and he says he gets confused between the two. In his mind he has given up on it already, and I think he would be better just concentrating on everything else. He is having extra maths tuition at home and been entered for 2 resits following yr 10 exam results, so I can see why he wants to drop this one.

bigTillyMint · 27/09/2015 18:30

beaucoup, why can't they let him study in the library? Could be set work that could be checked. Surely him failing/getting poor grades is worse than him dropping it for the school sats?

DD did 2 languages and found them a bit confusing - if he's got no interest or inclination, definitely better to drop one and focus on the other stuff IMHO.

Brioche201 · 27/09/2015 21:00

Our school does GCSE latin as a twilighter.Every year about 75% decide it is too much effort and drop out.

beaucoupdemojo · 27/09/2015 21:27

Apparently the library is being used as a classroom while some building work is going on so he can't study there. I live close to school and would happily have him come home (and I would make him do homework) but school don't seem keen.

OddlyLogical · 27/09/2015 21:45

Tell to grow up
How do you propose she grows up any quicker than she is?
There is a limit to how much pressure is effective when piled on kids. And you have to remember that they are still kids!
12 GCSEs is unnecessary. 10 As are better than 12 Bs

cathyandclaire · 28/09/2015 16:28

DD1 found Latin a huge amount of work, despite having found it easy pre GCSE. As a pp has said, the vocab is the easy bit, it's the grammar and huge chunks of literature to learn and translate that are tricky. If she has a good selection of other subjects and isn't planning on classics I'd say you should listen to her.

TeenAndTween · 28/09/2015 16:33

beau Do they have an 'inclusion unit' he could go to? That's where DD1 used to go.

Anotherusername1 · 28/09/2015 16:47

Is there another subject she could drop? People in my school only did 8 GCSEs or 9 if they did Maths a year early. Music and Latin were in the same block. I did Music and regretted it from day one.

If I had a TARDIS, it's the one thing in my life I would definitely go back and change, I'd have changed to Latin. Don't know why I didn't given I knew it was an error on day one.

BlueBrightFuture · 12/10/2015 07:47

Just an update.

The school have decided she has to continue with Latin because she is supposed to have "potential. I'm worried about the knock on effect on her other grades but seems the school have to final say. I assumed the student and parents would be allowed to decide but that was clearly wrong Shock

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