Options

[user1486669405]

Son is in year 9 and has recently chosen his options.

Last week his drama teacher has asked him if he had chosen it. He hadn't. Teacher recommended he did, saying he had a talent for it, rather etc. Son is now unsure whether to go for it. He and I were also surprised, as his grade bands are relatively low for the subject. He has never tried out for a school play, etc. He now says this is due to lack of confidence and worry he'd forget his lines. He also thinks his low marks, to date, might be due to being in a rubbish group, who mostly mess about. Also, he's had a lot of English tutoring at home, as he was struggling, his marks for English of gone from very low to very high and I'm wondering if this could be starting to have an impact on a subject like drama.

He is unsure whether to drop a subject he is reasonably good at in favour of drama, as teacher's encouragement does give a feeling of potential success.

My only worry is that the teacher didn't get enough students to sign up to the class and is trying to fill it. Is this unlikely? My gut instinct suggests drama would be v popular (plus it's a big school).

Ultimately I'll let my son choose what he wants but I just wanted to ask.

I wouldn't as he doesn't have good marks for it or confidence to be in plays etc. Dd is year 8 but I'm hoping she'll pick subjects she gets good grades in.

I would share your suspicions about teacher's motive (the more honest teachers will tell the kids themselves this is true, too!)... he needs to do subjects he feels best about. Most teachers like lots kids taking their subject.

Has he even looked at the syllabus? DS can emote with best of them, but he doesn't like group work or creative homework, so Drama was out for him.

Drama may not get as big a sign up as you think, but it is possible that the teacher is fishing for pupils.

I wouldn't choose it.

Stick with subjects he enjoys and is good at.

Drama seems to require a lot of additional.time and rehearsals out of class. Plus, group work for exams can be stressful if he ends up in a group with people who took it because they didn't want to so essay subjects.
If he loved it then he could get past those downsides. If he's ambivalent the I wouldn't.

Drama is reliant on others.
This makes it higher risk than some other subjects.
But
It is a break from sitting in the classroom.

I wouldn't.

Evenm at GCSE level many of the boards have an element of group working (even though you are marked for your part in the group). My friend's daughter was just given what she felt was the crappest part with the least to do and therefore lost confidence that she would be able to show her best in the small amount of time etc.

I would hate to have to rely on someone else if it meant bringing my grade down.

I hate it when teachers do this.
Tell him to stick with what he had originally chosen if he's happy with it.

My dd had this with about three teachers saying how great she'd be at their subject. She ended up getting upset because she felt that she was letting them down by not taking it.

Thanks for the insight. He seems to have decided not to take it, anyway. He is a lovely boy and parents evening is usually spent, with each teacher telling us just how fabulous he is, but in terms of his personality rather than his academic prowess. He said the teacher had said he was 'standing out' and 'showing potential' and that he was the only one the teacher said this to, at the end of the class. However his screenings haven't reflected this at all! His career aspirations lie with engineering, so quite different to drama, but I think it could be great for helping him with his confidence and just being well rounded, but seems hugely risky. It's just being singled out like that, when he isn't ordinarily by teachers made him/me wonder if he should go for it.

My only worry is that the teacher didn't get enough students to sign up to the class and is trying to fill it. Is this unlikely?

It's highly likely I'm afraid. With the "per pupil" funding cuts, there's the likelihood of less popular subjects being dropped. At my son's school, some GCSE classes have less than 10 pupils, one only has 4, and those will be the first to go when teacher numbers have to be cut.

My son was pressurised by his Latin teacher to take it through to GCSE as he was good at it and got top marks - he resisted the pressure and chose resistant materials instead, and hasn't regretted his decision for one minute (despite RM being a very weak subject to him in years 7-9, he's now producing some really good work as it's something that actually interests him!). Meanwhile Latin is one of the subjects that may well be dropped completely from the school curriculum as pupil numbers to GCSE and A level have plummeted in the last few years.

What subject would he be dropping to make way for drama?

We are having the same battle with Art for Y9, mine would have to drop humanities or language in order to choose it.
The teacher says she's good at Art and she enjoys it, but I think it's too soon to drop humanities, I know she wouldn't drop language.
She has to choose them in a couple of weeks, to start in Y9.
I used to be all for letting them choose themselves with only a bit of guidance, but as they are choosing options much earlier these days, I'm not so sure it should just be their decision.
Mine is only 13.

Ludicrous, isn't it, to have a narrow education at 13?! More and more schools are doing this and Ofsted have just praised it at a relative's school due to a relatively low percentage of high achievers in the school.

Most good schools are happy with either Geography or History and a MFL. This should leave room for Art (or Music, or Drama or DT etc). Lots of children do not take History and Geogrsphy to GCSE. Personally I think a good education should include an Art subject.

I can understand them taking their GCSE options a year early for the high-intensity subjects such as the sciences and languages, but not sure that you need to take 3 years for the humanities and arts. Perhaps they should have some kind of "carousel" where you, eg. do one term of each humanity in year 9 and a rotation of the arts, techs, etc, so they continue to get exposure for another year before committing to the GCSE courses in year 10.

I agree Badbad. That could be a way forward. We also know many of the 14-19 technical schools are poor so we now seem to want to replicate their narrow curriculum at standard schools! What are people to do that value a broad based curriculum? What happens to the brightest children who are fed a limited diet of a curriculum for 3 years? Some will only take 8 subjects now as well!

Agree that the system has them narrow down at far too young an age.

Re: drama in terms of life skills, it can be incredibly useful, because performing confidently in front of a group at work or at a job interview is in my experience of the workplace -- probably more important than actual ability (and certainly more important than GCSE results!). Drama can teach you how to appear confident even when you're not feeling that way. That said, you'd only get that from a good teacher.

If you DS starts thinking of a career on the stage as a fallback for engineering , he could always take a drama class after school or during the summer.

I don't mind them choosing options when younger, but I do worry that mine especially may not have the capacity to choose wisely.
It shouldn't be our choice but I think they'll need that much guidance that it will end up not really being their choice.
My dd has a very narrow choice of options, but in fairness we knew this when applying, they are totally up front about it.