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Secondary education

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

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Original poster

DD won't be able to take MFL as option now.....sad.... :-(

41 replies

hampshiremum321 · 04/05/2017 14:07

DD's school does a 3 year GCSE so they choose options in Year 8. After much angst, she chose Art, Textiles, Geography and Italian. She loved the sound of the language and for the past 3 months has been practicing on Duolingo on a daily basis in preparation for September.

We have now been informed that they are not running Italian as only 5 pupils signed up and it is not financially viable. Also, French and Spanish are now full so no longer options, and DD has no interest in German. So this means she misses out on doing a MFL! We are gutted, she feels as if she has done all her home studying for nothing.

Not many options open to her now - and she has to choose by tomorrow! Basically Computer Science and RE are what's left. She is too upset to choose :-(

Has something similar to this ever happened to anyone else?

OP posts:

Original poster

hampshiremum321 · 04/05/2017 17:25

Hi, thanks for all feedback. DD already doing Italian on Duolingo and enjoying it - hopefully she will have opportunities in the future. She just feels she has "wasted" the last 3 months preparing for Sept, but I have told her she mustn't think of it as a waste. She is still continuing with the Duolingo regardless, bless her.
Thanks for feedback regarding RE - I am also thinking it would be a good choice now. Originally I wasn't sure, but having looked at the course content I must say it looks like a very interesting subject.

OP posts:

AChickenCalledKorma · 04/05/2017 17:42

I feel for you. DD1's school was unable to offer French to her year group, as only two people opted for it. Everyone had done German from Year 7, so that was the language that filled up. One of the two is now studying French in her own time as she wants to do languages at uni.

Would your DD consider French or Spanish if they weren't full? It is in the school's interests for her to do a MFL because without it they won't be able to tick the EBacc box for her. I wonder if they'd manage to squeeze her in, especially as she's been working hard in her own time on another language. Might be worth trying to have a proper conversation with them before accepting that it's a done deal.

Of course you'd have to be able to give a pretty good reason why German doesn't attract her! It also has a lot going for it as a language, in terms of being quite logical with predictable pronunciation.

PossumInAPearTree · 04/05/2017 17:51

Have to say Dd loves re out of all her options so much that she's picking it for a level. She's found it interesting and I think it's a useful subject with transferable skills of viewing things from other viewpoints, being able to sensibly put your opinion/arguement over.

mousymary · 04/05/2017 19:04

Well, I'd insist on taking an MFL.

What has she done up to now? Surely she must have been doing an MFL in years 7 and 8.

Actually, what school is this? (Nosey!) You need only give an initial if you want - I'll be able to decipher from that!

TeenAndTween · 04/05/2017 19:34

I'd be pretty grumpy and would be potentially kicking up a fuss to be allowed to do Spanish instead.
(I'd like to know which school as well!)

BertrandRussell · 04/05/2017 19:41

But she's been offered a MFL. Just not the one she wants.......

Original poster

hampshiremum321 · 04/05/2017 20:43

LIZS they don't offer Latin. The only language she had any kind of "passion" for was the Italian really. And BertrandRussell is quite right - they could always say that she could do German to do her Ebacc.

It is encouraging to read responders positive response to RE though. Yes, it will be worth having another chat with the school (SC) to make absolutely sure.
AChickenCalledKorma - I think I might have been able to convince her to do Spanish if it wasn't full.
Bach2Bach - you are quite right about those scary verbs! lol
Thanks again for all the feedback, I am already feeling better.

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GiraffesCantDoMentalArithmetic · 04/05/2017 21:35

Please remember that schools would love to offer courses for 5 students. Funding cuts mean all children are missing out. Because those 5 children are not in Italian, everyone else's class size increases. Funding in education is seriously awful right now.

I'm so sorry your daughter is disappointed OP. It is grossly unfair to absolutely everybody, including the staff at her school.

Firenight · 04/05/2017 21:43

Can you look into her taking Italian gcse elsewhere and sign her up for German at school?

Mulledwine1 · 05/05/2017 10:04

There is an Italian course on Futurelearn - get her to do that and at least she will have a certificate at the end. It is free to do the course but you have to pay for the certificates (there are 6 courses altogether). The course is run by the Open University.

They also had a standalone course run by the University of Siena but I don't know if they are still operating that one as they have the Open University one now.

cantkeepawayforever · 05/05/2017 11:09

Ooof! It seems an awful shame that schools are doing 3 year GCSE courses for all subjects now - rather than just starting Sciences early and moving on to the GCSE English and Maths courses when ready in Year 9.

I'm glad that both DS and DD have had a full subject range - 2 languages, the whole range of DT, Art, Drama, Music and all humanities - all the way up to the end of Y9. They do also have 5 option blocks, with one that is virtually all languages, so it is much easier to keep a full range of subjects open, too.

It's sad that a combination of budget cuts and curriculum changes have made restricting the curriculum the 'safest' option for Y9.

Original poster

hampshiremum321 · 05/05/2017 13:09

Thanks Mulledwine1 for the info on Futurelearn - will definately look in to that!
Thanks everyone else for all feedback

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grufallosfriend · 05/05/2017 14:08

I would choose German at school and keep up the Italian outside. Also, the Italian she's already learnt isn't 'wasted', it's a great skill she's learnt.

Whileweareonthesubject · 06/05/2017 08:39

If she definitely doesn't want to do German, would she continue to learn Italian independently, or as an evening course? The problem with choosing German as her 'second best' is that unless she discovers a previously hidden passion for it, she will always be aware that it wasn't her first choice and that might affect her attitude towards her study. Maybe a completely different subject would be better - not a constant reminder that she's doing a different language from the one she wanted.
RE is very different to when I was at school. Both DCs loved it and took it at GCSE. One of them did it as an extra subject after school (teacher ran it for a small group of pupils as there weren't enough of them to justify a timetabled slot) . It was commented upon at DC1 university interview - they loved it because of the thinking skills and said they would like more of their students to offer it.

mousymary · 06/05/2017 08:54

I'm still asking about the MFL that the OP's dd will have done for nearly two years. Schools don't just offer French/Spanish/German from year 9. So what language is she potentially dumping?

Italian GCSE evening courses are not very common. Holiday Italian, yes, but not a formal course leading to a qualification.

Original poster

hampshiremum321 · 06/05/2017 09:31

Mousymary, she is doing French at the moment. Which is now full. She only had a passion for the Italian really which is why we have said no to German.
Whileweareonthesubject, thanks for the positive remarks on RE. She has decided to go for that one.

OP posts:

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