MFL cockup

[JumpingJoey]

NC as this may out the school my child goes to.
Dd is more of a scientist but is a good all rounder and goes to the local comp. She is in the top set for Maths and Spanish (the only ones that are set). She has done Spanish since Year 5 so it makes sense that she takes Spanish as her compulsory GCSE language option and she enjoys it, being one of the top ones in the year. This year, Year 8, the brighter ones had to take another language. She didn't want to take French nor German but she decided on German as she was less likely to get it mixed up with Spanish.
At parents' evening they said as she was getting good grades they wanted her to take 2 languages in Year 9 in the same time slot others take one language in. She said she probably just wanted to do Spanish (bit awkward as German teacher there) but they said we'll keep you on the list because you can change your mind. We then got a letter saying congratulations Dd has been invited to do two languages as she is doing so well. We sent the letter back to say that she just wanted to do Spanish.
We got a letter yesterday to say that she couldn't do her first choice so she will be doing her second choice only. German. For the whole of Year 9. To make matters worse they justified it by saying that the new harder GCSE means it is better to use the time just to do one language. So no Spanish for a whole year.
I have emailed the school (with the above info) but they said they pulled names from a hat to decide who did what as everyone couldn't get their first choice.
They may be a slim chance she could do Spanish and German but as it is it's German only.
Argh. Has anyone else had this problem.

If you are sure she will have the opportunity to take Spanish at GCSE then that is reassuring.

It will probably now fall on you and your DD to ensure she doesn't fall behind in Spanish (private tutor, online practice, study guides etc.) you could even ask Spanish teacher to forward you any worksheets, tests etc. For her to work through at home.

Not ideal, but it is achievable (of course all the while she will probably have a negative attitude towards German and resent the subject which is unfortunate)

Where do they speak German? Germany and Austria mainly And Switzerland, part of Belgium and part of Venezuela
Where do they speak French? Mostly France And chunks of Africa, Switzerland and Canada
Spanish opens up the whole of South America and of course there's Mandarin they could do instead

Except Brazil

Although I do think Spanish should be the first choice for MFL (actually second to BSL), it is phonetic and one of the easier languages to learn.

OP

I would send a letter in saying DD is not doing German. If she is forced to go to the class she will not do any work and you will not allow her to do German homework.

If she doesn't do a language then it will screw with ebacc and achievement 8 so they are better putting her in a Spanish class not German.

Unfortunately things are not always done for the child in schools, they obviously have an MFL teacher who is going to have a class next year so they need to fill it and if only the top set Spanish did German they are the ones who are going to be put in that class.

German is more academically challenging than Spanish? Really? What a load of tosh! A CV with GCSE Spanish or German will not make much difference to anyone, or make you more or less employable. Working in any language requires a much higher level of knowledge than GCSE.

Do try and fight for the Spanish onthe basis that your DD deserves the best chance at GCSE results. This one language rule is why too many universities cannot recruit linguists. Young people have insufficient language training. 3 separate sciences is demanded by parents, but no-one gives a minute's thought for the need to do two languages! Often someone who is "good" at one language is "good" at another so cannot quite see why she hates German, if I am honest. How good is "good"?

Rant over. One is better than none and in this case it should be Spanish. I think she is being used to fill the German class.

It must be so frustrating not being offered the language of her choice.

If they really can't fit her in the Spanish class, then definitely take the offer of both languages. I know she doesn't want to do German, but it is only for a year. The advantage is likely to be that she'll be with other bright students, so the lessons will move at a faster pace (and not be disrupted by students that have no interest in learning).

Then she can drop German next year and carry on with Spanish.

Your other option, if you're really dead against her doing German, is to ask if she can work on her Spanish in the library whilst the German lessons take place, and so just do half the lessons on the timetable i.e. the Spanish ones. School are pretty unlikely to agree to this, but worth a shot.

However, German is a fab language and I personally love it, so I would say do both, and at least she'll learn something new next year. I'm still a big believer in learning for learning's sake. Life's not all about exams and qualifications.

And off topic, but I'm astonished at Hopping's view that German is useless. Professional translations for example are done by native speakers, so there's a huge Ger -Eng market out there, precisely because Germany is such a huge trading partner of ours and has such an important economy.

Yes come to the same conclusions Bubbles even down to the working on Spanish in the library! My Dd hates school anyway ('so many pupils muck about in lessons etc etc when she just wants to get on') so this is going to go down really badly.

Just heard she can do Spanish only. Phew. I am now 'that Mum' all teachers hate a call from!

Brilliant news!

I owuld sign her up to do both, and then drop out of German at the earliest opportunity

it would be a crying shame to deny her the chance to do spanish next year

Oh missed your update, brilliant!

People telling me how important German is for business do you DO business in Germany?
We have and despite DH being a native speaker he has a slight English accent now so every replies in English!!
I'm not one of these " everyone should speak English" types, we speak 4 languages pretty well in this house and I have actually taught French and Spanish, I just wonder why German is still widely offered when for business other languages would seem more useful
And I'm not even going to mention Brexit ( oops I did)
Anyway OP I very pleased for you that you managed to sort things out for your daughter

Thank you everyone x

Yes, hopping, I do as a matter of fact!

Anyway, so glad it's sorted Joey

I've kind of had the opposite happen to me. DS does Spanish and is good at it. But I don't speak any Spanish at all (I do speak German, and to a lesser extent, French and Italian). When he started at his school, the idea was that you did one language in year 7 and then the more able linguists could do a second language in years 8/9 and you would have the option to do two at GCSE. DS had done some Spanish at primary school so was happy when he was allocated Spanish at the secondary.

We holiday a lot in Germany and have friends there.

So we thought he would get the chance to do German in year 8. They then changed what they were offering so we thought, ok, he can do it in year 9. That didn't happen. They are now only offering the kids the chance to do one GCSE language, even though they actually teach three.

It's really disappointing. Not so bad as your situation because he does like Spanish and is good at it, but it would have made so much sense for him to do Germany as well.

All I can suggest is language courses in Spain and insist that they offer her the chance to do GCSE. I did GCSE Italian in a year, so you must be able to do Spanish in two even with the harder GCSEs. DS did try an online course in Germany with Wolsey Hall, but he didn't really like doing it on his own.

As for what language is more useful, it depends what you want to do and where you like to go on holiday. For us, German is the most useful.

Followed by Italian as we like holidays there, too.

But no language is a waste of time, and once you know one, you can usually pick up others.

I know it's all sorted & I do think it's a shame she won't do two languages for just another year. You commented about the lack of discipline of some other students - in a dual linguist group there would likely be less disruption to learning as they are more motivated.
Here are some links as to usefulness of languages in order:
www.telegraph.co.uk/education/9487434/Graduate-jobs-Best-languages-to-study.html?frame=2314790
www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/languages-for-the-future-report.pdf
These are just two - I would personally trust the British Council - they recommend German due to trade links.

glad it is sorted. I was going to tell you to fight for it. It will be a funding/staffing issue, and you need to make sure your daughters education doesn't get stuffed up because of these problems, but i see you have got it sorted. No teacher is going to hate calls from you. On the contrary, we hate this sort of stupid decision too, and applaud the parents that don't take it lying down.

There are times when it is ok to be that mum! This one of them.

Glad it all worked out. 🥂

That's good. Obviously German is less popular at that school.

She should be given the opportunity to take the language she is passionate about and performs best at as a GCSE subject

Of course. But what if 100 kids want to do Spanish and are passionate about it and feel they will perform best at it, and there are only 2 teachers. Each class should have 50 kids?