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Secondary education

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

GCSE options

98 replies

BetterWithCake · 08/01/2018 15:18

DS has to make subject choices for GCSEs in the next few weeks. He has no idea what he might like to do after school career wise. Is the best thing to keep things as broad as possible and stick with the things he enjoys and hopefully will do well in? I am concerned he will leave something out that he might later regret.

TIA

OP posts:
AlexanderHamilton · 10/01/2018 18:53

Vixnixtrix - Dd is doing 9 GCSE's'. There are a handful only doing 8 but they are either lower ability students who struggle with say a language & need extra literacy or a couple of students transferred to the school in year 10 & usecthe extra time to catch up.

Ds's previous school did 9 with the option of a 10th ifvyiy did it extra curricular. I'm not sure about his current school. I think it might be 10 but I'm hoping it's 9.

Vixnixtrix1981 · 10/01/2018 19:19

Thanks Alexander. My son's school has been in special measures and just got a new head for this academic year. They are really pushing the Ebacc so I know all top set have to French. There has been talk of the top performing students to do triple science as well, which would mean my son only having one option (either History or Geography) if they do only 8 which I don't like the idea of.
Only time will tell I suppose. I think 8 is not enough, considering they could have a really bad exam

AlexanderHamilton · 10/01/2018 19:28

For context ds's previous school was an academically selective top performing school. Everyone had to do a language (except anyone with dyslexia) but ebacc wasn't forced.

At both his previous school, dd's school (specialist performing arts school) & ds's current school (good comp) double or triple science is a completely free choice.

MaisyPops · 10/01/2018 19:44

10 is standard in my school:
Maths
English Language
English literature
Science (double)
Religious studies
Language or a technology (depending on set)
3 options (gcses and btecs)

Some students do an off site qualification instead of options but that is part of bespoke timetabling for them usually because of other needs.

If a school is in special measures their logic will probably be that it's better to have 8 strong GCSEs than 9 or 10 poorer ones.
When i worked in a special measures school we entered students in for all sorts of 'gcse equivalents' in the hope that they'd pass them and then we just needed enough Cs ij English and Maths to match up to improve the 5 GCSE A-C measure and it gave the kids the 5 A-C English and Maths to get onto college places.
Now it's progress 8 so it's the best 8 subjects with differnet weightings and progress is tracked from each child's starting point (so if you get students frok primaries who are 'creative' with their sats tasks, especially writing, then you're on a hiding to nothing). It's better for a child to have 8 strong GCSEs at a 6 than to have 11 which are a mix of 4s 5s abd 6s.

MissBeehiving · 10/01/2018 20:05

It’s 9 GCSEs at DS’s selective independent - maths, English, triple science and 1 mfl then they have a choice of 3 from art, 3 d/ 2 d design, classics, comp sci, drama, geography, German, Greek, French, Spanish, Latin, history, music, pe and rs.

There seems to be a big push towards STEM subjects.

Trumpetboysmum · 10/01/2018 20:16

Ds's options evening isn't until next month I wonder if they are going to reduce the number of GCSEs? ( part of me hopes so by I do like that they keep more subjects going for longer I think all of the top set students have to do triple science)

Mumtryingtomakeadifference · 10/01/2018 20:23

Betterwithcake

I have a 15 year old daughter who chose her GCSEs last year. It was a long process of finding out which subjects she found interesting and keeping her options as open and broad as possible. I would suggest that you get your son to go through each subject and either write down or discuss the positives and negatives of each subject. My daughter also found students in y10 and y11 to discus there options and how they though they were going or how much they enjoyed them. From my daughters personal experience we found that her peers who took mainly creative subjects especially art and drama were under immense pressure and couldn’t keep up. We settled after extensive research for the following;

Maths, English lit, English Lang, German (these were compulsory)
And Spanish, Food and Nutrition, Physical Education, Geography and triple science which consists of all three sciences in a far amount of depth.

Here are somethings to consider:

Does your son enjoy sciences or have some sort of interest because if so triple science may be a good option however if he doesn’t then maybe consider double science we’re all three sciences are learnt but much more briefly and less in depth + there is one less exam to sit.

Is he restricting him self and not giving himself enough options for the future. This is very important because if you don’t do a subject at gcse and then later find out you need it there is no going back.

Thirdly and finally don’t stress it takes time to make these decisions and some people find it easier than others. It took my daughter until 1 day before the deadline to finally decide what she wanted to do.

Home fully this is of some use Smile

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 10/01/2018 20:38

I kind of agree about keeping more subjects going for longer Trumpet but I think it would require a complete overhaul of the secondary system. The GCSE system doesn’t really allow for it because fewer strong grades is almost always better for pupils than lots of lower grades.

The progress 8 measure reflects that better than whatever it was that was pushing some schools into making children do 12/13 GCSEs because it made their figures look better but a different system altogether might be better.

Mumtryingtomakeadifference · 10/01/2018 21:36

BetterWithCake

PE is definitely perseved as a soft subject however it is very science based. my DD is really enjoying it so far and has had a lot of fun learning about all the different parts. PE is great for keeping options open as it is very broad and there are many different topics they cover that could come in handy in the future eg nutrition in general, sports psychology, how the media portrays sports, how sponsorships effect how an athlete is portrayed and many others. In my DDs experience many of her class mates took PE thinking it would be easy however that is certainly not the case. Unless you enjoy sciences it’s probably not for you. It’s currently 60% theory (science based stuff) and only 40% physical assessment which doesn’t even happen till year 11

sashh · 11/01/2018 06:32

BetterWithCake

I've taught a lot of Level 3 BTEC and the same thing applies to Level 2, if the student, and it is up to the students is completing coursework at the given time they should finish before GCSE exams start.

That might be something to consider in your dc's choices.

Lonecatwithkitten · 11/01/2018 11:13

I have the opposite problem to the OP DD is very certain what she wants to do and is getting really stressed that the option blocks will not accommodate this.
She has two free choices, two other choices are having to do a language and one from history, geography, classical civilisation or business studies. Double English, maths, science trilogy, and religion philosophy and ethics are compulsory.
She desperately wants to do Dance and Drama as she would like to pursue a career in musical theatre. We already have a full extra curricular time supporting this and her singing teacher who is Ex-West end feels this is a realistic goal for her.
I foresee a couple weeks anxiously waiting for the option blocks to be published on 23/1.

AlexanderHamilton · 11/01/2018 11:33

Lone - I'd advise her to pick drama.

Dd's vocational school recently got rid of GCSE dance altogether as they felt it was not worth doing especially after the syllabus change.

Trumpetboysmum · 11/01/2018 14:48

Lone I think we're in the same position as you. Ds ( probably fairly realistically unless he changes his mind) wants to pursue a career in music - hopefully his choices will fit with music gcse but I will be having a word with school to make sure that they know that music while an option isn't really seen as optional by ds - if they cut music which they won't I'm sure Hmm he would move schools ( I've told him that he might need to be a bit flexible about his other choices) he's very much on the schools music radar so I'm sure they will make sure he's on the music course . I'll keep my fingers crossed for your dd it would seem silly if she couldn't do dance and drama they sort of go together

BetterWithCake · 11/01/2018 15:05

You would hope that it would be sensible for schools to allow students to choose dance and drama. Does your DD do any external examinations in dance or drama and would these count if she wanted to pursue further study?

OP posts:
AlexanderHamilton · 11/01/2018 15:08

Drama isn't even offered st ds's school.

But no schools arnt concerned with that. They want students to do a maximum of 1 arts subject to push ebacc.

AlexanderHamilton · 11/01/2018 15:13

If Lone's Dd wants to audition for professional MT colleges then as long as she has the basics everything will go on the audition so external technique classes are of far more use.

Gcse dance is a Level 2 qualification equivalent to Grade 4/5 (inter foundation). Most serious dancers have that Grade around the age of 12-14 & by the age of 15/16 have Intermediate/Grade 8 (Level 3 same as A level) or even Advanced 1 which is like the first year of a degree.

MollyHuaCha · 11/01/2018 15:22

Yes, I'd say choose the subjects he likes.

ForgivenessIsDivine · 14/01/2018 14:26

DS has compulsory English, Maths, French, PE and Double Science

One from each of
History / Geography : Geography is a clear choice here in terms of preference and performance
IT / Theatre arts / Visual arts / Music (None of these is of huge interest and he favours IT over the rest but isn't doing brilliantly plus its internally assessed not a GCSE)

And then one more option

DS is very strong in Science, German and Geography. If French were not compulsory he would choose German but we are at an IB school in a Francophone country so French it is!

Leaving the choice between Triple Science (DH and I are engineers so biased towards triple science), German where DS is predicted an A* or a 8/9 in the new scoring and History where is currently coasting along at the border of 7 and 8.

He talks about Physics as a uni option but is amazing at geography, debating, discussing political, current and environmental affairs so I could see him as a lawyer / philosopher / political advisor (which makes me think History is crucial but German could be useful in European politics.)

Any thoughts??

Trumpetboysmum · 14/01/2018 16:48

The lawyers who we spoke to at ds's careers evening ( if ds doesn't pursue music I could imagine him pursuing similar careers to your ds) said do what you enjoy as that's what you are likely to be motivated to do your best in - and for law it's high grades that count. Ds will be choosing history and RS I think ( although I think the geography dept would quite like him to take that ) . He had to take lots of GCSEs though so that keeps his options open ( though piles on the pressure)

Iprefercoffeetotea · 14/01/2018 17:03

It's 8 GCSEs in my son's outstanding comprehensive. It is possible to do 9 if you do triple science and they do offer a couple of optional ones that the students can do after school. They did push ebacc but don't any more, though ds is doing subjects that fall within it.

I did 8 in my grammar school. I think most schools probably offer 9, I can't see the point of doing any more.

I would always do the subjects I liked the most and thought I could do the best in. And check the specifications. I made a mistake with one of my GCSE subjects because I didn't understand how fundamentally it had changed from the O level, which I would have done a lot better in.

Kathsmum · 14/01/2018 19:10

It all depends on the option blocks anyway so choices are limited. Wait until you see the form before stressing.

DinkyDaisy · 14/01/2018 19:28

Stress here as ds wants to do history and geography desperately and not sure he will be able to. Also thinks will be 'made' to do a language at expense of preferred subjects of either computer science or music. So hard to make choices so early and dropping subjects he wants to keep. Already made feelings known to tutor but options blocks still unknown and do vary year to year depending on the cohort....

ForgivenessIsDivine · 14/01/2018 20:03

Thanks Trumpetboysmum. In a perfect world he would do German and History instead of French and IT.. ..

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