GSCE option choices

[TheletterZ]

My 13 year old (year 9) is choosing her options this month. She is struggling as she loves school and wants to continue all her subjects!

With the new, harder/less coursework/ more exam, 9-1 GCSEs how many is it reasonable to take? (she is getting very good grades and her predicted grades are all 7-9s)

Personally I would like her to do 10 and not over burden herself but looking for other people's advise.

Going through this in couple of weeks as well. You will need to talk to school re whether can do more than 10.
I will be having this discussion soon and think option for my ds to do more than 10 if can be accommodated in the timetable. However, like you need to decide what best in long run workload wise.
Hard to get rid of well-loved subjects!

I have already persuaded her to drop drama and art and do design and technology (so she still has 1 creative subject).

She wants to do both spanish and german, history, classics, RS, geography, computing ...

Which on top of 2 English, maths and 3 sciences is too many!

I have issue but with ds very happy to drop a language which the school will most definitely try and put a stop to! He also wants to do history and geography which may be an issue though has been allowed some years. He would dump RS in a flash but think compulsory. He is a triple science candidate but decision made year 10 so shouldn't limit options right now...
He too wants raft of other subjects which he simply won't be allowed to do. Something will have to be sacrificed!

The number of subjects is usually not flexible. The school will usually have a set number of option blocks on the timetable (in my school it’s 3). Our students all do 2 x English, 2 x Science, Maths, RS, Core PE (double lesson each week but GCSE not compulsory) and then choose 3 options. In reality those choices are limited though as the majority have to do a language and either history or geography, which only really leaves one completely free choice. She probably won’t get to choose how many subjects she does and 9-10 is the norm now IME.

I don’t think there is any chance at all that she’ll be able to do 13 GCSEs. Assuming a standard 25 hours per week of lesson time minus the 2 hours of compulsory PE required by law, each gcse would be timetabled less than 2 hours per week. Our students have 2.5 hours per week for most GCSEs but have over 4 hours per week of maths.

I think ten is standard for her school, they have 30 periods a week (50 minutes each) so taking off the PE that is roughly 3 periods per subject so two and a half hours. Plus homework! There just won't be enough time in the week to do more.

Think she might have to pick between Spanish or German.

Making option choices is tough for all-rounders but she needs to avoid over-burdening herself. I’m finding that even my very brightest students in year 11 found it really tough to cope with the increased number of exams in the mock exam periods and they only do 9 GCSEs. The problem is that most of those GCSEs now have 3 exams whereas under the old system 1-2 exams (plus controlled assessment in some subjects) was the norm. My subject had 3 exams on the old spec but we were the exception rather than the rule.

Under the old system DD's school only timetabled 10 GCSE subjects. The compulsory ones were Maths, 2 x English, 2/3 x science and Citizenship.

Those only doing double science could then choose 4 other options, those doing triple science could choose 3.

10 is fine. DD1 took 10 last Summer - she ended up with 11 as they all did RE in year 10.
DD2 is choosing at the moment and will do 10.
This is at a Grammar as well.
They don't need more than that and will get better grades by not spreading themselves too thin.
I feel your pain though as DD2 can't decide either.
My advice would be to look into the individual courses in detail e.g..for history what period are they going to cover and will she be interested in that.
DD1 didn't look hard enough at specs before choosing and ended up swapping from Geography to Drama at the end of the first half term.

We found there was very little real choice. Just between history and geography. Between French and German. And between art and drama and music.

I'm confused: my DD's school allows 7 choices plus RE and the compulsory pe (non gsce). The school is one of the best state schools in the borough and rated outstanding (not sure if that makes any diffrent to my post!) but why can she only chose 7 while your dc's choosing 10? My understanding is also that triple science is count as one? Sorry for my thick questions but she's the 1st and i'm foreign so never gone through this!

Linneasweet -
Does she have compulsory subjects which are done as well as the choice? ie/ Eng Lang, Eng Lit, Maths plus 7 others to make 10?
Triple science is 3 gcse's.

Linneasweet English, maths and science are compulsory. I think most schools have maths, English language, English literature and double science or triple science as compulsory. Double science counts as 2 GCSEs and triple science counts as 3. Given that most schools can only timetable for 10 subjects that would only leave 5 options at most to choose from.

I'm about to go through this with the fourth child and second school.

The usual pattern seems to be:
Maths, English Language, English literature (3)
Sciences (3)
Humanity (1)
MFL (1)
Two free choices, which can include another humanity and/or another MFL (2)

This results in 10 GCSEs for the majority of students.

The lower sets only do two science GCSEs (but in the same number of science lessons).
A small number of less able students do extra numeracy & literacy in the MFL slot.
So certain students might only do 9 or even 8 GCSEs, but this is decided by the school.

9 is the standard at dd's school with 8 for those who are really struggling (they do extra literacy/numeracy instead of a language.

Maths, English Lang, English Lit & Double Science are compulsory so that makes 5

They then have to choose French, History or Geogrsphy plus 3 further choices (which may include triple science.

When applying for sixth forms: the sixth forms in our area are looking at the points score from the best 8 or 9 GCSE grades (plus minimum grades in Maths, English and the subjects they plan to do at A-level).

If applying to university: the student has to list every GCSE grade on the UCAS form. 9-10 good grades looks better than 12-13 mediocre ones.

I've not seen ds's option choices yet but I suspect it might be 10

English Lit, English Lang, Maths, RE & 2 single sciences are compulsory (6)

Then either History, Geography, German or Computer Science

Plus 3 further choices

Does she have a choice as to the number to take?

9 is standard at DDs school (also just picking options yr9)
8 for those that need extra time for Maths or English
10 for those that want to take 1 as fast track in their own time (lunch & after school) if available (1other language, music, drama & RE)

We have looked into whether DD needs to do 10 and she has decided to stick with 9 to get the best grades she can.
That way she can take on extra activities if she wants to (they have 1.20hr for lunch time so they offer lots on offer).
From what I've read, uni only look at their top 8 grades so 9 is fine

8 is the standard at DDs school but its not that simple.

They take the usual compulsory subjects
Maths
English Lang
English Lit
Science either double or triple (triple is solely for top set academic students and compulsary)
French

If you take triple Science you can only have 1 GCSE option choice and that is between the Humanity subjects, History, Geography or RE. You have no further options that is your 8 GCSE subjects.

If you take Double Science you choose a Humanity subject and an Arts subject so Drama, DT, Art, PE etc

You don't have to take your Arts option as a GCSE you can choose a BTEC if you prefer and they offer alternatives like Health and Social Care, Business Studies, Childcare etc.

So more academic students doing triple science only have 1 option to make between their humanity subjects and less academic students, in the middle and lowers sets, get to choose between BTEC or GCSE in an Arts subject plus the option for a humanity.

More GCSEs is not necessarily better.

DS1 only did seven GCSEs and one level 2 certificate. He is now studying A-levels and has received offers from all five universities he applied to.

DS2 will be sitting ten GCSEs this summer and one level 2 certificate in Further Maths. He is hoping to apply to Cambridge / Imperial.

DS3 is studying 10 GCSE courses.

DD (about to choose her options) will be doing 9.

DS also Y9 choosing shortly

He’s at an SS where they all do:
2 x English
Maths
3 x Science
1 x MFL

then choose

1 or 2 humanities
And choice from Art, Music, DT, RS, Latin

It’s looking like he will choose German as his MFL

And prob Geography and DT

Then needs to make a choice between History & RS....

Our secondary school is looking to drop from standard 10to 9. They are all much harder now and more work so I suspect lots of schools may be doing this.

DS' school has dropped to 8, though you do 9 if you do triple science.

He had to do Maths, English x 2 and Science x 2, and then had 3 options, so chose History, Geography and a MFL.

At my children’s school (Grammar) they do:

2 x English
Maths (some also do additional maths)
1 x MFL
3 x Science
3 x options

Plus in year 9 they do an HPQ on an RS / Ethics type question eg “should euthanasia be legalised?”