Choosing Options this year?

[gillybeanz]

Just thought I'd start a thread to share opinions and ask questions/ advice on option choices.
Hoping it gets more than the few responses that individuals get.

Mine has to choose hers in April, I believe and will take 8

Compulsory: Music, Maths, Eng x 2, single Science, German or French, and a choice of History/ Geography or Art/Drama/Citizenship

and an extra subject of either French, or Double Science.

[gillybeanz]

sorry A levels should have read A-E

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

This is a very pertinent thread as we are trying to help ds make his final decision. He has options evening coming up. He is in yr 9 they make choices this term then start them in Summer term. Ds wants to do triple science, maths, English literature, English Language, history. There are 9 options he wants to do probably geography, philosophy or German for his two remaining options. But he is highly academic and autistic which means he is incredibly stressed and highly strung and languages ( in particular french) have pushed over the edge several times in the years he has been studying them so it is imperative he doesn't feel pushed into taking a language. But I am unsure what impact not doing a language would have in future. Argh!

Language is not compulsory in this school, but they do offer Latin and Roman civilization would that be easier/ less stressful...?

[gillybeanz]

I can't help with the Latin and Roman civilisation, but they sound great.
Can you have a look at what both entail and then see which suits him better.
I'm looking at the boards the school use and from their website looking at how it is taught and assessed.

E.g. Drama is one of the only subjects that still offer coursework and a good choice for those who would work better with this than all exam based. They are becoming more focussed on exams now, which is great for those who do well under exam conditions.

[Oblomov18]

Going to options evening tonight.
Will report back!!

[AuntieUrsula]

My twins in year 9 have to do English lang, English lit, 3 sciences, Maths, short course RS (in year10) and a modern language, plus 3 options, which has to include at least one humanity (history, geography, classical civilisation, economics or full RS). Other options are second language, art, DT, music, computing, drama and sports science.

DD1 has picked her options no problem at all - history, latin and music - but the other one goes round and round it so you'd think her entire life was on the line - 'if I drop French, what career options would I be closing off?', 'X says I should do geography because universities like it better than French' (don;t think that's true btw) etc etc. It's exhausting. We do have parents evening before the final choice has to be made luckily so we can discuss it with their tutors and the kids are encouraged to discuss it with their teachers too.

[BubblesBuddy]

MFL is not compulsory for anything. However, MFL degrees are very much the province of private school educated pupils because too many give up after GCSE or before in state schools.

I think that the very best and most competitive universities like to see all round ability at GCSE so an MFL shows this. As does a tech subject or an art. On many MN discussions, these are seen as too much work. You could argue that work prepares for A level and beyond! Careeer options that require French are few and to have a career using an MFL, a degree in it would be necessary, quite frankly. However, if you apply to many universities and add an MFL to the degree, eg History and French, English and German, they can be quite keen to have you as MFL deprtments are short of well qualified students, even in fairly starry universities. Universities therefore do not like Geography more than French, especially at A level. You can certainly get into very good universities if you want to study an MFL other than French or Spanish.

I do agree with the comment earlier about not pushing everyone into STEM subjects, however one science only is pretty rare these days.

[SisterNotCis]

DS in yr9 has just come home with info today !

Compulsory English x2, Maths, Science x2 (he wants to do all 3) so that's 6.
Then 4 from a reasonable list with 1 to be MFL and 1 to be a humanity.

I think you can't pick one bad gcse but you can pick a bad overall selection. DS would like to do PE but not sure school will be on board with that as he is academic.

[gillybeanz]

bubbles
I know the single science is very rare now, I thought I'd heard that most have to do double science.
I can't tell you how pleased we are, but I know for most children the double is much better.
I much prefer to see alternatives though, I'm loving the Latin, Greek and varying Languages.
I wish mine had chosen History or at least seen a humanity through Y9.

[LoniceraJaponica]

Sisternot PE is pretty academic and isn't the soft option that it is perceived to be. There is a lot of essay writing.

I'm surprised at single science. The only school I know that offers it is an independent school.

[gillybeanz]

Soursprout

So did your dd have to choose all the options at once even though they are staggered?
I think it's great if they get to choose a couple at a time and drop some other subjects sooner.

[BubblesBuddy]

I think it’s a poor all round education to drop
subjects early. I assume the op’s school is Private if it’s a specialist music school. PE is not a bad one for aspiring Doctors. Also every academic child is allowed one “fun” or participatory subject such as music or drama. Life doesn’t have to be entirely “academic” and it my view, it should never be. All children at DDs school were expected to do an art subject or PE and were better all roundly educated for it.

[PerspicaciaTick]

My DDs choices are:
6 compulsory choices - English x 2, Maths, triple science.
1 compulsory MFL - French or German.
1 compulsory humanities subject - History or Geography
1 compulsory creative subject - Art, Drama, Computing, PE, Music.
1 additional subject - Latin, RS, Geography, History, Art, Drama, French, German.

[LoniceraJaponica]

I thought that universities dislike GCSEs staggered. DD's school used to do 2 at the end of year 10 (or 3 for those taking double science), and the rest at the end of year 11. They do them all at the end of year 11 now.

[velocitygir1]

My dd is in yr 9 and in year 8 chose: film studies, Design & Technology, and computer science on top of her compulsory programme of: 2x English, maths, triple science, PE, RE, German, History and Geography.

It seems that her compulsory will change slightly but RE is a must as it's a C of E school (we are practising Methodists so this is why we chose it.)

After parents eve last week it seems Design & Technology is her massive strong point so she definitely sticking to that.

She dropping computer science and doing single or double science...she has no say school decide which.

She has also managed to be allowed to have 2 humanities as her options and is keeping geography (she's on the gifted and talented for that) and history (high grades expected)

She wants to do meteorology & climatology at university and has since she was 8 so that's her end goal.

I'll post again once she's handed in her slip...to confirm. It's so daunting.

[LoniceraJaponica]

14 GCSEs velocity? How on earth can the school timetable for so many subjects?

[SisterNotCis]

Off to read up on PE as clearly no clue here

[Taffeta]

DS has a very narrow choice. They take 10 of which compulsory:

3 x Science, 2 x Eng, Maths, 1 x MFL, 1 x Humanity

Which leaves only 2 from a choice of

An extra Humanity or MFL
DT ( Product Design )
RS
Art
Music

He’s torn between an extra Humanity and RS. He will def do DT.

[LoniceraJaponica]

Are any of the state schools offering single science? It seems very narrow and short sighted to do that.

[smee]

At my son's comp, you have to do double or triple science. Triple's automatic if you're in a higher set. DS is year 9 and about to be given his options lists too, but a few of his friends at other schools chose in year 8. This seems to be quietly on the rise and I can see the logic - i.e. gives teachers 3 years / more teaching time to focus on the GCSE subjects, but it just feels so wrong to me. For example, DS's friend's at a hugely sought after Academy. He didn't chose music, art, geography, computing, DT, etc, so that means he's now not studying them at all in year 9. His school gets amazing GCSE results, but I'm beginning to see how they do it now. I'm glad my son isn't there. It's just too narrow and exam driven.

[crazycrofter]

DD has to do English x2, Maths, 2 or 3 individual sciences (no dual award), an MFL. She can then choose either 3 or 4 from: another MFL (French/Spanish/German/Italian),Latin,Greek,History,Geography,Music,Art,Drama,RS

There’s been discussion on other threads about this but she’s dropping Physics. I figure as they do the sciences over three years anyway she’ll already have covered a third of the Physics GCSE plus have 2 other full Science GCSEs. I did dual award which was two thirds of the full GCSE for each Science so I can’t see she’ll miss out overall in terms of knowledge. She’ll just have a bit less Physics and more Biology and Chemistry!

She’s definitely doing Spanish as her language, RS, Greek and Drama. Just got to decide between History and Geography!

[CottonGoods]

DS currently in Y11. Maths, English and English are compulsory, as is at least one MFL (French in my DS's case), at least one separate science (Physics and Chemistry here), either Art or DT (DT) and at least one Humanity (History, Class Civ). DS is also doing Latin and Music. So that's 11. He also has a pretty good idea about A levels and beyond...

[crazycrofter]

@cottongoods I’m glad to see someone else doing just two separate sciences!

[gillybeanz]

Bubbles

Yes, it's private and quite a narrow education, especially as they move up the school.
All options are considered by the Head of Music and Head of instrument dept to make sure they can manage their workload.
It's a very demanding day without the added study for GCSE/A level.
They manage brilliant results though as many are very clever to begin with.
Some go into Medicine, Law, Engineering not just music, although most go on to study at conservatoires and Music at Universities.