Art , music, drama as GCSE options?

[PurpleRiver]

Hi there, dd2 is in year 9 and wants to do art, music and drama as gcse options.

On top of this, she has to do RE, double science and obv English lag and lit plus maths.

She has wanted to pursue acting/ performing arts as a career for some time. She does have talent but I realise it’s a highly competitive field. And she might change her mind.

She is predicted 7/8 in half her subjects and 5/6 in the other half with English, arts and humanities being her strengths.

Is it risky for her to do 3 arts subjects if she decides to pursue something more academic at university? Ik trying to imagine what doors she could be closing, if any.

Or is she better to do subjects that she genuinely loves, regardless?

Any advice appreciated!

Back in my day, music was relatively easy at GCSE but had the biggest leap between gcse and a level. I wouldn’t bother doing music if she’s not already on a path to music a-level.

I did those for GCSE, then did English Lit, Law, Graphic art and Peforming arts A-levels. I went on to do Performig arts degree (at a good uni, not stage school as couldn't afford stage school). I'm prob one of the only ones in my year not to be in performing arts still - the rest are either jobbing actors with varying degree of success from fringe to Hollywood or are teaching/running kids stage schools etc. After a decade of faffing I went back to graphic design (no further qualifications, just self taught). I don't regret performing arts degree as it's always proven quite desirable in interviews. Lots of transferable skills!

Is it a state school? Most expect children to select from certain criteria, to meet the Progress and Attainment 8 measures, so do check what is and isn't possible.

Attainment 8 measures pupils’ attainment across 8 qualifications including:

• maths (double weighted)
• English (double weighted)

- English language - English literature - science (minimum x 2, or double award; officially Computer Science counts) - a language - history or geography

• 3 further qualifications that can be GCSE qualifications or technical awards from the DfE approved list

Your DD would only meet the English, Maths, Science and Other categories. Most state schools would expect to see a language and either History or Geography in the list - RE doesn't count as a Humanities on their list.

Obviously if it is an independent school, or not in England, it is a different story and the same guidelines won't apply.

FWIW DD's independent would have allowed the options but would have required a meeting to discuss the options, whilst strongly encouraging a language and a humanities if possible.

Also, check how many GCSEs she will be doing. Many schools are now only doing 8 GCSEs, since the introduction of the new 9-1 qualifications, with some offering 9 for their most able.

Funnily enough, that is the ONLY combination that my DC's school - which has 5 genuine options, with no compulsory subjects and many subjects being offered in several option blocks to facilitate as wide a variety of combinations as possible - does not allow.

It would not be allowed even if History / Geography & a language were the two other options - it is just felt to be too heavy on practical work / extracurricular time for a pupil to succeed fully in all 3.

If she wants to do performing arts, music is useful! Not art though.

If she is not very academic, or interested, forget Law. The best qualifications for Law could include Drama but not Art. You would need two more very solid academic subjects to alongside Drama, ideally (for a better university).

You can go to a specialist performing arts college for 6th form. Eg Tring Arts. It’s mega expensive unless you get a scholarship. Alternatively there are loads of drama schools which are highly selective at 18 or university degrees. None of these care that much about qualifications, it’s your performance that counts. So doing high level drama through Lamda qualifications, getting big parts in the school play and/or doing Stagecoach or similar is imperative. GCSE is neither here nor there. Dance is also another good avenue. Lessons outside school greatly help with movement and posture.

If you want an academic route, 3 arts at GCSE is not best.

I doubt that your dd would be able to choose all 3 of these subjects OP.
At dds school pupils of average or higher ability had to choose one subject from the EBacc list i.e. a language, history, geography of computer science. This only led to 2 choices from the "other subject" list that included music, drama, art etc.

Which can she most easily access good-quality extra-curricular provision in?

If, for example, she's already having music lessons, maybe doing graded music exams, playing / singing in good music groups appropriate to her interests, then not having GCSE Music won't be an issue. On the other hand, if a really good youth theatre group is where she spends all of her non-school time, then not having GCSE Drama isn't a problem. Really high quality extracurricular Art is probably less easy to access.

DD (dancer) doesn't do GCSE Dance. DS (musician) did do GCSE Music, and does do A-level, but it was the first he might have dropped if he had needed to, as he does so much extracurricular music.

Things may have changed now but when I was at school Art GCSE was a horrible one!

The amount of hours you had to put in was incredibly disproportionate to it being just one ninth of your timetable. Basically if you absolutely adored Art and you would spend every moment of every day doing Art if you possibly could then Art A GCSE was wonderful. If you just “quite liked drawing” then it was miserable.

As one friend put it:-

“I chose Art over History as I’d prefer to do two hours Art to two hours History. When actually I should have chosen History as I’d much rather do 2 hours History and 3 hours watching Neighbours to 5 hours of Art.”

I did Geography and three languages which horrified all my friends until they realised how much less work I actually had to do.

It's not very helpful for people to tell the OP that you couldn't do that combination of subjects at their school when the OP has already said that her school has no rules (or obsession with Progress 8 buckets) to prevent it - but she does recognize there could be TT issues. Our school suggest 1 Humanity, 1 Language, 1 Creative and 1 Technological subject make for a rounded choice, but we in no way enforce this.

Franzen,

I appreciate the the specific rule that my DC's school has may not apply - but given they allow ANY other combination (including e.g. Art / Textiles / Drama), it is interesting that they feel this one is uniquely unsuitable / unsustainable / unsuccessful.

Can't, yes agree that is an interesting observation (although knowing the Textiles syllabus I don't personally agree with your school😀) and my comment was not directed at you.

Franzen, As DD does both Art and Design Technology Textiles I'm on your wavelength .. but at least her other options are History + 2x languages...plus 10-12 hours extracurricular dance per week....

If she wants to go to drama school then then her GCSEs won’t make any difference at all - it will all be based on an audition and relevant experience. Let her do what she loves.

Zodle, the other way of thinking about that is that as her GCSEs will make no difference to drama school applications, she should make certain that her GCSE subjects provide as good a 'backup' as possible, should that dream fail.

So rather than picking GCSEs suitable for someone doing drama, she should probably pick GCSE subjects that give her the widest possible choice of other avenues (academic and non-academic) if the drama dream does not work out.

A number of girls went to Drama School at 18 that we know. Destinations include Guildhall, Central St Martins and RADA, so hardly back number institutions.

All are not doing much now but all did Lamda at school, had good roles in school plays and had Drama teachers that knew the time of day to prepare for auditions. All were at independent school where Drama was taken seriously. All did A level Drama. Dance and music helped.

Another voice to add to the 'workload' point.

If she's attracted to Drama she may end up doing lots of performance on top of the GCSE course; eg the school production, drama competitions, smaller pieces. And the same applies to Music; school concerts, out-of-school performance, band with friends, low-level gigs, etc.

I'd suggest picking 2 of the 3 and doing History/Geography/mfl for the third slot.

The other thing about music and drama is that your marks can often be affected by others. There are group performances in both which are marked. DD had to get a teacher to play piano with her on one piece - which brings its own problems with respect to practise time etc.

Cantkeepawayforever. Having arts subjects for GCSEs aren’t going to hold anyone back so long as they secure good grades in their core subjects. Also, children tend to do better in the subjects they love and enjoy so the OPs daughter could potentially come out with 3 A stars in these subjects or Bs in subjects she doesn’t enjoy. I know which scenario I would prefer as a parent.

GCSEs in these subjects are not soft options. They are immensely time consuming and include a lot of theory work. My main concern would be fitting it all in, not the subjects themselves.

I think A-level choices are for more important when it comes to careers. Plus maths and music complement each other, art can be used for a wealth of careers and is also a useful skill to support biology and drama provides skills for history and law.

My DD in year 9 chose to do Media, Drama and BTEC Dance and Geography,
So far shes enjoying them although she is unsure what she wants to do yet when she leaves school

My DD in year 9 chose music, drama and textiles and loving them all. Also doing the ebac: English language, English literature, Maths, science x2 or 3, History and French.