More options questions!

[KittyMcKitty]

Dd is in year 8 at a grammar school and is choosing her options (basically 3 things)

She has to do maths, 2 x English, triple science and a language. She has no idea what she would like to do later in life other then “something in theatre” (she acts outside of school).

Basically she is going to do 3 of either Music, History, Art and Drama and it is probably down to a toss up between Music and History.

Should I insist on her doing History or leave it to her to decide? She feels she should do a humanity but would probably prefer music (she plays the violin and is grade 4).

She already has an HPQ completed this year as part of a g&t program and will do another RE based one next year.

Is not taking History or Geography going to narrow her choices too much further down the line?

I wanted mine to do hisotry and geography. They all did exceptone who just did geog and they now wish they had also kept up history. I also did both of those. The traditional English GCSEs and O levels and school cert are what is compulsory at your child's grammar school - so those 7 and including as the language usually French or German (possibly latin) (or 6 if you do double science) and then add on I would recommend geography and history which takes you to 9 or 8. Then do one fun one like music which several of mine did or art or RE.

I htink she should do history geography and one of the others you suggest, not 3 of the less traditional ones. Also some of the subjects like art involve a huge amount of time, even music which one of mine did to AS he said took up huge amounts of time. He liked it and got an A etc and had a music scholarship so it was no hardship but in terms of the hours for say maths or French it was a huge lot of effort and his friends doing art said much the same.

I think that for a bright child (given she is at grammar) choosing Art & Music & Drama might be looked on as unusual.

HPQs will not be well understood by the outside world, so to end up without a traditional humanity could be viewed negatively (plus in general may impact on essay writing ability).

Does she/you understand what a time-user Art can be?

I can't help but think that History instead or Art or Music would be better as an all round education. Music and Art can be done 'for fun'.

Note that Drama and Music are both going to have some 'performance' that might need practicing with other people.

However with the triple science plus language it probably won't make much odds in the future.

Echo what everyone else has said about art - friends DC's who have done it have lost whole weekends regularly completing projects etc.

Thank you for your thoughts. I have an older child at the same school who is doing History, Geography and Design Technology.

She is wavering between French and German for the language- school would like her to do 2 languages but she is very against that. She is also very against computing despite her computing teacher asking her to do it.

The school is very high attaining and she is at the upper end of the cohort so the expectation is that she is achieve 10 GCSEs all 8’s and 9’s in year 11. The school also only do subjects it considers rigorous (so no media studies etc) which makes me think if they’re happy to have her doing art, music and drama it must be ok. I did A level art so we understand the time pressure and she already plays in orchestras / acts outside of school so that’s no problem.

I think she probably will go for history but I still have this niggling feeling that there is nothing wrong with doing Art, Drama and Music. It was sooooo easy with my older child as they knew exactly what they wanted to chose!

If you and your dd are still undecided, I would have a look at which choices would limit A levels the most.
At dds sixth form it is possible to take Music A level without the GCSE if you have the appropriate ABRSM (or equivalent) grades and extracurricular activities (or LAMDA for Drama). but you cannot take History without the GCSE or Art without the GCSE.

it would be a bit unusual not to do either of history or geography so may be best to do both.
I did french german geog and history amongst others but my own children have all just done one language - french for most and one did german instead.

Has she thought about university yet as my children did one of their A level subjects at university (my twins went last year) and we did think backwards from that eg one did geography at university (BSc) (and then law after) obviously not a choice if you don't do geography at school so just make sure degree subject options are not closed off by what is picked now. Lots of teenagers want to do geog or history as their degree subject.

May be history and then of the languages do French although I went on to do German A level after my french and german o level so I am certainly not anti-doing German at all.

My DD choose her options last term, she is bright ( schools challenge and extension program CAT scores greater than 120). But she is very talented in musical theatre (Acting, singing and dancing teachers tell me this).
We did lots of research if you do ABRSM music theory to grade 5 and an instrument/singing to grade 5 this is the equivalent of GCSE music so she will do these. Dance is her weakest of the triple threat so that took one option, the GCSE drama covers more than just Acting so that was another option. She choose history as her final option as so many productions have a historical basis and so this knowledge could be useful in future.

Soursprout to be honest she wants to be an actress- I’m broadening it to something in theatre to try to get her to think about stage management and associated things.

Xenia I admire your persistence in pushing history and geography but I’m afraid she is not interested in Geography! Personally I think it’s a great subject (my elder child will do it at A level) but not for dd!

Looking at A level choices she can do Government & Politics without gcse history if she has department approval. Music needs gcse 7 or above + at least abrsm vi in at least 1 instrument and art needs a min of a 7. Drama needs 7+ if you’ve studied drama gcse but with departmental approval you can do it without the gcse.

I think she will probably go for art, history and drama with music as a back up (I don’t think the composition elements necessarily play to her strengths).

Soursprout out of interest do your school do 11 GCSEs or is there an option to do double science? Dd’s School do 10 but triple science and a language are compulsory hence only 3 option choices.

Art is historically considered to be incredibly time consuming.
If 'something in theatre' is what she currently wants to do, then I'd have thought music would be a good subject to take. Some will say that if they play an instrument well, then it is the equivalent, so no point, but my dd really flourished and broadened her knowledge doing the GCSE.
Drama, IME, and IMO I suppose, is the one I'd advise against, as the issue is your grade is dependent on other people. You have to present as part of a group and that can have a big influence on your grade. All other subjects are down to your skills and your work ethic.

That is an unusual system. We just have the straight 10 in year 11 plus an HPQ in year 9 (dd also did another HPQ in year 8).

Good luck to your dd with her GCSEs this year.

DD's best mate did Art (finish in yr10). It took all her time. DD loved art but feels she dodged a bullet by not doing it at GCSE. Do Music instead.

Art takes loads of time, much more so than Music. Given that she is already performing to an appropriate level to access the highest marks for the performance element in Music, that 30% would be straightforward. I am not a fan of Drama and if she is doing theatre stuff outside school, does she need it?

Malbecfan why Drama? Because it’s her favourite subject and the one thing she definitely wants to do. Why are you not a fan?

DS is doing neither history nor geography so he can do the options he wants which in his case is German, Chinese, Computer Science and Music. He writes plenty essays for English and Music and the lack of a humanity is a non-issue for him or DW or me. As others have suggested the time sucked up by art and drama is a real issue and worth thinking hard about.

Kitty if she is at all considering continuing drama or theatre studies after school then IMO she should definitely do history. There is so much historical context in drama whether acting or allied professions.
If she does history it then means a choice between art and music. Music would be less work for GCSE but also easier compared with art to continue to a high level outside school.

I would still work down from her university subject to A levels and make sure she has the GCSEs for whatever that plan might be. Eg Gov and politics above with what other 2 and what would she need for her possible degree subjects to have done at A level.

Well I think she’s come to a decision and is choosing Drama, Music and History.

She’s decided in the end that music would be less stressful- it gets excellent results (88% A / A* last year) although to be fair art achieve similar.

She’ll put art as her reserve.

So this will mean she does:

2 x English
Maths
Triple Science
French
History
Music
Drama
RS based HPQ in yr 9 + the HPQ she did this year (yr 8)

Sounds a good combination. My twins did music and liked it although there was an issue with the teacher and teaching and I don't normally blame schools just my idle children but really at least one should have got an A, they both had a music scholarship, both pretty good, and got other As etc so it was a bit of a shame they didn't nor I think did a single child in the school get A star in music and the teacher then left . It didn't really matter. There are always ups and downs and some results you don't expect etc. It was hardly a disaster. i think they got A.