GCSEs 2021 - choosing options **Thread title edited by MNHQ**

[brizzledrizzle]

Year 9s will be choosing their GCSEs after xmas, including my youngest. I couldn't find a support thread.

Boulardii

Being poor at mfl is excuseable, and allowances will be made, but being poor at essay writing due to a diagnosed specific learning disability doesn’t cut it to be excused from humanities. I hope I am wrong, but this is what the senco suggested.

I think this is the starting point in our school. But DD1 who had a late diagnosis of dyspraxia, was allowed to drop History in y11 when it became clear she couldn't do it for toffee and was also at risk of failing Eng Lang.

Thank you, artisan baps, for taking the time to describe the music assessments, it is reassuring.
Dd has done gr 5 instrumental and theory, and attends a music school at the weekend, so I’m fairly confident that music is a good choice for her as she spends quite a bit of time doing it already. I think the composition and performance elements will be alright. She does read music, but sight reading is a challenge for her. Are the listening exam pieces unseen?

The way you describe the listening exam paper is interesting; I think she will be better able to cope with that than the sort of exams they tend to have for history.

was allowed to drop History in y11 when it became clear she couldn't do it for toffee

This is exactly what I don’t want to happen! If she is allowed to do her choice of subjects, hopefully she can avoid it. Sounds like it must have been quite a tough road for your dd. When was she diagnosed? How are things now?

Ds year 9, they have not started telling us when parents evening for options etc are yet.

However ds will be doing maths, English, English Lit, triple science, French, RE, Georgraphy, and his last two options if they are timetabled right- DT and computer science.
He’s wans to do something in the science field but unsure what yet.

Ds18 is doing Law at university as he wants to be a solicitor. From ages 10-16 he wanted to be a forensic pathologist. Goes to show they don’t always know what they want to do at options!

ArtisanBaps - Thanks for posting about music. My dd would like to take this as she enjoys the lessons at school and loves pop music. However, she doesn't have musical experience and would use her voice as her instrument. I would be looking at getting her singing lessons once a week too. I think she can sing reasonably ok.

From what I understand there is an audition process at her school so her music teacher decides if students would be suitable for the course.
It's not a given that pupils who chose music will get on the course.

I would be very happy if DD achieved GCSE 4/5. However, I think the school want 7/8/9's. Did all your cohort pass ?

Boulardii Formal assessment Dec of y11. Jan mocks she completely bombed History & English Lang. She couldn't (can't) pull info she knew out of her head and logically order it, or make up opinions or stories on the spot, or put herself into an author's head, or 'see' info in pictures.

It all became more and more obvious as KS4 progressed. KS3 had been OK when less analytical thinking was required and verbal confidence had masked stuff. The CAs were also fine as the teacher tended to talk through structures for answers in advance.

Almost all courses need writing though. (which is a shame for DD2) So you need to understand how the SpLD impacts writing to know whether a subject will be impacted more than others.

Just checked back on results
For context our A-C passrate under the old system was something like 95% with 45% A- A

The 2018 cohort 9-1 results were:
(Grade: number of pupils)
1 : 2
2: 2
3: 2
4: 3
5: 1
6: 7
7: 2
All of the pupils obtaining 1’s and 2’s shouldn’t have been on the course but we have no choice in the matter! One pupil tried to leave the course early on but was not allowed. She didn’t submit any composition coursework and got her mum to pretend her computer had blown up and destroyed her coursework! Another decided to answer the set work question on a set work we hadn’t studied (most schools chose 2/4 to study) - this is an important thing to practice if your son/daughter is prone to confusion!!

We didn’t get any 8’s or 9’s and I’d say all of the 7’s and 6’s here would have been A* A or B under the old system

@Boulardii
There is no sight reading in the performance exam

In the listening they are unseen/unstudied excerpts but very few questions require music notation . There are usually a couple of ones where pupils have to write in the missing pitches to match what they hear or where the “blobs” are there and pupils have to add stems and tails to match the rhythm , but we practice these extensively

Here’s an example from a specimen paper
Pupils are listening to musical extracts as they complete the questions.

Thanks, artisan baps, I think she would be able to cope with that type of exam quartile. She managed the grade 5 theory well enough, as they had studied the past papers and practiced answering the different types of questions. I doubt the gcse is so formulaic,

Sorry, pressed send by accident!
Do you feel that the new syllabus has more challenges than the old one? Or is it more that they just are looking for a higher standard of performance? It’s such a shame that it is no longer feasible for a kid who hasn’t had much in the way of music in primary, to get interested at secondary and follow it through to gcse and beyond. There are plenty of primary schools which don’t offer many music opportunities, unfortunately.

Thanks so much Artisan that info is very useful. I hope my DD is able to continue. It's a three year course at her school and she really enjoys it. Thanks for the tip about confusion. She has adhd amongst other difficulties so I will make sure she has an understanding of what's required question wise!

I agree Boulardi. I thought the new course was meant to be more inclusive for the reason you stated i.e. music not being accessible to all in earlier years. It really is a shame that it isn't.

Rant alert (sorry for derail!)

The new spec actually makes my blood boil !! I feel it’s elitist. It is tailor made for classically trained kids who’ve done g4 or 5 ABRSM practical and theory. Just like me! But I had free peri lessons, music centre on Saturdays, a lady coming to school just to do music theory....

I work in one of the most deprived wards in the country. Pupils come to secondary school knowing 0 musical vocab as primary music ed is apparently non existent. Wider Opportunities is just a tick box exercise- students don’t learn notation and some barely remember the name of the instrument they learned in y5.

Our school went from outstanding to special measures overnight when the new Ofsted framework came in.

This meant our numbers on roll plummeted from nearly 1000 to 600.

At the same time our funding for peri lessons from which we used to fund 100% costs for all kids from the school budget was cut from £50,000 to £25,000 overnight. We now charge for KS3 peri lessons but anyone taking GCSE receives free lessons.

Then the Baccalaureate was introduced. Nationally I think this has caused a 23% drop in GCSE Music entries between 2010-18.

Despite all this our cohort sizes have remained at around 15 -20 since 2010 so we are outperforming other schools in terms of engaging kids with music.

Then the new specification came in last year and our gifted, hardworking kids who had lived for music since year 7, one of whom was Head Boy, came out with 7’s and 6’s. Most of these kids have now passed auditions to study at the three specialist performing arts colleges in our northern City so they are by no means slackers! Yet because their backgrounds are not in classical music they have 0 chance of achieving 8’s and 9’s.

It makes me cross.

Joining late here, but was pondering last choice on a thread I started. My eldest ds will be doing:
English x 2
Maths
Further maths
Geography
German
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Computer Science
Design Tech

The last one was finally decided last night by ds - he was deliberating between that and Classics....but thought there would be too many exams and too much writing involved.
I daren’t even add up the number of exams he’ll sit in two years time

Looking forward to a few days off school, and not worrying about this!
Enjoy half term everyone.

Hello, new to the thread. We are looking at options too. Have to be chosen by the beginning of March. She’s now decided she has no idea when she’s had firm ambitions of being a doctor as long as I can remember lol. Research scientist or forensics has been another career she’s mentioned too. She will be doing English (2) maths, hopefully triple science (she is achieving so should get that as only one class full allowed at her school), history, Spanish and 2 further choices. She has considered the BTEC health and social care. Does anyone know whether this’ll help or hinder her university chances? I also think she should choose RE as she is randomly very very good at that and a 9 grade was mentioned for her for that

My DD has picked H and S care as one of her choices. I think learning about the human lifespan and issues people face with their health and well-being sounds very interesting. I don't know how it would affect university applications for medicine but as I'm sure you know Btecs are usually thought of as less academic.

The advice DD was given was to pick subjects you enjoy and that you are good at. Sounds like RE would be a good choice for your daughter.

Hi looney,
Does Btec take up 2 choices? If so that might be a consideration. I think our school does not offer btecs for pupils doing triple science. Like a pp said, they are considered less academic. Does she like any of the practical subjects? Also there are different papers for RE, so it’s worth asking at school which paper they do. Have you had the options evening yet?

Artisan.
Thanks for sharing your experiences on here; it is good to be reminded how tough it is trying to maintain opportunities for young people in this environment. It’s great you have managed to keep a cohort going through it so far. Hope your current students are enjoying their course.

Well we have had a right palaver over dd's options.

Went to options evening where it was announced that triple science would no longer be an option. Instead they would teach the double science curriculum in years nine and ten, then if they were doing well they could do the further work needed for triple science in year 11. Otherwise year 11 will be spent revising the curriculum.

So DD chooses to do sociology, geography and additional maths.

Because you do additional maths GCSE, plus statistics GCSE under the additional maths option, that meant a total of 11 GCSEs, assuming she is chosen to do triple science. So she decided to do performing arts btec instead of drama GCSE as it will mean one less exam. She can also incorporate her dancing into this, so all good.

Then I get an email from the school saying that some parents have complained about triple science no longer being an option so they have reinstated it.

I have talked to the school and we can either choose triple science as an option or wait and see if she's doing well enough to be chosen to do it in year 10, as originally planned.

So now I feel totally unsure about the best thing to do. DD wants to stick with what she's decided to do. The school has confirmed she can do science A-levels without triple science so technically we could just leave it if she gets to year 10 and isn't chosen.

But I am worried it will put her at a disadvantage when she starts her a levels. And I'm worried that eleven GCSEs is going to be really stressful. But if she chooses it as an option she'll be down to ten, or nine, depending on whether she drops additional maths or sociology, which would take some pressure off.

Especially because I think she most likely will be offered triple science. Her target grade is 7/8 for science and apparently if broken down her biology would be a nine. Her physics is pulling down her average a little at the minute.

So now I don't know what to do for the best.

@Boulardii no we haven’t had options evening yet. That’s at the end of the month. BTEC is one choice I think and she is considering graphic communications. She loves art tho and is quite artistic but she understands how demanding and difficult to get top grades it is in art and she is currently predicted all 8+ (and is quite the perfectionist so won’t be happy with a 6 or 7 lol)

Ugh SusanWalker that sounds so much more complicated than it needs to be.

Susan Walker, sounds to me like it’s a good idea to go with the triple science/ drama btec combo, as it reduces her exam stress. Then if she wants to do a science a level she will be better prepared for it, and she knows what her subjects are now. Is she in year 8 or year 9?

Looney: the advice up thread is: Do the subjects that you enjoy and are good at.

Sounds like she would do well and enjoy them both, so she can decide based on the content of the course, which you can find out about at the options evening.

It’s hard when they want to get top marks for everything, and you can see they might not. However it is a useful experience to get less good marks at one thing or another.