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.

When we went to options the school said that they have reduced the number of GCSEs that students will do because of how hard the exams are. I'm glad that they have made that decision, DBro teaches that age group and his school have done the same thing.

My eldest did English x 2, Maths, Triple Science, RE and then could choose 4 subjects so would do 12 but now they do 11. I think 11 is plenty, possibly too many for some pupils.

^ 5 subjects.

Hi Brizzle, that’s interesting. I think if you do 3ple science in our school your choices are;
English Lang
English lit
Chemistry
Physics
Biology
Maths
R.E.
A language
A humanity
One free choice.
That adds up to 10.

11 or 12 is a lot. iirc, we only did 9 back in the 90’s I wonder When it crept up to 10, 11 and 12, and why? I suppose it also became common to take 4 subjects in year 12, and drop one after achieving AS level in it. Is that still done, or has that been reduced back to 3?

In DD’s school those who take triple science choose 3 extra. Those who take combined science choose 4 extra.

So DD’s total will be 10. I think this is plenty.

Here the choices with triple are

English Lang..
English lit.
Maths
Chemistry
Physics
Biology
A humanity - geography here
RE
Two choices - engineering and PE here.

So yes, turn. Good job it's not me doing maths!

Hi, we had our options evening; school have confirmed what my dd was telling me, that if you do 3 sciences, you get 2 choices, one humanities and one practical subject.

They talked a lot about how they were maintaining 10 GCSEs, where other schools are cutting options down to 9 to help get better results.

They also talked about the percentage of pupils doing MFL; they are preemptively raising their target as they anticipate the d for E raising expectations soon.

When I chatted to the deputy afterwards, he said that not one size fits all, so hoping for some flexibility for my dd, however she has had a think and is veering towards asking to do 9 GCSE’s, and giving herself a breathing space within the timetable to get homework etc done. I love the idea of her continuing to develop both art and music, but I have to say this sounds like a really sensible plan.

If she only does 9 gsces, is this going to count against her at any point?

Ah, this thread seems to have gone a bit quiet. Perhaps I should start a new one ; ‘do you think my dyslexic dd would be at a disadvantage if she only took 9 instead of10 GCSE’s ?’

Boulardii I think 9 is plenty. It is the 'standard offer' at DDs school this year. To be honest, I think 9 might be too many for my DD, but I will see how y10 goes and if necessary discuss with the school.

Can I just offer reassurance re BTEC/VCERT/OCR L2 qualifications

Yes, if your DC has more vocational than GCSEs then it does concern unis, however holding one BTEC together with the rest being GCSEs does not concern universities - not even Oxbridge despite the usual MN suspects claiming you are doomed for life to even consider taking one

I have previous students who have gone on to lots af various paths, including Oxbridge but more importantly they enjoyed the different way of learning/assessment for the one subject

Teen times two, thanks for your reply.
So, she would probably do English x2, Maths, Science x3, RE, Music and French. This sounds like plenty to me.

That’s reassuring about vocational subjects. I don’t think any of my dd’s options can be done vocationally at school.... might be a good thing as more coursework. They have said they might make certain subjects vocational based on the class, like art and design, business studies etc. But not music.

She has taken on what people have said about how time-consuming art is, and since time is her enemy at the moment, that’s why she thinks music might be a better choice for her since she is committed to her instruments anyway.

To be honest I don't think nine GCSEs can be called 'only' as it still allows a good mix of subjects.

That’s true brizzle, especially when you think about the amount of exams entailed. I think it would be good for my dd to do a vocational qualification instead of an exam based one but our school doesn’t offer them for the ‘academic ‘ kids

Joining in if that’s ok! Eldest is on with his choices - final decision due at the end of March. He does attend a Grammar school and there are no vocational options at all, I would have liked there to be. He hates writing, finds it physically hard work, but is doing 11 gcse’s as he’s got Further Maths too. There does seem to be a wide variation in how many they can do in all the schools around here: from 6-11 depending on which school and ability. Some schools have them sit RS a year early to free up revision time in year 11.

In my DS's stream they can do a Cambridge National in sport if you are interested in sport but don't like playing it but the rest are all GCSEs for the academic set. DS is doing GCSE engineering as his semi-vocational option. I don't know if the Cambridge National is vocational as DS isn't interested in it.

Hi Too, that’s interesting about the grammar school not doing any vocational options; I guess they have an expanded range of academic options though? Philosophy/ range of languages etc. I don’t think our school offers further maths at all, and I think it’s supposed to be a maths and ict specialist school (or have these ‘specialisms’ been abandoned?)

I know some older kids who tried to do maths A level without doing further maths, and were later told they were ill advised to attempt it without having done further maths GCSE.

I think Cambridge nationals are vocational and have a good element of coursework in them.

Hi Bou there is a choice of 4 languages French, German, Spanish and Latin. Classics is also on offer, two types of art, pe, computer science, food prep, drama, music and graphics. So a nice range to choose from, but all are gcse’s.
I’m from a Scottish background, so this is all new to me - an interesting process though!

As to the further Maths - it’s not on offer to all, just the top 30 out of 150 students.

Hi Too,
Although they are taught as GCSEs, some of those subjects are practical and as such have an element of practical exam or coursework.

For example music has a performance element, a composition coursework element, and then an exam.

I think food, art and drama will all have an non- exam related element, so it would be worth asking if there is a parents’ evening coming up, which exam board they use and how the qualifications are assessed.

My dd is going to struggle with doing 30 odd exams in a 3 week period, so I am encouraging her to think of practical options.

I meant 20, but I think it can get up to the 30’s for some!

His choices out of those are Graphics and Computer Science. We’ve been given a booklet with the breakdown of exam board and how much can be done before the actual exams. Graphics has some coursework (I think 50%) and Computer Science is still under review due to some problems in previous years. I’ll re-read the booklet again, but I do know it’ll be a busy exam period for him. They have the compulsory subjects and then the school insist all students sit all 3 Science, a language, a humanity then 2 other choices.

Boulardii It is a 4 week period for most - 2 weeks before half term and 2 weeks after.

DD2 has selected Drama and Food Tech which both have early practical exams before the main set, and yes she will then have 20 exams which over the 4 weeks averages as 1 per day, which I too am anxious about. Especially as school is tiring enough for her as it is, and she gets extra time for exams.

But, I have had a look at the exam timetable our school has published for this year, and it is pretty evenly spread no bunching of 4 exams in 2 days.

I think one key thing will be to help ensure revision is 95% done before exams start so then they are just ticking over and getting back up to speed. I don't think DD2 will have much capacity for last minute cramming!

My dc have to do 3 sciences, which seems like a big chunk to me considering dd isn’t really interested, I did 2 separate ones but dropped biology (so not dual award); do they have to do 2 combined or 3 separate now? That just leaves her with either geog or history a language and 2 extra (art and business studies). I had more choice 30 odd years ago!

Also does anyone know about external dance exams? Ds has just done g3 ballet tap modern and is about to do theatre craft (not all in one day!) and I noticed on one of the certificates he got it says 7 credits, does that count to anything? He definitely doesn’t want to do gcse dance or pursue it beyond school but do the credits mean anything?

Teen, that’s interesting; once the kids have their booklet perhaps i’ll Have a better idea of the exam load.

Now dd is talking about food tech as well, which I think would be great, but it’s in the same block as music, so I’m not sure she’d be able to do both.
Karwo, the music exams also seem to say so many credits at level 2. I think this is because ofqual like to have things standardised so you can see equivalence across different types of qualification. Some of the higher level music exams get you UCAS points. I think if you were in a situation where you were trying to get into college to do dance, and they asked for 5 c’s at gcse or equivalent, then dance exams at level 2 could be counted.

Yup, I went through the info and added up all the exams. It is more than DD1 had as she had CAs.

If I am correct we are at

• Maths 3, Eng Lang 2, Eng Lit 2, Combined Science 6 = 13
• RE 2, Geog 3, Food Tech 1, Drama 1 = 7

So 20 in total.

I just hope DD 'gets' her choices as they haven't blocked them this year so it makes it less certain than previously.