EBacc and KS4 options - can someone explain how important it is?

[Makinglists]

DS1 is reasonbly bright studing at our local comprehensive.We are just starting looking at options and I am wondering how important the EBacc is?. DS is ok at German but not a huge fan - his skills are more in the realm of geography/computing/Technology/Pe. I want him to keep is HE options open though I dont realistically think we will be looking at Russell Group Institutions. 30 + years ago I was made to do Olevel French and hated every moment and struggled - didnt stop me going to uni and getting a good science based degree - but am I very outdated in my thinking?. I dont want Ds to do something he doesn't enjoy on the other hand if the EBacc is now important then perhaps I will need to convince him of the value of a language.

My DC have no choice and have to do the EBaac despite not enjoying or needing to do a language per se-seems like it’s another thing to measure schools by without any thought as to the children it effects. But it is becoming widespread due to that so probably no harm in doing it if it aligns with his interests and where he wants to go forward in the future

Not important at all. It is a DfE attempt to measure how broad a curriculum schools offer but has no benefit to the student! No university currently insists on a language other than obviously for language degrees.

handmademitlove I thought UCL does?

The government aim is to have 75% of students taking the ebacc by 2020 (might be 2022, can't quite remember) whether or not it's the right thing for them 🙄

@FaultInMyStars if you don't have a gcse Language UCL likes you to do a Language module while you are there.

Ebacc is irrelevant to everybody except the compilers of league tables and heads who are spineless enough to care about their position on that score. It is utterly irrelevant to university applications whether Russell Group or not. We ruled out senior schools that made Ebacc compulsory. My son is in fact doing two languages, music and computer science, but not history or geography. He is getting breadth in a way that suits his interests and I could not care less that it does not meet Michael Gove’s idea of what a child should learn. What he is doing does not prejudice his university prospects in any way. OP do NOT let school browbeat you over this.

Thanks for everyones thoughts - Its given me confidence that if he does decide to drop German it won't ruin his HE options (if thats what he wants). He's only 12, I was 14 when I did my options, it all feels very young to be making such choices.

@FaultInMyStars as GrammarTeacher said, UCL simply states that if you dont have a language gcse, it must be one of your 1st year modules. It is not necessary to get onto the course.

Ebacc is irrelevant to everybody except the compilers of league tables
That's not entirely true. It was only a few years ago that nobody cared whether pupils did languages or not so large numbers of schools dropped departments i.e. it ended up that only privileged pupils got the chance to study languages. Do you want to return to those days?