Doing art and drama GCSE - too much work outside the classroom?

[Titsywoo]

DD is choosing her options and she is set on everything but the last one. So far she has:-

Eng Lang
Eng Lit
Maths
Double Science
RE
French
Art

Everything but french and art is compulsory at her school. She loves french and is good at it. Art is her thing and she loves it so will definitely do that (she is aware it is quite time intensive).

For the final choice she is stuck between history and drama. She does pretty well at history (6/7/8 grades generally) and sometimes enjoys it but sometimes finds it boring. She would be doing the AQA syllabus and thinks the first year sounds good (WW1 and the Cold War) but the second year dull (democracy and Normans). Drama itself she sort of enjoys (she is quite heavily into the technical side as DH encouraged her that way from year 7). She can do a technical based GCSE (she'll be the only one doing that) which does interest her. However I worry that she'll be doing the lighting and sound for all the groups so will need to attend lots of rehearsals and all the groups actual pieces taking her away from other studying.

Has anyone's DC done drama GCSE and can tell me now much work is involved with rehearsals etc? I don't trust the drama teacher to tell me the truth as she is desperate for DD to do drama.

There's some useful comments on my similar thread (and the thread linked to within this) which was a similar dilemma with also music in the mix!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3527129-Picking-Creative-subjects-at-GCSE-revisited

I'm surprised the school doesn't insist on history or geography (does RE count as a humanity for EBacc?). What does your DC want to do later? I'd perhaps worry she was unduly limiting her options by selecting drama (my DD is looking almost the same mix of subjects, but she's taking 10 GCSEs, not 9, which gives her a bit of extra flexibility).

Following with interest. DD is doing Drama, but the Acting component. Can they run a technical syllabus easily with just the one student?

I was about to say the same as red with regards to History or Geography, as they would give her a better balance with her other subjects.

With regards to Drama, which DD is doing. I think along with Art, this would be stretch. Art is incredibly time consuming with all the out of hours preparation and portfolio required. Drama is not disimilar. Lots of extra time needed beyond the normal school day for practice, rehersals and examinations. DD only does tech on a volunteer basis, but this means she does it for all the other Drama groups too, GCSE and ALevel and all the school productions and events. Lots of commitment there too.

In short, I wouldn't do both.

If she was doing the acting part of the syllabus if has great value for building self confidence, team work and speaking to an audience. My DD who is a barrister greatly valued Drama at GCSE. She learned to speak to her audience and speak clearly which is a decent skill to learn.

DD2 did Art and Drama. You have to love them! You will spend time working on them beyond their allotted time slots. However the technical drama side is neither here nor there. It doesn’t give the same skills as acting. However if she wants those skills and they will be useful in the future, why not? She must enjoy it though. As she’s the only one doing it you must negotiate when she is available. She should not be expected to do every production because she’s following a syllabus. She’s not just an extra pair of hands! The DDs who did technical at our school didn’t do every performance and they concentrated on the GCSE performance, not everything else. A level Drama students did more.

It’s sad she thinks the Norman’s are boring. Democracy, as we are discovering, is fundamental to our lives and wellbeing. It’s very important to understand more about it.

Redsky - no idea why they do the RE as a compulsory subject. In all honestly we find it very annoying and wish we'd noted it as an issue when looking at schools. They do it as part of a larger subject group about society, wellbeing etc and then the kids can choose to do RE or citizenship as the GCSE at the end. It is of course very essay based so I think it will be good for her as a subject - lots of debating etc. However it writes off an option. Take up of MFL's is very low in the school so they just say do a humanity or an MFL and the brighter kids may do both.

Hmm sounds like drama is going to be quite intensive then. They do have a drama tech club who help out with the GCSE performances (DD is currently part of this) but it's not a big group and they are struggling to get kids in younger years involved.

DH is worried as DD had issues with bullying in y7 and 8 and the drama studio has been her safe place (she avoids form by setting up for assemblies every morning etc). But I think she needs to stop hiding away now she's older and has some friends (admittedly not in her form still).

My dd did art and drama. She said in hindsight she wished she hadn't done art because it took over her life. Drama was very useful, really taught her skills that brought her out of herself. She's currently at uni reading law and is far more confident now. She did 10 GCSEs in total, geography and history too. These were important subjects to develop her thinking and writing skills.

Re is actually a very useful subject and she gained a lot from it.

Hmm. It's tricky. I personally think history would be better but DH thinks drama. The thing is she won't do the acting part which I think is the thing you get the most out of in drama.

She wants to do something artistic long term so will definitely be doing art (I imagine she'll do the A Level art course)

Can you speak to hea head of drama about their being a cap on the out of school hours she will have to commit to per term if she does the tech side? If it's agreed it won't be more than the x number of hours she needs for the qualification and she won't be used as a prop for the performers then it might be easier to agree to?

She might find a real passion for lighting/set/sound design and sounds more useful for her than history would be. Plus better opportunity for developing friendships if she has had problems historically.

That's the thing Justonemorepancake. She has talked about the idea of lighting design in the past. But it's what DH did for a while when he was younger and he loved it so I do wonder how much of this is him wanting to live vicariously through her! Don't get me wrong he would also love for her to do history but he does seem to be encouraging her (not pressuring!) her towards the drama.

If she's not going to pursue history or anything similar and she is artistic and creative then I think drama sounds far more sensible and enjoyable. I understand your concerns about too much work but you can allay that by coming to an agreement with the course leader.

I did art and music back in the day. It was a bit controversial in the pushy private sch I went to but they accommodated me and I loved it. I found both subjects therapeutic and think that helped me keep chilled and balanced. I then took 4 a level in art, English, french and politics and got good grades. I’d do it again and recommend to others, altho can’t comment on specifics around drama gcse

My DD has taken Drama and Art for GCSEs, and both have broken her. Drama especially - think rehearsals after school, 4 days out of 5, plus in the holidays. Shes recently completed her practical, and now she has a revision timetable for her written exam. Cue more revision sessions after school until May.

My dd did drama and really loved it, she did acting tho, her group was lovely which is key, if you are stuck with idiots it's a pain.

Art is a killer, I was talking to a year 11 who said she used to love it but now she hates it 😢 it's so much work.

If your dd doesn't especially love drama then I would encourage history if I'm honest.

Re BTW is compulsory at lots of schools cause they have to study it so might as well do GCSE as well.

3 out of my 4 have done drama GCSE - I don't really think it has taken up excessive amounts of time outside the classroom, it tends to come in bursts at performance time (two performances for 2, 4 for the other one - he had the least out of lesson rehearsal time though). But I may be comparing that with rehearsals for their non-school drama group productions, which could be 3x/week for weeks!

One also does art - yes, that is time-consuming (for pretty much the whole time as there's always SOMETHING you could be adding in your sketchbook, or whatever), but she seems to be managing art and drama with little trouble.

A different 3 have done history - they've enjoyed it, but it is a pretty tough GCSE course. Either subject would give her a good balanced selection. The one of mine who didn't do history, did RS as her only (non beach) humanity, which hasn't been any obstacle to her! (Humanity subject at university 😀)

DD had a similar dilemma. I very gently nudged her towards choosing Art OR Drama but not both.She chose Art and Computing instead and the Art easily takes up as much study time as all 9 of her other subjects put together. She is loving Art though and has surprised herself by rather falling for the joys of Computing. I still think that Art and Drama would have been too much pressure (mostly from herself).

Let her do the subjects she enjoys. I did Art and Drama, art was my relaxation subject, I only got a C in it but did very little work. Drama wasn't ever hard work as I enjoyed it and it came naturally to me, I got an A. If you choose subjects you don't like to impress potential employers or universities you end up disgregarding the things you enjoy, not pursuing your dreams and ending up in a solid but boring job wondering how on earth you got there, when you used to be so creative.

I haven’t read everything, sorry! But my DD did Art & Drama for GCSE... I would not recommend. It is SO hard. The school wasn’t exactly helpful when she had a mental health crisis either. It’s the coursework and all the god damn theatre trips till late at night that are difficult.