Tell me about Citizenship GCSE. Which is apparently compulsory at my DD's school. She doesn't want to do it.

[bellinisurge]

As it says in the subject, Citizenship GCSE has now been deemed compulsory at my DD's school. She would prefer to do Triple Science but doesn't want to lose a free space in her GSCE options to do it. She deliberately didn't go to a faith school (despite being in a feeder primary) to avoid having RE GCSE forced on her.
Any suggestions?

@Woolff I take your point re some pupils preferring other things, especially with the set texts definitely being overdue an update.....But in both my DCs different schools English and Maths both have 6 lessons per fortnight, options have 4 hours, so not quite 2 for 1, but not a "whole GCSE" either.

Firstly I would check out does it definitely take an options slot and /or what is timetabled at the same time. Our non-religious school has compulsory RE for 0.5 but only thing timetabled at same time is extra English lessons so if you opted out and school agreed (very rare) you would either be in extra repeating English or maybe in library / support hub. I would try and see how many in year above do citizenship gcse is it 100% or are some people allowed to drop - our school says a Mfl is compulsory but then 50% drop, you just need a good reason.

If triple science is an alternative after that I would just make the case to school, saying things like your DD wants to study science A levels if that's true. Both mine hated the compulsory RE as it was full of kids who didn't want to be there just disrupting the lesson though in the end my DD got out of that by doing the full RE gcse and that stopped the disruption. Though if normally almost everyone does it and there's no SN school may well say no and she may just have to get on with it.

Op you've had lots of good information on this thread.

It seems that unless you move her, your dd is going to have to do this GCSE. It's not something I've heard of often, but RE as a full or 0.5 compulsory GCSE is not unusual. IME it is then an extra to the normal options, taught in maybe one lesson a week.

You need to find out if this is the case here. Assuming the usual compulsories of Eng X 2, maths, science X 2 or 3; does she have three other choices or only two bc of Citizenship? And what's the "wiggle room" for a 10th subject? A twilight after school? Triple science as a 10th in the same time as double?

Are there other compulsories - hist/geog and/or MFL? Worst case - her nine are all compulsory - English X 2, maths, science X 3, history or geography, MFL, Citizenship. This seems unlikely tho as then no one would do DT, computing, PE, RE, music, art, drama...

So I imagine she will have at least one choice, which is not that unusual, and maybe (with the wiggle - or if. MFL is not compulsory) she'll have two - which is pretty much as many as you get in most schools.

My girls did Citizenship in year 9 and RE in year 10.
By the time ds got there they decided citizenship was a waste of time, which I agree mostly.

However some children love it (not mine I'll add). There was a lot of looking at not so much moral issues as current issues and local issues. So discussing things like whether a pelican crossing outside school was a good idea. Some of the projects took wings and actually morphed into something that did happen for the local community.

It sounds to me more like a general studies kind of set up - they have to do their one period a week of ethics-kind-of-thing anyway and they are squeezing an extra GCSE out of it so it's not really taking anything away from her options.

You say they do 9 mostly. English x 2, maths, MFL, 2 sciences, a humanity and Citizenship makes 8 so are you saying she only has one choice left of doing a second humanity, 3rd science, 2nd language, and all the art, tech, music, IT etc etc? If so, that does sound rather limited.

I feel for your DD, it's unfortunate that the school is forcing them to sit citizenship, but it doesn't sound like there is much that you can do.

You could raise the issue with the school of course, and in my experience schools can be quite flexible when it comes to subject options - at my DD's school, many students ended up dropping the "compulsory" subjects (modern languages, triple science, etc.) if they wanted to.

Personally I don't understand why some schools insist on making citizenship/general studies/other niche subjects compulsory - it seems very unnecessary and a headache for the students, who could have used the slot to take up a subject they actually enjoy.

I've had a look through the OP's posts.

• Nowhere does she state that an MFL is compulsory.
• Nowhere does she state the school doesn't offer triple science.
• Nowhere is she clear whether Citizenship is allocated the same time as an option subject.

@Teenplustwenties sure. It's all supposition without knowing the bigger picture of the options OP's DD has.

...and, as you say, how much time is allocated to the subject.

I don’t think it’s desirable to make non- core subjects like that compulsory given that maths, English and science is compulsory for everyone, which means that there are not that many options left. Citizenship issues should be included as part of PSHE.

It’s basically a way of getting a qualification through pshce that is compulsory(ie the government says you have to do)-it’s not taking up an option slot.

I wish it was compulsory in every school. At 18 people get the vote, it's useful for them to know what they are voting for.

That's it - whether it's called 'Citizenship' or 'phse' or included in Religious Education it's basically a compulsory subject. If it's important to someone to have X amount of GCSEs then surely getting a grade at the end of two years would be something they would want.
Personally I think the system expects far too many GCSEs to be done. No one needs 9 or 10 (or even more). If I was in charge it would be no more than 6 GCSEs required and everything else is either compulsory because it's important life information (like PHSE) or because it's something a child wants to learn to use at the next stage of their life (6th form, college, apprenticeship, whatever). But that's my personal opinion.

Thanks for the helpful comments. I have no problem with her having citizenship lessons, it's important and useful life info - she hears it from us anyway because of our jobs- but not worth clogging up a GCSE slot.
I will ask about what it clashes with on the proposed timetable.
She has to do an MFL which she isn't keen on but accepts it's usefulness for future career purposes - I have an MFL degree.
She commented that even if it is an "easy degree" which will get her a good grade, anyone seeing it on her future cv will know that and disregard it. Probably only a bit true but I think it's a good point.

(As for the odd poster telling me to "suck it up", I hope that they didn't stay up too late after CBeebies finished. I'm too polite to say Fuck Off but it's implied)

Easy GCSE , I mean, not easy degree

It's the pshe curriculum that's compulsory which leads to either citizenship or re but it's not a full gcse in many schools, a half course unless they choose to take the exam and self study the extra material (both my DD's did and got a* as it's easy) they had to do the course even if they didn't sit the exam. Most schools do 9 or 10 GCSEs, it's been reduced from a few years ago as they toughened the syllabus

It appears to be a full gcse at my daughter's school

At DD's school they split the year into halves or thirds, but then everyone does 'core' subjects at the same time, and they all come together for 'options subjects'

So Citizenship (or RE in our case) for one band would take place at the same time as a random Maths/English/Science/PE lesson for another band. So dropping the subject wouldn't enable an additional option to be taken.

There are a lot of suggestions here, but it appears not one other parent has noticed the existence of on-line learning. It has been a useful option IME but nobody has responded to my previous post, including the O.P. who has the difficulty. It is a work-round. It does work.

Thank you @20mum . I will take a look.

Have you asked the school how many hours a week it is? If it takes a full option slot, I can very much understand your objections. In some ways, this will make it easier though - because there will be other lessons taught during that time, so it could be swapped for something else.

If it is just an hour a week, then that's different and there probably isn't a work around. The statutory requirements for pshe have changed recently, so that may be why the school have recently gone down this route.

I do think it's worth explaining to your daughter that in an institution like a school, decisions are sometimes made for the greater good and not everyone's individual desires can be fully catered for.

I would also add as a science teacher that science is probably one of the gcses least suited to remote learning due to the practical elements.

I expect it only "clogs up" half a GCSE slot in timetable terms then, the other half being her PSHE slot which she would have to do anyway.

Our experience is that there is wiggle room around "compulsory" subjects, but mainly for those needing extra tuition or more vocational routes. Given she will have to do a period a week of PSHE I don't think there is going to be a way round this. But it's a perfectly sensible question for you or your daughter to ask the tutors about, politely.

but not worth clogging up a GCSE slot. I will ask about what it clashes with on the proposed timetable.

I doubt very much that is will clog up an entire GCSE slot. I don't think the same amount of slots are dedicated to Citizenship as there are to the other subjects. It certainly wasn't when DD was doing her GCSEs. As TeenPlusTwenties has pointed out, a lot of schools split year groups into two or three and timetabling for several hundre pupils is very complicated.

If RE/PHSE/Citizenship is a compulsory part of the curriculum then it sounds like she will have to take either Citizenship or RE anyway. DD's school took the view that if it was compulsory then the student might as well gain a GCSE out of it, and I also doubt that the school will allow her to swap Citizenship for something that isn't RE or Citizenship.

Another point to remember is that, given it is compulsory in all schools to take maths/English/science subjects anyway, universities and employers don't care what optional subjects they take. So doing French instead of Citizenship will only matter if your DD goes on to take French A level.

So doing French instead of Citizenship will only matter if your DD goes on to take French A level

So much more interesting and useful and academic though.