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?

@LindaEllen , the delightful poster told me to suck it up. Which is hardly helpful or constructive. Obviously I expect people to disagree with me, what with being a grown up etc. I don't expect childish snark. I'd go on AIBU if I wanted that. And you supporting that kind of post says quite a lot about you.

Sorry but I agree. It's a good chance for your DD to learn the difficult lesson that life isn't all about what we 'want' to do

This old chestnut. Of course dcs should choose subjects that they WANT to do. That is allowed at gcse and a level

I think what all of our experiences show is that forcing pupils to do GCSEs they really don't want to do for no good reason when this has the knock on effect of cutting them off from a subject they really do want to do and feel passionate about is a bad thing

I agree. My mum made me do history O level when I wanted to do geography. Even the geography teacher told her I should be doing geography because I was good at it. I failed history, so did my sister. As a result, although I would have preferred DD to do French, I didn’t make her.

The difference is that geography and history were optional, not compulsory.

But I'm seeing a missed opportunity to build on her academic ability by forcing her to do a less valuable GCSE

It won’t be considered less valuable to any university unless she is taking MFL, and an employer won’t care what GCSEs an employee has, as long as they have maths and English. If Citizenship is an easy A it doesn’t make is less valuable to anyone other than you from the sound of it. And if the school is saying it is compulsory then your DD will have to suck it up or move schools.

I was you when DD was in year 9, but with the benefit of hindsight I realsied that it really isn't that important.

I agree, its really irritating but not important in the long run.

If she's anything like my teen dds, she'll make an almighty fuss, insist you contact the school about it. Reluctantly you do this, then your dd decides actually it might be interesting after all and you end up looking like a twat.

Believe it or not @Frodont , I am familiar with the idea of not letting children have their way .
I am also familiar with GSCE subjects not actually mattering that much - I did o'levels, it was the same then.
However [deep sigh because the patronising is getting very wearing], it's not a subject I am familiar with as a school subject so ... shock horror... I'm asking about it

I remember asking the Citizenship teacher about it at parent's evening. She said that every parent had asked the same question. I did challenge the school at the time and asked whether an MFL should be compulsory instead of Citizenship, but got nowhere.

With the benefit of hindsight, I feel that Citizenship has benefitted DD more than French would have done. She is now at university studying a STEM degree.

I agree with you. It's ridiculous it should be made compulsory. Is it the new General Studies which was useless and a complete waste of everyone's time.

@bellinisurge

Believe it or not *@Frodont* , I am familiar with the idea of not letting children have their way . I am also familiar with GSCE subjects not actually mattering that much - I did o'levels, it was the same then. However [deep sigh because the patronising is getting very wearing], it's not a subject I am familiar with as a school subject so ... shock horror... I'm asking about it

Sorry, was trying to be lighthearted not patronising.

It's a pointless waste of time, but short of moving schools there's nothing she can do about it other than try to find it vaguely interesting.

Interesting observation Ginfordinner . Thanks. I personally feel languages are more important than that but luckily, at least her school is insisting they do a language. Not her favourite subject but worth more, in my view, than some generalised waffle, particularly as she is exposed to it at home anyway. We impress upon her the importance of voting and ask her opinion not expecting her to agree with me or dh on everything.

I really wanted DD to do French, and she really didn't want to. Remembering my experience with history I kept my lips buttoned, and I'm glad I did because she aced her GCSEs, and she wouldn't have aced French.

OP, you still haven't clarified how many hours a week it is. The requirements around Pshe have changed - in 2018 or 19, I think. In the past a lot of schools got away with just squashing it into tutor time, but this is starting to change.

If she is going to do one or two lessons a week of Pshe anyway, why not get a qualification to show for it?

She wouldn't be allowed to opt out of Pshe entirely, as she wouldn't the cover the statutory requirements.

Have you actually spoken to the school about this yet?

Still getting the details of how many hours. Speaking to the school on Monday.
I have no problem with them doing PHSE through KS4. Same as I have no problem with them doing PE. My problem is blocking out the option of doing another academically more meaningful GCSE. In fact, the PE GCSE is academically more meaningful.
By all means add an easy GSCE on top of 9 actual GCSEs for little effort . But don't limit options for the sake of it.

Honestly, I really feel you are overthinking this. All the bases are already covered. As I and other posters stated earlier, universities are far, far more interested in GCSE grades than the subjects they took. They really don't care and neither do employers. I was in your shoes 6 years ago, and now know that in the grand scheme of things it won't reduce any opportunities at all.

Take your point @Ginfordinner what with having been in the world of work for 35 years myself.
However, there's a difference between, for example, double and triple science and this potentially shuts the door on triple science for her.
I'm making it very clear to her that it is what she wants (as far as school options allow) NOT what I want. This is a new thing at the school and she's querying it. I know nothing about it so I started this thread. Most of the comments have been useful . A smattering of them have been eye wateringly shit and childish.

Ah yes, I forgot it meant only taking double science. In that case I would be concerned. Is there no other way of her taking triple science?

Is she keen to take science A levels? If so then I'd really push for triple. If not then double is fine (in fact its fine for A level science with some catch up work over the summer).

There's potential still for her taking triple science but at the expense of business studies or a DT subject GCSE that she's keen on.
She knows that tough choices need to be made it's just that the choice is made tougher by closing one slot off for Citizenship GCSE

My daughter is studying it and really enjoys it. The curriculum covers politics, law etc. I would say it's one of her favourite subjects and she wants to go onto do science A levels.

I don't understand how it prevents her from taking triple science.

Either triple is offered in which case she can choose it in preference to other options, or it isn't offered at all in which case it isn't available.

I guess what OP really means is there are other options the DC is picking over and above triple. With 9 GCSEs even with 6 compulsory, it still leaves room for triple science, a humanity and an MFL or tech subject.

If you are worried about "worthwhile" GCSEs there have been a couple of threads recently where Business Studies was considered less valuable than other subjects. I suspect your DD will be directed to swap Business Studies or DT.

@bellinisurge

There's potential still for her taking triple science but at the expense of business studies or a DT subject GCSE that she's keen on. She knows that tough choices need to be made it's just that the choice is made tougher by closing one slot off for Citizenship GCSE

Well that's ok then! I'd drop business studies if I were her or just do double science.

x-post. So she has to just make a choice like hundreds of others up and down the country who would like to do more subjects than there are slots.

Triple or Business or Tech. Just choose.

Doing business isn't a pre-requisite for anything at A level.
So either decide now probably not A level science and just do combined (which still has a lot of content), or drop Business and pick it up at A level if desired.

"So she has to just make a choice like hundreds of others up and down the country who would like to do more subjects than there are slots."

Yes and you would think that asking for information about it was a reasonable thing to do. Still astonished at the snark.

The info you need from school is how many hours per week are going to citizenship.
We can't tell you that.

Sorry if I'm losing patience but a) you need to find that out and b) you shouldn't be giving posters the impression that your DC is prevented from doing triple because of compulsory citizenship when it just isn't true.

There are times to argue with schools, and there are times when you do just have to 'suck it up' and say 'not ideal, but OK, it is what it is, we will work with it'. I think we should be at the latter.

You have been unnecessarily rude to posters who have given that advice.

If you wanted just to know about citizenship and what it involved then you should have just asked not muddled it all up with her not wanting to do it, triple science etc.

In the scheme of things for your DC's education this is just a non issue.