EBAC - does it matter?

[Symbion]

Even the tiniest bit? Or rather, should an academic child take one of history & geography?

Yet another Y9 options post I'm afraid.

I have an academic child at an excellent, secular comp that has a very good Religious Studies dept. She has chosen RS GCSE. This is a really strong choice at her school, they do a lot of debating and ethics.

Will it impact her university options at all if she doesn't also do either history or geography? She is set on doing triple science and a language. She could go any way at university really, currently keen on English or Psychology but also enjoys science.

No.
I've never been sure why RE wasn't counted as a humanity either.

No it doesn't matter except maybe to the school.

Is it a good idea to have a broad range of GCSEs including an essay subject and an MFL if possible (and matching the child's ability)? Yes.

Does it have to fit with the stupid and restrictive Ebacc measure? No.

No uni will reject her for not having history or geography (obviously assuming she will not want to study these subjects!). RS is a great subject and will support development of essay writing if she ants to go that way. Agree with redsky, don't know why it's not on the Ebacc list.

Thank you both. School have been good actually, I think they don't get why RS is not included either. She might well end up choosing a second humanity over a second "other" choice (IT, engineering, business etc) anyway but I think it's important she bases the choice on things that actually matter.

No - it’s something that is part of stats for school and it’s better for them. In terms of your child, it is always best to follow interest at GCSE.

No. It does not matter one jot.

Definitely not. It’s a statistic schools are measured on which is why they push DC to choose those subjects. As long as your DC had a balanced set of GCSEs that allows them to go onto what they want to, and it sounds like they do, and they enjoy the subjects they are doing, which I believe is more important for success than trying to boost the schools stats by doing a subject they don’t enjoy, there’s nothing wrong with not doing ebacc.

Great. Thank you all so much for replying.

I'd have thought that doing history as well as RE would be a good choice for a child possibly interested in English or philosophy.

As to why RE isn't on the EBacc list I think it's because the EBacc list was taken from the Russell Group's list of 'facilitating subjects' (when it existed) and RE wasn't on that.