GCSE option refused by school

[Twella09]

Hi, my DD is in yr 9 and has had her letter confirming her GCSE options. Her letter states that school aren't running Philosophy & Ethics and that she will need to take Spanish instead. She's really disappointed as she loves the idea of Philosophy & Ethics but doesn't want to take Spanish. She has spoken to one of her teachers and he has said there weren't enough people wanting to take P&E so the course can't be run.

I'm livid as school have encouraged the children to choose GCSE subjects that they are interested in as it's hard work and having an interest in a subject goes some way to making it easier but then go and do this to her. I'm also suspicious as the school is a specialist language school and their decision feels convenient for them!

I'm planning to get in contact with school on Monday to discuss our disappointment/anger and try to get the decision overturned but feel they'll just keep rolling out the 'under subscribed' line. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the best result for my DD?

Thanks
Tx

You can't make them run it..

But if teacher is willing she could do in lunchtime or twilight sessions maybe some other kids want to?

Or take it privately with a tutor outside school

Or change school to one which offers the choices she likes

No point going in all angry you won't get anything

Dds' school offered Latin in twilight sessions for example (state comp)

Box clever OP. If it was offered as an option, they must have planned for a group. As others have said, it's all down to simple economics. So use whatever means you can to find other parents whose DC want to take it. Then ask the school how many students they need to make a course viable. If you can get the ten including your DD that they need, would they reinstate it?

There are other options such as studying it privately as happens with lots of our students who speak an additional language at home. They don't learn Russian in school but sit the exam there.

To those talking about group sizes in Music, we have 2 groups going into year 10 and one huge group going into year 11. However, we have compromised and will be teaching y12 & y13 together as it's the only way the school can afford to keep the subject running at A level. It's a very good state school but the money just isn't there to pay for 2 groups next year.

@Hellocatshome

JustAnotherOpinion21 was that a private school, most state schools do not have the budget or timetable space to run classes with only a few students

Didn't think of that - yes it was a private school

Its annoying but you can't expect them to run a class when not enough pupils want to do the subject.

They always say about minimum class sizes for a subject to run, but there is often more to it than this.

If you have 10 students, and 2 subjects in the option block - 8:2 is not any more expensive than 5:5

By eradicating a subject, they can make meddle with part-time hours, or deploy the RS teacher into another subject area that she may not be so passionate about.

@Twella09

Hi, my DD is in yr 9 and has had her letter confirming her GCSE options. Her letter states that school aren't running Philosophy & Ethics and that she will need to take Spanish instead. She's really disappointed as she loves the idea of Philosophy & Ethics but doesn't want to take Spanish. She has spoken to one of her teachers and he has said there weren't enough people wanting to take P&E so the course can't be run.

I'm livid as school have encouraged the children to choose GCSE subjects that they are interested in as it's hard work and having an interest in a subject goes some way to making it easier but then go and do this to her. I'm also suspicious as the school is a specialist language school and their decision feels convenient for them!

I'm planning to get in contact with school on Monday to discuss our disappointment/anger and try to get the decision overturned but feel they'll just keep rolling out the 'under subscribed' line. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the best result for my DD?

Thanks
Tx

This post clearly shows that the OP has no grasp of how schools operate.

If there aren't enough students a course cannot run. The end.

I feel they'll just keep rolling out the 'under subscribed' line. Yeah, they will. Because, y'know, it's true.

Lots of students pursue GCSEs privately with a tutor or parents' help in their own time. Just do that if it's such a burning issue. Stop blaming the school and direct your 'disappointment / anger' elsewhere - like year after year of funding cuts?

If languages aren't compulsory they may have substituted with Spanish to get their Ebacc entries up. Entries for Ebacc are KS4 performance measure now.

*a KS4 performance measure

I have had two children going through making subject choices (in Scotland, but same concept) and neither of them could choose exactly which combination of subjects they wanted due to timetable restrictions or lack of numbers meaning that for example Drama was only in one column the same one as Computing, and that meant they had to choose one or the other.

There is usually the option to rearrange choices for a better combination but if there just aren't enough kids for a class, it won't run

If she doesn’t like any of the subjects in the “Spanish block” then it is also worth asking if any of her other subjects can change blocks. For example if the blocks are like this:-

Block A
Geography
History
French
German

Block B
Geography
French
Spanish
Latin

Block C
History
Spanish
P&E
French

And she wanted to do Geography, History & P&E then they would put her in A for History, B for Geography and C for P&E. So at first glance, once P&E is cancelled, it looks like she can only choose from Spanish or French. But if you moved her to C for History then she could also do German. Or… if you moved her to C for History and A for Geography then she could do Latin.

Does that make sense?

If she doesn’t like the other options offered at that time you can see if she can move her other GCSEs around. Ie say if she is doing history - see if they offer history in this slot and look at what they offer in the time she was doing history.

@OnceUponAThread

Very surprised by this. At my school P&E was the (broader GCSE) equivalent of RS. Legally all schools have to offer RS I believe? If they're offering RS and P&E I can understand why numbers are tricky, but can't she take RS and focus on P&E modules?

Schools don’t have to offer RS as a GCSE subject. Just include the issues as part of PHSE.

Ultimately you have to decide what subjects are non negotiable and what can be compromised.

When dd chose her options she decided that RS was non negotiable. If she hadn’t been given that subject she’d have changed schools. She also wanted to take Computer Science. Her school were unable to run it that year so she opted for something else instead.

For Ds music was non negotiable. If the school hadn’t run music he would have found a school that did. However his school didn’t offer drama which he would have liked to have taken but he had to compromise on that one.

I’ve just realised this is a zombie thread from last May.