Another question about Options - Languages

[unknownrebelbang]

DS1 goes to a school which usually insists on two GCSEs in languages when they choose their options.

He's currently doing German and French and is about to choose his options.

He appears to be doing well in both subjects. He enjoys German, but not French.

I'm not yet sure what his choices are, but he has been informed that if he gets parental consent he can drop one of the languages, and he wants to drop French.

We have a meeting to discuss options at school next week, but in the meantime has anyone got any advice about this.

He is planning on going to university, but at this point, is not quite sure what he wants to do longterm.

I'm off to work now, but will check later. TIA.

It's really a question of which interests him the most. I don't think a university would favour one language over the other. I know that German is more "in demand" as fewer people study it but I suppose that would only matter if he carried on at A Level and degree level.

It's quite unusual for a school to insist on two languages I think. My own view is that unless he wants to be a linguist one is enough and either would be equally good. I'll watch this thread with interest though as ds is also about to choose options and will probably drop his second modern language, Spanish. I know his Spanish teacher wants him to continue (he scored 100% in 3 out of 4 exam modules last year) but unless there's a strong reason to convince him otherwise he will drop it. If he did keep it on he'd have to sacrifice Latin or do combined science - it seems to me that those are all good choices and it's a shame to have to choose between them.

Thanks for your responses.

It is unusual, but the school is also a language college, so has specialist status in languages.

Oh that makes sense then. I still think so long as he has a reasonable selection of GCSEs and isn't limiting his future options then it would still be fine to do just one.

BUT consider:

1. As it's a language specialist school then maybe the teaching will be better and he might get a higher grade in French - especially as you say he's good at it.
2. It would be useful to know what he will choose instead of French - if it's History or another 'academic' subject all well and good, but if it's Media Studies or somesuch then it might be more limiting later on (I reckon you can get away with 1 or 2 such subjects though). 3)Are you sure it's the subject he doesn't like and not the teacher (could have a different teacher next year).

Thanks Snorkle.

He's not sure of the choices yet, but they're likely to be academic. All will be revealed next week I guess.

He's never complained about the teacher, but he's never liked French since he started to learn.

Likes German and says he finds it easier.

If he really doesn't like French then he may well not do so well at it whatever the teaching is like. I know some children do gravitate more to one Language than another so you may as well play to his strengths. Let us know what he chooses - there's another thread somewhere on GCSE choices. We've heard nothing from the school yet about when and what they can choose and ds is getting quite twitchy (he thinks he knows what he wants, but doesn't know if it's possible yet), so I'm quite about your meeting next week!

We had the meeting tonight, and came home with his form and a booklet about the various options.

By chance, we were stood waiting to speak to the head of year behind a child and his parents who were talking about wanting to drop French and take Double Science, Geography and History (instead of two options) which is exactly what DS1 wanted to do.

Head of Year says nothing is set in stone, and will raise the issue. (I think a couple of other children have also mentioned this).

So it's a case of wait and see.

DS1 can't drop the French (well he can, but would just do a single language rather than another subject).

So he's opted for History.