PE or Computing at GCSE

[TrustInFate]

Appreciate that probably sounds like a no brainer but it's not quite so straightforward.

DS generally either does really well (on for 9s) in subjects he is passionate about, or low to average in the rest (3s and 4s).

His absolute best subjects throughout school have been French and PE, on for 9s in both.

But he's concerned that Computing would be more useful to him in later life than PE. He quite likes Computing, but isn't "passionate" about it per se. Finds cyber security boring and coding alright but not too much of it. But of course he does like the idea of career opportunities and money.

At his school, he could do Btec PE without doing it at GCSE. He couldn't do Btec Computing unless he does the GCSE.

So does he risk the almost dead cert top grade of PE for a much lesser known grade in Computing?

My DS is doing GCSE computer science because he's an excellent coder and it will be an easy good mark for him. Not because it's a particularly useful GCSE! As a PP said, it's seen as a "hard" subject and the class is mainly all boys who are super good at maths taking it as a "side grade 9" to bolster their UCAS application.

My ds did computer science and despite being excellent at the coding (Grade 9 Maths- and now doing A level Maths) found the rest of the syllabus boring and put no effort in.
Consequently it was his lowest GCSE (6). Rest were 8s and 9s.

Thing about coding is that it has permeated every other area. And it's getting easier to do with a lower level of foundation knowledge. Meaning, he can pick those skills up later, this isn't the only opportunity. Being a subject expert (in sports science) is becoming more important than having "computing skills" iyswim.