GCSE course change DT or Media Studies

[Infracat]

My sons school has written today to say that GCSE Engineering is being dropped by the school due to lack of teachers!! My son was really enjoying it so thats very annoying. They are offrring GCSE DT instead. Everything I read about DT says how hard it is with so much theory to learn and a lot of practical work. Another option could be to ask to change to Media Studies. Does anybody having children doing or that have done either of these subjects? Whats your view? Hes already doing GCSE PE so will have coursework for that too.

I should have said hes in Year 10 so 3 weeks into GCSEs.

My DD took DT GCSE and loved it; she's now doing a level 3 BTEC in engineering at college. No experience of media but as this is a creative subject and DT is a STEM subject, if your DS had picked GCSE engineering, I'd pick DT. There is a link between the two.

Thank you for this. How did she find the coursework element? Everything Ive read online says its a lot and a real struggle towards the end. Did she find that?

Yeh I would say DT was closer to engineering.

Friends of DS2 took it as the first cohort to do the new version (it was one of the last to change). They moaned that the practical thing they made (one of them was amazing at electronics) counted for very little but the analysis of the design etc was important. Don't think the coursework was overwhelming tho.

DS2 took PE and the coursework for that was no struggle - analysis of his and others' playing, he does that all the time anyway! Sorry, a bit flip but that was the main focus of it tbh.

That's annoying.
Do they do DT already and what are the grades like and how is your son with projects? It is a massive commitment with coursework, both written and practical, but very different to PE.
Media Studies would just be a grade filler.

@Infracat

Morning, I would say DT -she has just finished her gcse ...there is coursework and sometimes it can take a bit of time but your teachers will support them.

She got annoyed when she had to write it up and it took a lot of time but she now looks back and thinks it is worth it.

You can secure 50% of their grade through coursework, so less pressure on the exam.

It depends on the child - whether they just like exams at the end of prefer to have coursework.

My dd prefers to have exams but she did say having to study for 10 subjects it was nice to know she had completed 50% of her DT

Choose DT. The media course is mainly theoretical - lots of analysing of texts like magazines, adverts etc. He will be writing and preparing for the two exams for most of the two years. There is one small practical project worth 30% but this would only take one term to complete. DT sounds like a much better option.

I suggest he only does DT if he's interested in it. It's the only GCSE my DC failed (got a 3) as they hated it by the end. Are they the only options? They are very different. Good luck to him.

It was slightly altered for DD in that they didn’t have to physically produce the final piece of coursework due to Covid disruption and the final mark took into account their written ‘plans’. I thought that was a bit of a shame but understand they ran out of time.