Compulsory Ebacc

[EmeraldStone82]

Dd is in year 9. All children with target grades above 5s are told its compulsory to do the Ebacc. I know the government are putting pressure on the school so that's why they're saying it's compulsory however my daughter absolutely hates her German lessons and would like to do History instead. She's already doing Geography, Art and PE. She feels she will get better grades and more enthusiasm.

Can they really force them to do it? Surely ts better to do Subjects they enjoy?
We've sent an email, just awaiting a reply!

Dcs school do this and won't allow them not to (as the timetable won't allow it if your predicted above a 5!)
Doesn't seem great but mine have just accepted that they have to do it. I don't think one of mine trys as hard as they would if it was the subject they wanted to take instead (geography).
I don't think it's right, I think it's political/good for the school statistics but for us it is the best school in the area so had to accept it for the greater good of their education. dc2 complains about it regularly and French teacher said she has lots of dc reluctantly taking the subject so the school won't be getting the best out of them.

Yeh MFL is my subject but I still think this is a bad idea. It often from my observation leads to generally able DC gaining a very low grade in the hated MFL. DS2 had to take MFL + humanity and a lot of his mates got 2/3 in Spanish or German.

Still tho OP a broad range of GCSEs is not the worst thing. As far as it goes, you can push for your DD not to take German <weeps; I love German> but you may find they are adamant. The mum of a friend of DS2's insisted he wasn't going to take the MFL and they accepted that; I feel like they asked her not to tell people tho for fear of a flood. I guess if only a few people object then they may allow it. Worth asking anyway.

If she has to take it, well it's not a terrible thing to have to do something you don't especially enjoy and try and make the best of it. And having a grade 5 German GCSE will never look bad on your CV. Foundation level is available in MFL and it is accessible.

Thank you.

Dd German teacher has messaged to say dd is one of her finest students and she will do very well in it which was lovely of her, It didn't seem too persuasive. My dd just doesn't enjoy it at all and would prefer to replace it with another subject she enjoys more.
The other day the German teacher said she'll cry if dd doesn't do it, which made dd feel guilty which I thought was a little unfair. 🤔

She probably will cry. I knew immediately your DD would not want the MFL! It’s typically MFL that no one wants. We are going to end up with no MFL teachers at all. Perhaps the school wants to keep MFL alive? Maybe the teacher sees her subject dying and is unhappy? No wonder we voted for Brexit.

The context is that there is a clear school policy (rightly or wrongly) on this and they will be loathed to make exceptions for fear of opening the floodgates to mass opting out.

Your only hope is to construct a case that says (assuming it is based on fact) that your DD is particularly strong on the humanities side and might well consider either Geog or History further down the line for A level and degree (technically absence of GCSE in either does not preclude taking that subject at A level but it obviously not ideal). You may want to probe the History Dept's view about your DD's potential (without putting them under pressure to fight your DD's corner, which they understandably may shy away from). Bear in mind that if you go down that track, they may suggest your DD drops one of PE or Art, which obviously would be a great pity as there is a nice breadth to her selection.

However, if you do the above, you also need to prepare your DD for the scenario that they say no and refuse to budge. FWIW, one of my DC did not enjoy their MFL in Y9 and Y10 (comp with very mixed ability set for MFL) but, once they focused on marking schemes etc, rose to the challenge and engaged in Y11, came away with a good grade and, with hindsight, were glad they had that in the mix - so you never know. The wider context is that your DD is lucky to have German as an option. In my DC's school, that has not been available for many years and French provision is dwindling with the last redoubt being manned by Spanish.

Yeah I totally get what you're saying. They need to be strict on it. I would encourage a language and dd is very capable but my dd is so adamant she does not want to do it to the point that I really feel it will hinder her enthusiasm for her GCSEs.

I’m laughing slightly at the “I’ll cry” from the teacher since I said <weeps> in my post!

You can ask the school op making a case as @PerpetualOptimist suggests but be prepared for a firm no.

Aw I know! Sorry...it must be really disheartening.

However, would you say it to a pupil? Didn't sit quite right to me!

DS1 was forced to do this. Sat his GCSEs last year and got a 2 in the foreign language because he didn't engage at all due to being so annoyed at being forced to do it. So didn't really help the school with their Ebacc figures at all in the end.

Luckily DS2 is at a different school and just choosing his options. They recommend they do the Ebacc but don't force them which is a far better situation in my opinion.

Totally makes sense. I don't believe they should HAVE to do it. I feel like the same would happen to my daughter if she was made to do it.
It's the government putting pressure on the schools, I think I read that the government want 75percent of children to do it.

No I certainly would not. I would deffo say (and have) “I’d love you to take German and you would be more than capable” but never that I would be upset if they didn’t. That’s not ok, I agree, feels like emotional manipulation tbh.

I actually think it is a real shame the MFL are not done by more pupils. So few people in our country are keen for their children to learn a foreign language. I think the government are correct to be pushing the studying of languages and it a shame that parents are not supporting this endeavour.

I was glad my school (meaning the school i taught in) didn't make it compulsory tho. I agree of course that language study is important, but I don't think forcing students is the way to go.

Fwiw my school would typically have about half the year opting for MFL which us pretty good tbh and shows they want to be in your classroom.

Believe me, I'd much rather teach a student who struggled but was keen and engaged than an able student who just wanted to be in history!

Well we force maths, English and three sciences!!! In my day, taking O levels, one science was fine. MFL was compulsory. But in those days we didn’t stamp our feet and say “no” and get our parents to fight our corner. I disliked maths and all sciences. Just too bad. Had to do what was expected.

I think it’s great that they’re pushed to take a MFL.

I think it would be different if everyone had to do a MFL. In DS1s case it was only compulsory for those predicted a 5 or above whereas those predicted a lower score than that had the perceived luxury or 2 options instead of 1.

DS would have loved to do 2 BTECs as these are much more suited to him than GCSEs but in the end could only do 1. Actually in his school it has meant that as the kids now know this those that really don't want to do MFL GCSE don't try at all in years 7 to 9 so they aren't forced to do it.

I do think that the real problem is that things aren't very balanced anymore. My school insisted that everyone did French RE 2 English Maths & Biology - absolutely no negotiation on those. After that we could select between 4 and 6 additional subjects with a pretty clear run on what we wanted. The problem is the insistence on 3 sciences whether you are any good at them or not which restricts the other options

@londonmummy1966 In my O level says, 1 science at my grammar school was good enough. The scientists did all three of course. We found other subjects we could do! So much effort goes into stem so a broad education can be sidelined. It’s perfectly easy to take stem subjects for 50% of GCSEs or even more.

My DD's school 'strongly encourage' the ebacc but students can do alternatives if their parents contact the school. This has caused a lot of worrying from DD, but she has 'chosen' to do Spanish now so I hope she tries hard!

My DDs school has 4 "pathways"
Accelerated - Do Triple science and 1 MFL plus core subjects
EBBAC - double science and 1 MFL
Core - you can drop the language
Support - you can drop the language

So it is ability based and in a year of 180 kids only about half do a MFL

My DD (year 8) loves languages and will be taking French

@Lisaquin01 That's based on ability in sciences. My DD had great ability in MFLs. So in your school she would get one MFL. I thought she was pretty bright but just preferred MFLs. She was forced to do 4 sciences. Luckily she did 2 MFLs as well but it’s rare these days. These days I think the brightest do MFLs!