Help! My non arty dd has been given gcse art!

[Hairyfairy01]

So the last day of term and school have emailed to say my dd is doing art and design gcse. This was not one of her preferred options, even from that 'block'. She has never shown any interest in Art. School are ignoring my emails and calls. I did know this was a possibility a few weeks ago and made my views clear via email then and my dd was under the impression she would be doing food nutrition instead, which at a push is fine. She struggles at school academically and will find it hard to get 5 GCSEs as it is, this now seems like a wasted GCSE to me.

Am I right to be going a bit mad over this? Any advice in the best way to handle it? I do understand that not every child will get what they want and you can't please everyone. But this just seems like madness.

I think you are right to make a fuss. I appreciate it must be a nightmare sorting optinos out, but if your daughter struggles a bit anyway, doing art could be a nightmare. It's such a lot of work and in this house, where both girls are good at art and love it (at least outside school!), it has taken time away from studying for other subjects. You and your daughter know best how much she can cope with so it you and she think art is the wrong choice, do keep making a fuss. Schools usually do have capacity to move one or two people around.

I would make a fuss too and would be asking for other undersubscribed choices to choose from.

Make a fuss. Gcse art takes up so much time from everything else she shoukd not be made to do it if she needs the time to revise for the other subjects. It's challenged for kids who like art, and it's full on for 2 years.

Makeva fuss. They will change it.

Definitely say something, art is so time consuming there’s no point in doing it unless you love it.

Surely this is crazy? Why would she do a gcse she doesn’t want to do (and in the case of art, presumably has no talent in?) That makes no sense, and is setting her up to fail, and feel bad about herself unfairly. Get the school told, and get her out of that gcse, she needs to know you have her back on this. Incidentally, is this a thing schools do now? Just allocate kids to random gcse courses they don’t want, presumably to fill spaces? Mental.

I have never heard of young people being given an optional GCSE subject that wasn't on their list. How daft is that ! maybe I'm behind the times.

Ring the head of year don't rely on emails being answered this time of year
If you can't get through before the end of term - the staff will be in school before the start of term so pick it up then and push hard.

Oh and you're absolutely right to be making a fuss.

It sounds like your DD has been dumped in Art & Design by somebody who thinks it's a soft option. It isn't.

It's got to be worth trying to negotiate something that is a better fit for your DD.

What is the point of doing GCSEs in subjects you are already good at? Surely the point of education is to improve in areas you are not good at?

I'd be very unhappy with this. It's one thing not getting all your choices, but I'd expect at least something which you have some sort of interest or aptitude in.

Email back and reject it. They can't make her do a subject. If they can't provide anything suitable in the time slot then suggest she has a free period instead of that subject and uses it to go to a quiet space/library and do homework.

Make an almighty fuss and get them to change it. Art is a high workload subject at GCSE. If she doesn’t love it and isn’t committed to doing it she will really struggle.

What are the other options in the block? Are there any subjects your DD thrives in? If she is going to struggle to achieve 5 GCSEs, would dropping a GCSE and having free periods to study actually be of benefit to her? Or is she being denied taking a subject that she is good at or is useful for her future career?

Alternatively:

Accept it.
Do the lessons, view it as relaxation time. Expect to fail, no extra work, and use effort saved on other subjects.

Could work?

You need to know more about what the issue is to get it resolved

Is there a teacher leaving which means they can no longer offer one of your dd's subjects or the number of classes has had to reduce?

Have they had to swap the option blocks around for timetable reasons so all her preferred choices are now in the same timetable slot?

Children do swap options a lot in the first few weeks and up to Oct HT in exceptional circumstances so it may be so be possible to get her in if someone drops out. But you need to know what the problem is. Just demanding they fix it isn't going to help.

Email back ask if there's been a mistake and ask for a different option.

My dd took food & nutrtion at GCSE. She’s really loving it. She already did some cooking with me at home, but her interest has really picked up, and it’s a great life skill to have. Try your best to push for this for her if you can, if there’s nothing else she would choose. I had to fight for dd to get this subject, as it’s a popular one, but just kept phoning and emailing until she got in.

Why can’t she do the food and nutrition if it’s in the same block? Is it oversubscribed? Art GCSE is very time consuming, even for someone with ability, so to ask someone who hasn’t chosen it and doesn’t enjoy it to do it, seems pointless.

Is there a chance that she could do one GCSE less and work on the other subjects for those lessons? We used to run an Option Support for students who needed extra help with core subjects and other options.

No, the point of doing GCSEs in subjects you are good at and have an interest in is so that you can potentially go on to do A-levels or other qualifications related to your interests in the hope of it being the building blocks of a career.

Erm to get good grades to give you more choices for 16+ maybe?!

I think art is one where you need some natural talent and if you don't have it you are a bit stuffed. I am crap at art, would never have taken it voluntarily and it would be really demoralising to study a subject you have no hope of getting a good grade in.

What other options were in the same block ?

Yes make a fuss, there is no point in her doing art if she doesn't love it, it's a lot of work and DD spent a lot of time doing art work. I would point out to school that she will be failing this GCSE if she is forced to do it as you won't be making her do all the extra work when she needs time to study other subjects that she needs to pass in order to do whatever she wants to do next. That will probably persuade them to change her subject as they won't want a student they know who's going to fail from the start. You can't fudge a GCSE art nowadays as the moderators always come in to assess the work.

Definitely keep trying the school. Its annoying that they waited until the last day of term to let you know what they've got. My DCs school let us know a few weeks ago. My DC didn't get either of their top options, one of which they want to study at college and uni, I emailed the school and they were brilliant, called me straight back and told me why they didn't get it and what we could do. They put DC at the top of the list for their preferred subject and we have had an email today to confirm that someone has dropped out so they have moved our DC into that subject. Added bonus is it replaces their last choice option they really didn't want to do so they are very happy today!

You could also ask what else is in that lesson block and see if she will prefer any of those options. I hope you manage to get in touch with the school and get it sorted.

Of all the things …art is not really something you can just “do” without any love of it or talent.

Anything would be better as a subject than one she doesn’t want or is good at.

My DD did art and design by choice after the two years never wants to do art ever ever again. It was the writing and explaining her art she hated.