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.

PE GCSE is very different from PE classes. Is your DD adamant that she would hate it? More than she would hate art? If a place in food tech isn’t available, but one becomes available in PE, would it be better than art?

I've had two very different kids do GCSE art and I must say that the more you love art, the bigger the time suck. And the process of writing out what your inspiration was, how you have taken elements from each of your 'works' and combined them to form, lo and behold, an entirely blue version of Matisse's Snail or whatever, is possibly better done tongue in cheek.

Literal-minded DS, who is an excellent draughtsman, refused to draw anything other than what was in front of him, and jibbed at calling anything his inspiration.

Imaginatively artistic DD was inclined to say 'Isn't that kind of cheating?' when asked to do work 'in the style of'. (Then she left her nearly complete art folder out in the rain on a bench. Argh.)

Good luck!

This is true, however, the child with learning challenges/ difficulties should be given preferential treatment. I would be fuming.

That's such a weird way of looking at things. My DS close friend excels at Music and languages, should he drop these and do PE and art instead?

I'm all for a broad curriculum but by 15/16 you need to be thinking about the future and not battling with basketball if you would rather play piano.

I think you're right to not accept this. My daughter loves art but chose not to do it as her cousin did it and said it was so time consuming. If your daughter doesn't want to do it, it's never going to work for her.

Polite but very firm is the way to go with this, set out from the start that your daughter will not be doing art and they need to find something that your daughter is both happy with and won't disadvantage her in her other subjects.

Doing this on the last day of term would make me very mad. It's a tactic, they're hoping you and your daughter will just forget about it over the summer and just go along with it. 😡

PE GCSE isn’t an easy subject. There’s a lot of human biology involved and you need half way good grades in 3 or 4 sports (depending on the exam board).

Imaginatively artistic DD was inclined to say 'Isn't that kind of cheating?' when asked to do work 'in the style of'. (Then she left her nearly complete art folder out in the rain on a bench. Argh.

Omg. 😭 Was everything ruined it did she manage to save any of it?

It’s certainly the strangest view I’ve ever seen on GCSE’s.

I feel your pain, OP. My DS wanted to do history, geography and psychology but the way the blocks are arranged, has to do further maths instead of psychology (his other options in that block were BTEC business studies, BTEC patisserie, BTEC PE or art - wtf for a highly academic child?). Which is causing him to lose sleep already and we’ve only just finished y9. The infuriating thing is that if he dropped down from double award science to single, he could do all the other three - but it would mean sacrificing a pretty glued on A for a C as that is the highest mark you can get with single award, so we are forced to go for the further maths, which is likely to be a B and having to pay for his teacher to tutor him once a week as he’s so nervous about it. Really bloody irritating, all of it. His back up choice, Spanish, he was the only child in the school who wanted to do it (again, a locked in A) so that’s not happening either. So angry that what - with a fair wind and a lot of cajoling - would be probably a full set of A and A* is now going to be compromised because the choices need to be dumbed down. I have already had to fight to allow him to be entered for GCSE citizenship as a sole candidate instead of the cop out qualification the rest of the school are doing as well as swallowed the whole BTEC ICT thing. A school in a very, very deprived area with a very working class population just isn’t cut out to accommodate kids who want to go on to do essay based a levels and law at university. The careers adviser was flummoxed when DS told him.

It's setting you up to fail, which will knock your self-esteem and risk further education and employment. I took a subject I didn't enjoy and wasn't good at. I was thoroughly bored, felt stupid, was miserable all year and failed the subject anyway.

I'm sorry to hear that other people have also had issues. Like someone else mentioned, I am also annoyed that they left telling parents until mid morning on the last day of term. I happen to be off work today, but otherwise I wouldn't have found out until I checked my emails in the evening. They could have confirmed things before today surely.

Anyway, finally got to speak to someone, a year head I think. Nutrition is full. The only other options are art, design and technology, PE or digital technology. None of which are of any interest to dd.

So all I can apparently do is put her in Art (best of a bad bunch) and hope in the first few weeks of school someone drops out of nutrition and she MAY then be able to get that place. However i suspect she is not going to be the only child doing art who doesn't want to be.

I think I am just disappointed. She hated school for the first 2 years but this year has been a positive one and she was looking forward to starting GCSEs. I guess I am concerned this may demotivate her as well as lessen her chances of getting this magical 5 GCSEs at pass grade.

That's silly! Art is not for everyone. I can understand every child can't get all their top choices and might have to compromise but surely there's something else she could pick instead?

I didn’t say that PE GCSE is easy, just that it is very different from PE lessons! OP’s DD competes at a high level in sport, she is interested in a career in health and social care, and she wanted to take psychology or sociology GCSE but she hates PE lessons. The academic part of the PE GCSE fits with those choices - it is biology/physiology/psychology/sociology. Maybe it isn’t such a bad fit? I guess it depends how her DD feels about the sports options. Are there options that would work for her that are related to her sport eg if she is a gymnast, maybe dance and trampolining?

If she does sport to a high level wouldn’t PE be a better option?
otherwise, I’d make it very clear that she won’t have time to do any art outside school.

Art is a relaxing and easy subject like many people think. When I did it there was a full day painting exam and a massive design project that had a lot of work in it. I was good at art and loved it but it was a lot of work.

You are right to be concerned. If you can't draw, you are not artistic or creative GCSE Art is a nightmare. There is a huge portfolio of work to get through and the exam takes the entire day. Food nutrition is fine my teen son did it. It involved practical cooking as well as learning about nutrition. He enjoyed it and it's a useful skill to learn. Also the exam is early so it's out of the way before the other subjects appear.

@Hairyfairy01 if she does a sport out of school as you mention, PE might be a better option? Esp if she is interested in nutrition.

@Dominicains where are you with the letter grades? And what is single science with a max grade of C? Foundation maybe but that’s not a choice option time?

Food&Nutrition has quite a lot of theory.
Plus some of the practical work is experimenting & taste testing not just cooking. (Eduqas)

@caringcarer the food tech practical is early but the written exam is often one of the last. This year it was on 19 June. Not that that’s a reason not to take it.

I have spoken to her about PE. It's the team sport element she would struggle with. And she says the 'PE gang' are very clicky. But I agree, it shouldn't be dismissed and may well be a better option than art.

@clary, we’re not in England. We don’t have Foundation and Higher papers here.

Ah ok. Not heard of single science capped at a C grade before, that’s all.

I'd be emailing HoY and asking what can be done? Play dumb : Was there some mistake, did she submit late? Ie why did she not get her chosen subjects, or why no movement?

Not many people realise that education is devolved in Scotland, Wales and NI, so no worries!

Is it worth considering Digital Technology? My son is doing that and it's not too hard and at least gives useful life skills.