Which GCSE options?

[Leoparddrawer]

DS likes most subjects. Favourites are probably science, history and PE. Least favourite is computing.
He gets excellent marks in all, especially geography and German.
He can only choose 3 and can’t decide between:
German
History
Geography
RE
PE
DT
Photography

Getting good marks is important to him (and he seems pretty good at exams so far) but I worry he will put himself under a lot of pressure to get them.
He has no idea what he wants to do after school. Possibly some sort of engineering.

I'm surprised @Leoparddrawer you don't see the relevance of German.

it's my subject so I would say this, but learning another language is a great thing in itself, plus it helps understanding of your own language.

GCSE MFL also includes learning a bit about the culture of another country and can link to history as well. And it's a gateway to A level MFL or other further study.

I don't agree re low marks in PE - ds got an 8 and others in his group did well. It's key to offer a sport outside school imo. If that's not for him then Dt Is a good creative.

Thank you sorry, I was just talking about A-levels and so assumed that. I have read the thread but brain fog got to me.

@Leoparddrawer If he likes human behaviour something like geography or Sociology could be interesting for him. Might open up some new paths.

I’d suggest Geography, History and German,

History and Geography are both content heavy and I would suggest one not both. My DC started GCSE content at the end of year 9 to give them enough time because it is a mixed ability class so they have to cater for all abilities unlike say statistics which people only choose if they are good at maths and like it.

I would look ahead to sixth form to see if there are any restrictions on taking one of these for A level ie I know at a local sixth form you cannot take Geography A level unless you have taken it for GCSE but you can take History without the GCSE. I know he is saying engineering but you need to potentially cover all bases if he decides to go another way.

Ultimately this is about highest grades on your GCSE certificates and their enjoyment of a subject and they have to balance that. Ds1 found German easy, he is mathsy and found the structure of it easy to understand. Ds2 also mathsy did French (why does a table have to be male or female?) struggled more however they both got 8s. Shout out to @clary who was a fantastic help on guiding me as a parent which clearly paid off.

Check all potential A level subjects for requirements, then weigh up potential grades and enjoyment of the subject.

I would say where I live it's definitely the opposite. You have to have done history GCSE to do it at A-level. Across the non selective states and grammar schools it's always been a requirement. For subjects like Sociology or politics, they look at another humanities grade but everyone who wanted to do History A-level across many schools in my area, had to have done the GCSE. It's the same for geography, I think if he's diligent and hard-working he can do both geography and history, but would have to be on-it. I think Germans a good option as an MFL cam be strong for the future. I'd probably leave it at that, or see if there's anything else (psychology, Sociology, business etc) - does his school offer any of these.

I would go for geography, German and DT. DT to support the interest in engineering, German I think it’s good to have a language, and I don’t think the languages take as much time to revise for if you have an aptitude for it.

On history vs geography, it depends a bit on his preference, but my eldest has just done both and the content is huge for history. He felt he got worse at it over the 2 years in terms of how he did grade wise. I suspect he’d have been better not doing both although he was pretty much forced into it with the options blocks.

Is he going into year 10? It seems very late to be picking options, mine of that age picked in march.

Both my children did History, Geography and a language at GCSE (one French, the other Spanish.) One did History ,Geography and English Language at A Level and is doing a degree in History, the other is just about to start History, Geography and Business at A level. Neither struggled with the content - because they loved the subjects and just lapped it up.

Personally, I think a language is to be encouraged. Few do them, even fewer at A level and German is not a common option so will set him apart. It is also one of our big trading partners so can only be useful in the future.

Your son likes History and is good at Geography and German. He does sport outside of school. I would recommend History, Geography and German.

If he wants to do some sort of engineering then he can - he will be doing maths and the sciences anyway.

Thanks for those kind words @MrCottersJauntyCap :) always more than happy to help in any way I can. Spread the MFL love and all that haha.

Actually @Leoparddrawer that's a good point made earlier – why is he picking at this time if he is going into year 10? Or is he going into year 9 now and this is you and him giving it early consideration? If the latter, better check that the school will allow him a free choice; some insist on an MFL and some won’t allow geog and history (both things are unreasonable IMHO)

If he likes it and gets good marks he should do it. Lots of kids find languages hard, so it looks good if you do well at them! German even more so, as it has a (not entirely deserved) reputation for being difficult and not many schools offer it any more. It's a great language to do.

Thanks for all of this insight and sorry to diss German Clary!
He’s going into year 9 so just considering them early-they don’t have to choose until later in the year but with results in the news he’s been thinking about it.
They don’t have to do a language but i can see the positives of it.
I’m pretty sure they are allowed to do both Geography and History but it’s not recommended. I think he will really want to do both so will speak to his teachers.
Maybe I need to see if his geeky tendencies and work ethic continue later into year 9 once hormones start to kick in and come back to choices in a few months!

Always great to see you and other fellow languages teachers spreading the word, Clary!

He would pick geography or history- as he is leaning more towards science I’d say geography as it is considered a science by most universities and could be a good A level option for him alongside maths and physics if he still wants to do engineering.
DT or PE because they are both quite coursework heavy so probably wouldn’t do both. PE is great if he enjoys it but DT would also go well with engineering.
Always good to have a foreign language so German would be a great option especially of he’s doing well in it

Maybe look on the exam board website to see the content for each of them to see if that helps. We are under WJEC and the info is all there so we looked at it before the options evening.
DC likes history, and it was one of the ones being considered for the third subject. Looked at the subject content and decided the topics being covered weren't of interest. Actually chose design technology as option 3.

That is a good point but I'd only follow this if it's not necessary for your future career (which it doesn't seem like for op's DS) or if they really want the skills/ability to do it at A-level and/or uni.

The thing with subjects like history etc is that there's obviously so many different topics and things you can cover that they may like the subject but not everything they're currently doing, and may still carry on with it, if that makes sense. It's hard when they can't control that, I know there were topics I didn't always like, but still had a love of the wider subject and other areas even though topics in my GCSE History, English etc weren't my favourite and some I really hated. So sometimes it's still worth doing, and sometimes they may be surprised by the cource, I wasn't planning on continuing history to A-level but still did, and the same thing with doing it at degree. Even with A-level history - I had one paper I hated but just had to stick to it, but still loved the subject.

I think it’s a good idea to look at the syllabus for the exam board that his school uses. It’s ok to say History or Geography but they’re massive subjects so is he interested in the parts that they’ll be studying? They’re pretty content heavy so I’d say one or the other, not both.

DT seems hard to get good grades in - or maybe it’s just badly taught at our school!

PE has a fair bit of overlap with other subjects, but do check the requirements for the practical - it can be quite hard to score highly. Competition is usually needed ime which might be ok with his sports but go in with your eyes wide open.

Good point - there will often be an element of a subject that people don't find as interesting. For us the first two subjects chosen were definitely career relevant. Of the third options being considered a number could have been potentially relevant in some way. We were were in the lucky situation that the teachers in all of the ones being considered (history, triple science, French, DT, photography, textiles) would have been happy to have DD take the subject. If some of the history topics had been of interest then maybe it would have been, but none of them were so it was dropped from the list. Looked into all of them and DC decided that DT was of most interest, and probably the most relevant for future career choice.

Thanks for all these responses-very helpful.
His current thinking is History, German & DT but will definitely look more closely at the courses closer to the time.

He will get loads of guidance in year 9, including summaries of the course content. there are also likely to be some restrictions on what he can do together. I’d just wait and let him go through the process in the new year, when they spend months discussing it.

Still no further on with his choices!
He still wants to do
History
Geography
German
DT
and can’t decide which one to drop.
I’m leaning towards encouraging him to drop history as a lot of his interest in it is down to the teacher and we can’t guarantee he’ll have him for GCSE.
School is no use. They all say he’ll do well in their subject.

I would suggest one out of hist and geography as there is a lot of learning a d revision in both.

He can do history A level without the GCSE if that's a concern.

@Leoparddrawer my Y9 is also struggling to decide between Geog & History. Her other options are Spanish, Latin and Drama. She had considered doing double humanities interested of drama but I think she'll have a big workload doing Latin from scratch so am discouraging this.

I think she's leaning towards Geography - it's a bit less intensive in revision and shorter answers. She's really into the human geography elements which her teacher said is about 2/3 with a 1/3 being physical geography.

My eldest is doing history and has said it's a lot of work. I'm not sure if he'd be doing the same course but the one they do covers Weimar Republic, Rise of Nazis, Cold War, Medicine and Elizabethan England. Maybe check the syllabus with him and see what he likes?

Yes he likes the look of the history syllabus but I agree it is a lot of content especially combined with geography.

I think I’ll remind him that it would be possible to take history a level without doing it for GCSE as he’s quite set on this being an ‘important, life changing decision’ (thanks school!) and I’m trying to reassure him that the main thing is to just choose things he’ll most enjoy studying for the next couple of years.

O was going to say have you checked the syllabus for both history and geography to see if they appeal, but you have said in your last post you have for history.

We looked at history - we are in Wales and due ro changes, then further changes there were two syllabus and we weren't sure which one. However, neither were topics DC felt particularly strongly about.

We also looked at the local fe college, to see what options there were for after gcses, and if any of those had entry requirements.

Turns out the all the level 3 (a level or btec) were 5 gcse including English and maths grade c or above. Some preferred grade b in English. Most of the Art based ones also wanted gcse art.

They offer history and ancient history neither of which say gcse history is required.

For DT GCSE there are more marks are for making the product than for design. So you need to have strong practical skills to get good grades. There is an exam as well as coursework.

Hmm I’d say he had decent making skills and his friendship group like to hang around in the DT room at lunchtime so I think he’ll have plenty of time to work on it.
I think DT is a definite as is History so just needs to decide between geography and German now