GCSE options due today help!

[nextchapterplease]

DS is struggling at school. He enjoys it at the moment thankfully but he is in bottom sets where applicable and we can see from homework and assessments he is not really keeping up.
School is thankfully a good one and are being helpful. I suspect dyslexia but we don’t know that yet so it’s possible that may not be the cause.

What I am struggling with right now is navigating GCSE options without making him feel discouraged and in any way lesser than his peers.
He can choose 4 or 3 with some ‘ blocks’ ruling out some combinations .
If he chooses 3 this is to enable him to take one fewer GCSE and do extra maths and English support. This is the route school are recommending and we support that in principle.

He has decided he doesn’t want to do this and wants to do as his friends are - with French, PE, food tech, and DT as his choices.

If he goes with his choices I am sure we can later drop one and pick up the extra support then.

my worries are -

1. if School are offering the support route are we mad to turn it down
2. the support route might turn him off school as he ends up doing multiple maths and English lessons additional to his peers - will this be a slog? If he ends up diagnosed with some SEN, dyslexia does a more varied teaching style work better than just more of the same at school ( we could afford to tutor if needed)
3. Do the more practical subjects and provide light relief or a coursework slog?
4. Is French mad if he struggles with English- he loves the teacher at the moment and enjoys speaking up in class with her .
5. maybe minor but what impact does it have if we over rule his choices - he is pretty determined and got very upset last night when we discussed it all.
6. he is seemingly better at Geography than French but can’t do that alongside the other choices - are either one easier for someone who will possibly struggle with longer questions ? ( older DC is doing it and it’s pretty demanding !)
7. am I overthinking- does any of it really matter if our primary focus is to keep him happy at school and engaged with learning ?

one final point this is harder as he is young to be doing options - young for year , and doing options in year 8 he cannot imagine what year 11 will feel like yet .

Thanks for reading my long download and appreciate any insights and experiences .

Y11 mum here currently navigating GSCE revision.
Have you looked at the content of Food Tech? My DS was going to take it but it was really heavy on theory rather than the practical cooking/baking element which he really enjoyed.
French, unless he's great at it then have a good hard think about that. My DS is getting 7s and 8s in his mocks for all subjects other than French, where he got a 3! It's unlikely he will have the same teacher too which could impact on his enjoyment of the subject.
PE and DT definitely as they will give him some respite from some of the more traditional academic lessons.
Have a good look at the final exam criteria of the options available. If they all have 2 exam papers at the end this will be more revision and stress during Y11. Are any of the options more course work based as these may be better for your DS.
My DS chose no subjects with course work, he will be sitting 11 GCSE subjects most with 2 papers so his homework and revision schedule is quite a lot at the moment.
We went for the support approach and it was his choice, we didn't think computer science was the best for our DS and would have preferred some respite doing PE but he chose it, he told us that he regrets chosing it so I guess thats a lesson learned for when he chooses his A Levels.

I'd speak to the school, as you say its a good one and they are trying to support him. At my DC school some children where able to choose less options so they could have extra English and Math lessons this maybe an option for your DS.

Hey OP so here are some thoughts on your questions:

Yes year 8 is young to decide options IMHO but what can you do – if that’s what the school does

I would recommend the drop a GCSE and get extra support route. There is another thread running on this and I have posted there, but my DS1 did this and it was definitely helpful. No one needs 9 GCSEs and taking 8 with extra support in the core subjects give you a better chance of passing them and getting fewer, better grades overall

French is fine (my subject!) as long as he does the work and keeps up. One advantage is that there is a foundation paper (otherwise only offered in maths and science) which is capped at a grade 5 but much more accessible. You may be aware of this of course. What does the teacher say about him taking French tho?

PE, food tech and DT is quite a bit of CW. Tho ofc CW could be good if it suits him. But I wouldn’t advise the DT and the food together tbh and I would be surprised if the school allowed it. PE and DT btw are both perfectly good academic subjects and PE in partic has a lot of science content. DS took PE A level and always said it was double bio (he took biology as well).

Does he play sport outside school? Doesn’t need to be to a super high level (DS2 played footy for a local team and did athletics for his county) but it relly does help.

Geog or French? Both offer challenge, as I say French has a F tier which may be the way forward.

What would he drop if he did drop one? And has the school confirmed he can switch to that pathway later?

HTH and all the best to him.

DC's school would not allow a child who was struggling with English to take GCSE French - are you sure he'll actually be allowed to take it?

His other options look like they would be coursework heavy - which might suit him, of course.

This is what school are suggesting but he doesn’t want to do it and will be the only in any of his friend groups going down this route . It may well be naivety and denial but he got very upset when I tried to explain gently why it might be best to go with what school think is right for him.

Yes he can do it but they have suggested extra support in maths and English instead , which is resisting so do I let him run with it and rethink at end of year 9 given that he is essentially starting GCSE subjects a year early .

What do you think he might do after year 11? Having the pass in English and maths will make his life a lot easier and leave more doors open for college courses if that is what he might do.

Remind him that picking the same subjects as his friends doesn’t mean that they will be in the same class

Please don’t let him choose French because he likes the teacher. It rarely ends well. The GCSE teacher may be someone else, the teacher may leave part way and if he has some difficulties, it’s not a great idea.

Is there an option support at the school. It usually means one less GCSE with support lessons for the other subjects, not just core subjects.

French won't be "starting a year early" - it's a subject where you gradually build up knowledge, so he'll be likely doing the same in Y9 as if he "officially" started the GCSE in Y10.

The main concern if he doesn't have the extra support in English and Maths in Year 9, he will fall further behind. Not having a French GCSE will not hinder his lack of later prospects in the same way that not having Grade 4 in English and Maths will.

If school are offering support, I strongly suspect they are expecting it to be taken up, and only framing it as a "choice". Does he have extra support now? What level is he working at currently?

If he was year 9 going into 10 I would suggest you overrule him, but the extra year changes things a bit. tbh I would be speaking to his head of year and asking if he took the options he wanted and he struggles, can they be changed to the support route for year 10?

I would take the support route, and do it now. Then there's more of a chance of getting 5x passes at GCSE inc maths and english.

I would not take French, unless he understands he's likely to get poor marks, the teacher may change, and he's just doing it because he enjoys it (rather than because he thinks he'll get an A).

Y9 (and Y12) mum here. Have you looked at the requirements for PE? My Y9 DD was keen for PE and knew that there was a big extra curricular sport requirement. The syllabus her school follows requires continuous improvement in 3 sports - but parkrun and kickboxing (2 of her sports; the other is year round cricket) aren’t eligible.

DS (17 now) last year struggled a bit with Maths, but breezed through English. All the 16+ options her considered made you do m&e alongside whatever else you do anyway if you don’t get GCSE passes. I wouldn’t turn down the school’s offer for support now. Unless he’s in a tiny school, he may well not be in the same classes as his friends anyway.

This is one of the reasons that I am opposed to schools starting GCSEs in year 9. A young for the cohort year 8 is only 12 - how can they be expected to understand the implications of their choices at that age. It's hardly surprising that things like what their friends are doing and whether they like the teacher are a bigger influence than long term goals. To be honest I think year 9 is too young to be making the decision to rule out multiple subjects but year 8 is ridiculous.
However I appreciate that you have to work with your school's policy as it is now @nextchapterplease. I think I would be asking them how set in stone this decision is, especially given his young age. Can he start with the full set of subjects and if he is struggling with maths and english in year 9 or 10 can he change his mind? Or indeed will they impose a change on him if that is the case? If there is room for manoevre I would probably let him make his choices now, but if not, I would probably insist on the extra maths and english. Whatever else he does, not passing those would hinder him going forwards.
I'd also add my voice to those advising caution regarding picking multiple subjects with a large coursework component and seeing such subjects as "light relief". I can't speak for all of them but PE GCSE is 60% theory and as quite a lot of the practical assessment is based on sport that pupils do out of school, it's likely that the actual GCSE PE lessons in school time are likely to be more like extra science classes than extra sport. I remember when my DC were choosing, the "practical" subject teachers made a point of stressing that their subjects were not an easy option - the PE teacher specifically said "This is not GCSE footie. Don't pick PE if you think you'll be kicking a ball around for 2 years". Lots of kids didn't listen and were disappointed though. There's still a lot of theory in most of these subjects and the practical element can be very time consuming so personally I probably would only pick one.

My DS sat his GCSEs last year and two of his options were food tech and PE. He’s quite able but doesn’t perform his best in exam conditions so we felt these were good choices for him.

However, this time last year he was snowed under with coursework at a time when ideally I would have wanted him to be revising for his mocks. I would imagine with DT thrown in there too it would be pretty overwhelming. I guess it may vary depending on the exam board though but both his final pieces of coursework were due in by February half term.

I notice a pp said that food tech was very heavy on theory rather than the practical element but this was not my DS’s experience of it. There was a fair amount of theory content but he did practical cooking every week and it was a huge part of the course. He loved it and did well.

PE had a lot more theory content than maybe we had anticipated. DS is very sporty (although he plays a lot of sports well rather than excelling at any particular sport) but he found the biology and psychology stuff very difficult. The grade boundaries are also higher than many other subjects so despite being his favourite subject, it ended up being his lowest grade.

My DD is now in year 9 and choosing options. She was originally keen on doing food tech and art together but we’ve strongly encouraged her to do either/or because of the amount of coursework.

lol @MrsAvocet ”this is not GCSE footy” - yes indeed.

I know you agree but it annoys me when people talk about PE (or anything) as less academic or lighter.

All GCSEs are challenging as they are meant to be.

I missed that his main reason for French was liking the teacher! Yes that might need a rethink as he may have a different teacher or that teacher may leave. I do still think a keen student should be encouraged to take MFL but yes if English is a struggle it may not be the best plan.

You don’t say if he plays sport or likes science but if not then I suggest geog or French (depending on above), DT or food, and another.

My ds really enjoyed Food Tech because he’s naturally very practical so learning stuff like how to make pasta from scratch was both fun and a good learning experience for him.

Does your son know that this year’s subject teacher may very well not be next year’s teacher?

I would ask the school about French. His teacher may have a better idea if he’s a good candidate for GCSE.

Check DT GCSE curriculum, for our school DT there is a practical as well as exam part. The exam is maths and physics heavy so easy for some and very tough for others.

I would avoid a language with dyslexia. Especially if poor memory/recall with it

I know a number of YP who have dyslexia and did very well at MFL GCSE. Not that that proves anything for the OP's DS. A friend of DD's got an 8 in her German GCSE. And I know others who got good grades. It’s harder for sure but then so is anything involving reading. Which is every GSCE to some degree really. I am not saying he should take French as noted already.

so tricky. If you can encourage him to take the support route that would be the most sensible option. The less GCSEs the better in my opinion! However it’s hard when they just want to be like their friends. Ultimately you could say if he wants to go to the same colleges as his friends he will need to pass maths and English. It’s hard when they are that age as they can’t really think ahead.

Is he being assessed for dyslexia? I would push that if you can.

Thanks so much all I am reading all the replies and appreciate everyone’s views.
I realise my OP is misleading in a few ways so will try to clarify - if he doesn’t take extra support route then he has to do MFL which in his case is French. Interesting to note there is a foundation level - his ( lovely !) teacher said at parents evening he is doing well and she would be happy to teach him for GCSE.
I think he does quite well as he enjoys speaking in class but perhaps won’t do as well in the written work. He is saying he wants to carry on French instead of the maths and English support group (maybe avoidance !)
We are somewhat unhelpfully timing wise awaiting some school screening /assessment results which may help us understand if dyslexia is at play so whatever we decide now may need to evolve if we end up needing to get full dyslexia screening and understand better what help he needs. ( the more I read the more I think this is a likely cause but I know that’s maybe bias and self diagnosing is risky - may start another thread on this theme !)
I do agree that it’s inaccurate of me to say practical subjects are light relief - but what I meant really was that he says he enjoys those and finds it easier to focus and learn.
He is a good sport all rounder and can probably do football / tennis / rugby / cricket and will be relatively interested in the science parts so I think this one works.
I don’t think he is at all ready to make the connection between what he puts on the form tonight and what years 10 and 11 will feel like bht my older DC is in year 10 so maybe he can see this play out next year ! ( different school and very different subjects.)
He does well in geography currently but this relies on memory and essay skills from what I see of other DC curriculum.

If his French teacher is encouraging him to take French, then I would let him take the subjects he has chosen and re-evaluate at the end of year 9. They should still let him drop French for support then.

Does he need support in both English and maths or would English be sufficient? Could you maybe afford an English tutor once a week or once a fortnight? Maybe even just initially to figure out what and how much support he needs and then drill a bit on that. I wouldn't go over board with out-of-school tutoring though unless it really is necessary. Does he read for pleasure?

If he needs tutors in two subjects, I would take the school support.

Interesting to note there is a foundation level - his ( lovely !) teacher said at parents evening he is doing well and she would be happy to teach him for GCSE.

Yes, I say that to my students and their parents too, and I mean it, but we don't get to choose who we teach. Just because she would be happy to teach him, that doesn't mean he will actually get her as a teacher.

Oh I know that don’t worry I was just trying to paint a picture as to why he wants to do it - as I said in my clarifying post if he doesn’t want to take up the extra support in maths and English option then he doesn’t the extra GCSE which is MFL . It’s either or. And right now he doesn’t want to be different and take that route - so for us this one choice feels quite loaded as we either over rule or let him start with French gcse while we try to establish how far behind he is and what the root causes are.

They don't choose gcse options until year 9 ?