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Secondary education

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Original poster

GCSE options

27 replies

SorrengailFables · 22/02/2026 09:33

Approaching the deadline and DD is dithering…
triple science (takes an option at her school) or history?

She’s doing english, maths (and further rmaths as top set), science, RE (compulsory)
then options she has already decided geography, french, PE…

I’m worried about workload with history on top of everything else but think it’s a good gcse…worried about boredom with triple science as she loves biology - doesn’t love the others but finds them quite straightforward…
neither option is a “love to do” choice for her - more of a “need to fill an option”

has fully discounted all the creative options as doesn’t want to perform in music/drama, time-sapping hobby so art/dr not suitable 😂

Not sure how she’s going to decide…I’ve suggested reading the topic lists to see which she thinks sounds most interesting as she’ll be studying those….

OP posts:
angelcake20 · 25/02/2026 13:28

clary · 25/02/2026 12:55

At my comprehensive, not doing triple when you’re academic leaves you in a noticeably less able maths class

That surprising (not saying you are mistaken!). Most schools I know stream for maths separately from all or most subjects. What if you were good at maths but wanted to choose double science to free up options in humanities or creative subjects?

No double science in my day abd as a result I dropped physics which is a regret (in a way; I'm still glad I took history .

Edit to remove para reffing another thread! sorry

Edited

We only have one class doing triple so they are all in one “half” of the timetable and even the top set on the other side ends up with significantly weaker students. I had two rather frustrated students last time I taught that class and had to put a lot of effort into stretching them separately! Different schools will timetable differently.

clary · 25/02/2026 14:16

angelcake20 · 25/02/2026 13:28

We only have one class doing triple so they are all in one “half” of the timetable and even the top set on the other side ends up with significantly weaker students. I had two rather frustrated students last time I taught that class and had to put a lot of effort into stretching them separately! Different schools will timetable differently.

Show quote history

I guess in effect if a student is strong enough to take triple if it’s set like that, they would probably be top or higher set maths as well. Is triple an option then or a case of “you’re able enough to take it”?

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