Choosing options in yr8. Does your school do this?

[roisin]

Apparently some schools are teaching a 2-year KS3, so students choose their options at the end of yr8 and drop some subjects then.

Is your school doing this?
Is this right? Is it legal?

I think it's wrong that such young students should be making choices that will affect their future education/employment prospects.

I also think it's wrong that their education is becoming narrower, and less broad and diverse.

15 GCSEs smacks of a very boring kid.Much better to do 10 and get involved in more extra curricular stuff - teams , bands,Duke of Edinbugh, voluntary work.

Agree princess that 15 GCSEs at the expense of extra curricular stuff would be a bad thing, but there are kids that do all those things you mention and an abnormally large number of GCSEs and still have vegging out time too.

For dd she has her core subjects and now in Yr8 has to pick 2 GCSE which she will complete at the end of yr9.

This means she is able now to give up History, Geography, French, DT, Art Drama, Music, Textiles, resistant materials etc.

Now on one hand this is ok, but particularly for French, if she chooses not to do this next year, how can she pick it up later? She will have forgotten most of what she has spent 2 years learning.

And if she picks a subject and passes her GCSE and its something she wants to continue with - what can she do in yr 10? Start AS? But then in yr 11 she will be sitting A levels in some subjects and GCSEs in others.

She also is young in her year and will be 13 sitting these exams. She is predicted an A* but will she still get that sitting it at 13 instead of 15/16?

I'm also not happy about her having to give up subjects that she doens;t really want to give up like history, DT just because she can only do 2.

Why can;t they do 4 subjects over 2 yrs rather than 2 over a year and then another 3 choices the following year.