igcse French

tyllwyd

JC9297 wrote: »

I think the poster who was talking about doing drama or music outside school was making the point that you don't have to do a GCSE in them to persue them.
I'm not sure why you think the balance of her GCSEs would be towards science rather than the arts if she chose, for instance, french, history and art alongside the core subjects, as all her options would be arts subjects.

Well, she'd be doing
maths (x 2 gcses)
physics
chemistry
biology
ict (x 2 gcses) (all compulsory - she could do double science but it doesn't free up another option choice)

english (x2 gcses)
history
music
french

I know my daughter would perceive that as being biased towards science. She's going to be spending a lot of time studying stuff that she knows is good for her but she isn't going to get excited about.

When it comes to a language, I think the balance is shifting for current kids so that it will be important to have the gcse - whether it is important later on in their careers remains to be seen! But I'm happy that I've got my O-level French from years ago, and every now and again it does come in useful so I am keen on her doing it. (In fact, as thing have turned out, my O-level French is more useful to me in my job than my four science O-levels, my three science A-levels and my science degree!)

Anyhow, we've taken the plunge and applied for a distance learning course, so we are committed now!

lizzielondon

daska wrote: »

I'm assuming that if she's looking at GCSE options then she's presumably 14 so a lot of the college courses won't be open to her?

as I understand (from friends' experiences in school) if your school doesn't offer a certain subject the local authority will fund you studying it elsewhere if you have a particular reason

it's something which they don't advertise well. together with not advertising that the local authority will pay for your travel to a particular school/college and also possibly pay fees if they are involved if you are doing a course which is unavailable closer to home- think that is 16-18 though

clearingout

your daughter isn't choosing her options until next year, if I've read it correctly? why are you therefore trying to have her look at her options this year based on the 'boxes' her school have put the different subjects in this year? You do realise that the school won't necessarily offer exactly the same combination of subjects in the same boxes next year, don't you? so what is impossible this year might not be impossible next year? and the same with what is possible now might not be possible next year?

I'm no expert but teachers come and go, different emphasis is placed on different areas by different teachers, lots of complaining this year leads to a complete change of how things are done next year, timetables have to be jiggled.....unless the school have told you categorically that the way things are this year is the way they'll be when your daughter is taking her options, I'm not sure you can really make choices today.

tyllwyd

clearingout wrote: »

your daughter isn't choosing her options until next year, if I've read it correctly? why are you therefore trying to have her look at her options this year based on the 'boxes' her school have put the different subjects in this year? You do realise that the school won't necessarily offer exactly the same combination of subjects in the same boxes next year, don't you? so what is impossible this year might not be impossible next year? and the same with what is possible now might not be possible next year? ...

Yes, you are absolutely right, and things have already changed a lot just in the few years it has been since we originally looked at secondary schools when she was year 5/6 (none of the schools we looked at have the same headteacher for example). But it seems more likely than not that she will have three options out of a range of subjects, which is what we are worried about. To be fair to the school, they offer a good range of gcse subjects and are very flexible about the combinations you can take, it's just that three doesn't seem very many!

VikkiiKawaii

From my experience (took GCSEs last year!) three additional GCSEs is plenty, especially if you take two 'art' subjects. I took Art GCSE and Music GCSE and found by the end of Year 11 the amount of coursework needing doing took up a lot of my free time.

JC9297

tyllwyd wrote: »

Well, she'd be doing
maths (x 2 gcses)
physics
chemistry
biology
ict (x 2 gcses) (all compulsory - she could do double science but it doesn't free up another option choice)

english (x2 gcses)
history
music
french

I know my daughter would perceive that as being biased towards science. She's going to be spending a lot of time studying stuff that she knows is good for her but she isn't going to get excited about. [/aQUOTE]

I'm intrigued by maths GCSE x2 and ICT GCSE x2, that seems very odd.

tyllwyd

JC9297 wrote: »

I'm intrigued by maths GCSE x2 and ICT GCSE x2, that seems very odd.

I think one of the maths gcses is statistics, and they have to study an ICT course which gives a qualification equivalent to two gcses. Compulsory in her school, but I think probably that's something that varies between schools more than other areas of the curriculum.

tyllwyd

Quick update - the igcse French course materials arrived yesterday, and it all looks quite achievable. She's keen to get going!

daska

Brilliant, take advantage of her enthusiasm

tyllwyd

We've got started now. A few niggles with things like a study plan which was listed as included in the folder but in fact doesn't seem to exist, but generally happy. We had a slightly surreal conversation with her French teacher at parent's evening where he was telling us that she would be a good candidate for gsce French when we were chosing options next year, and my DD was struggling not to blurt it all out! She isn't allowed to tell her friends because we don't want other kids hassling her.

I had imagined that she would sit with her folder and work through it with a little bit of prompting from us, but at the moment she wants me or her dad to sit with her while she goes through the lesson. Luckily we've both got our O-level French (from however long ago) so we are OK to give her a bit of tutoring, but I can see it would be a lot more difficult if it was a subject we didn't know anything about.