Year 9 options (Secondary School) questions.

WantToBeSE

My son is in year 8 at the moment, and is about to choose his options for year 9+
I am just wondering (for those of you whose children have gone through it) if i could get your opinions.

Did you leave it to your child to choose, let them choose but with your 'encouragement', or did you tell them which subjects to take?

If you had a say it in, what factors influenced your opinion?

anniemf2508

We've just done this with our daughter (although her school don't choose options til they are in year 9).
Me and hubby sat down with her and went through all the subject choices with her and made a list of yes, no's ands maybe's. The final choice was hers but we gave her alot of guidance in helping come to the right decision.

I think it also depends on whether your child has an idea of what they want to be when they leave school...our daughter has had her heart set on being a Marine Biologist since she was about 8 years old, so her choices were influenced by that

pigpen

We went and spoke to the teachers and asked if they thought the child would do well in that lesson. We used the school report as a guide as to what to drop.. if they hate history it is best to drop it for example.

Mine were not allowed to do 'recreational' stuff so drama/performing arts/dance/music were out instantly. They are all academically able so would be doing academic subjects and if they wanted to do those things they could do them out of school hours.

They are very limited on what they can actually choose between so it isn't a hard choice.. maths, english lit, english lang, science are non-optional At the high school mine are at they have to do RE (catholic school) and also a mickey mouse waste of time PE based subject (sports college) so they had a choice of 2 'art' subjects once we had binned drama/dance and 3 humanities to choose 1 of. So basically they chose 2 of their 'options' .. not very optional if you ask me!

WantToBeSE

pigpen wrote: »

We went and spoke to the teachers and asked if they thought the child would do well in that lesson. We used the school report as a guide as to what to drop.. if they hate history it is best to drop it for example.

Mine were not allowed to do 'recreational' stuff so drama/performing arts/dance/music were out instantly. They are all academically able so would be doing academic subjects and if they wanted to do those things they could do them out of school hours.

They are very limited on what they can actually choose between so it isn't a hard choice.. maths, english lit, english lang, science are non-optional At the high school mine are at they have to do RE (catholic school) and also a mickey mouse waste of time PE based subject (sports college) so they had a choice of 2 'art' subjects once we had binned drama/dance and 3 humanities to choose 1 of. So basically they chose 2 of their 'options' .. not very optional if you ask me!

That's my thinking too, and luckily he wouldn't be interested in those subjects anyway.
I think he'll chose Engineering for sure, as he is always saying that he wants to be an Engineer when he leaves school, but I don't even know what an Engineer does!

They also have the chance of taking the English Baccalaureate..i presume this is a new thing to replace the IB?

LEJC

As the parent of a child now midway through his GCSE's...I would let your child try and decide what they want to do....

From the information given by his school when you actually looked at the "choices" available they were quite limited. I know this varyies from school to school and indeed the ability of the student but once he opted into the "set" options.ie maths 2x english 3x science 1x religous studies and a language (1 from a choice of 3) it actually only gave him the option to choose 3 additional subjects.

We have found that he has performed better at the subjects that he was actually able to choose himself rather than the "enforced" ones by the school and indeed those which in a way we may have steered him towards...having said all that hes doing very well on all!

I think that it also depends on the child...our son can be stubborn at times and if he doesnt want to do something then he will object...so in this type of situation we found it much easier to let him tell us and his tutors where he felt his strengths were.

Good luck with the process im sure your son probably knows which subjects he would like to do and probably its your job to encourage him to make those decisions himself but also support his choices

WantToBeSE

Thanks for the feedback so far.
I think the school that my son goes to has got quite a good selection of subjects to choose from.
As well as the core subjects (English, Maths, Science, PE), there are a few that he finds interesting

Engineering
Computer Science
Resistant Materials Tech (DTech)

i am happy for him to choose those as he likes the, and are good at them, but we have to find another 3 (1 more choice necessary, plus 2 reserve choices).

Kathy535

My parents chose for me many years ago and I always felt really resentful. So, I allowed my daughter to choose her own - however, we did go through them together and talk about the pros and cons and make sure she was choosing them for the right reasons. For example, choosing business studies because the teacher is hot is a poor choice, choosing media studies because you like English, are interested in ways of communicating and are a creative person is fine even though it may not be the most useful of subjects.

Between us we agreed that i) she does better at subjects she enjoys, ii) GCSEs are the gateway to A levels so choose subjects that she'll get good grades at and c)as she has no idea what she wants to do steer clear of anything that forces her down a particular career route or which rules out any choices later on. We are using the same criteria for A levels.

I haven't agreed with all her choices, but it isn't my life and they aren't my choice to make. Having said that, I have no doubt that in 20 years time she'll be berating me for not pushing her in a certain direction and for giving her too much leeway!

thunderbird

Our son has just submitted his preferences, he is in year 9. He chose the humanity, language and art subjects that he likes best. The only one unsure on was ICT or triple science, but after speaking to his teachers he decided science was the best option (which is what we thought too, but wouldn't have decided for him)

Foggster

Another one who chose the options together based on performance in the first 3 years.

I wouldnt dismiss "mickey mouse" subjects, my daughter has chosen PE because she would like to go into teaching and this is a subject she favours. The same about the Arts, if a talent lies there then why not allow a child to choose a subject which they will enjoy and carry out to the best of their ability.

Personally, the subjects I chose did not lead directly to the career I am now in (and I hope I am very good at). However, I did study a good cross section of "O levels" and I felt this gave me a good foundation to build on.

It is worth bearing in mind of where they will go after GCSEs so they have a route into their A levels and beyond.

However, the core subjects will set them up more or less for what lies beyond.

Mrs_Arcanum

Ours have compulsory core subjects (English, Maths, Science & one year of RE) then the rest are divided by subject areas. All are encouraged to do at least one subject from each area of the curriculum. The choice boxes are done in such a way as to encourage this more rounded education.

My daughter is now on AS and A level for 4 subjects (the DT subject (done for light relief) that she was going to drop is being fitted around her to enable her to continue for A2). I can advise anyone doing the Art GCSE this is a huge subject, the workload was around 25% of the total for 10 subjects.

Tenyearstogo

I let my son choose himself, he's going to be studying them not me. I don't understand how it's right to choose for them. The teachers won't let them do it if they won't pass anyway, and most of them are core subjects anyway. He's doing the ebacc and 12 GCSEs.

He's in year 10 now, studying maths, double English, triple science, RE, ICT, drama, art, German and history.

He loves art and drama is amazing for building self confidence and is a really useful tool in presenting yourself.

The only one he's struggling with is German, but he had to do language as it is compulsory at his school. We've told him not to worry too much about it and focus on his others. He was spending a disproportionate amount on his German and neglecting other subjects.