Year 9 options, what do you think?

[Leggibone]

Originally Posted by Blue nose

I thought RS was compulsory in all schools now, same as maths English and science?

My DD gets 3 choices, wants separate science and was thinking about geography and French, so EBacc. He's frustrated that he doesn't get too much choice and was interested in drama too.

He's high achieving so far and all subjects want him to pick them. I'm undecided if he wants drama whether to drop geography or French.

He wants to do A levels, and probably a science/medical/animal degree.

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If it helps you at all the girl In my year who got an offer for medicine did rs, biology and chemistry at A level (with as maths), the fellow who did maths, chemistry and biology (with as physics) didn’t get an offer despite both getting similar UKcat scores. So she doesn’t need to do all 3 sciences at alevel, it’s better to have a more rounded approach.

[duchy]

Originally Posted by Guest

Yet you are really eloquent in your English posts. Often with languages the problem is people "big it up" into something difficult.

At the end of the day an 18 month old Spaniard with no prior history of speaking any language can learn Spanish, how hard can it be for a 13 year old with 11 years experience of learning another European language (English)

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Some people just don't have an ear for languages. I don't , French and Latin were the bane of my life at high school , English I was light years ahead , languages no matter how hard I tried I just didn't get it. In later life I realized when studying music as part of an OU course I simply don't hear thing that others hear in a piece of music like changes in pitch and I suspect it's part of the same thing.
I was forced into taking Spanish at options, that was an equal disaster so I can't say I didn't try.
My son on the other hand finds languages very easy, due to teacher shortages he did French in year 7 but had to switch to Spanish in year 8 and year 9 the only option at his new school was German at which he missed an A by 2 marks after only two years study for GCSE.

Languages definitely come far easier to some than others.

[NewtoOrlando]

My dd is in year 8 and she is picking her options this year, we have a meeting at school on 7th Feb. She's going onto the Ebacc, and will have to do her core subjects, plus RE and a language, RE is compulsory in her school even though it's not a religious school. she can pick 2 options, but hasn't got a clue what she wants to do, so i'm hoping the meeting will help us sit down and have a chat about it all, she wants to do zoology at University so her science and maths will be the most important, she doesn't want to do a language but shes top set so she has to. I think it's a good tool to have but she wishes her school did Spanish.


Still getting my head round the fact I have one child in high school ready to pick her options and another one going up this year. It's all to much for me haha!

[Disneyfans]

Originally Posted by Guest

Im not sure where you get that view from as Michael Gove only invented the EBacc concept at the end of his tenure as education secretary which would have been around 2014/15

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My DS did the baccalaureate in 2011 so it was introduced quite a while ago. My DD is taking her Gcses this year and it was phased out by the time she did her options. DS did his options in year 8 and DD in year 9. It appears this year thou the baccalaureate is making a comeback.
My DS has done a levels and a degree and has never been asked about the baccalaureate even thou he has it.

[novocastrian]

as mentioned earlier my daughter does her options this year and up until re reading this thread i hadn't heard of/or mentioned by the school the ebacc / English Baccalaureate ?

its an academy but weird this isnt mentioned anywhere in any letters/literature we have received ?

or is it not that unusual ?

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by novocastrian

as mentioned earlier my daughter does her options this year and up until re reading this thread i hadn't heard of/or mentioned by the school the ebacc / English Baccalaureate ?

its an academy but weird this isnt mentioned anywhere in any letters/literature we have received ?

or is it not that unusual ?

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Ebacc / English Baccalaureate is just the name given to the idea of choosing a variety of subjects that provide a spread of future options. So it suggests the child takes at least one humanities subject (Geography or History), at least one language subject, at least one science option, as well as Maths and English in order to keep the child's options open for longer and to provide a "better" foundation to base the rest of their education on.

You or the child doesn't get anything from this; there's no certificate or qualification or anything like that. Secondary schools are measured on the number of pupils that take GCSEs in these subjects and the results they get - hence schools are keen for children to take this spread of EBacc subjects.

We were never told about "EBacc" at school until it was mentioned at my DD's options evening. My DD's school recommended children to take this spread of subjects but didn't insist on it (in the end, my DD did not do History nor Geography).

The same thing happened when I was choosing subjects at school 35 years ago (eek!). I don't think they'd given it a name back then though. I was encouraged to take at least one humanities, one science, one language, one art/craft subject, plus Maths and English (and I did).

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Guest

Im not sure where you get that view from as Michael Gove only invented the EBacc concept at the end of his tenure as education secretary which would have been around 2014/15

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The EBacc concept has been around at least 35 years. I had to choose an EBacc-like spread of subjects. I'm not sure whether it was called that back then though. The name sounds a little too posh for my comprehensive to have used.

I think the idea to measure schools based on the EBacc concept was only proposed about 8 or 9 years ago though.

It's interesting that the EBacc doesn't include any sort of art/craft subjects.

[novocastrian]

so ebacc is just taking a wide range of subjects ? but dont include the arts?/

as an academy her school likes to think of itself as performing arts academy so maybe this is why they dont mention it?/

either way our daughter will tick the boxes for ebacc but will also do drama & dance GCSE

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by novocastrian

so ebacc is just taking a wide range of subjects ? but dont include the arts?/

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Yes and yes.

It's just a recommendation to get a child to take a range of subjects, including one or two that they wouldn't normally be interested in, in order to give them a broader foundation rather than focussing in a particular area (eg. only science subjects or only art subjects).

As others have said, the vast majority of employers probably won't have a clue what an EBacc is. All they are looking for is (a) does the person have good results in subjects relevant to the job, and (b) how many other GCSEs does the person have. Someone wanting to do a degree or job in music would still be better off having a GCSE in Music than in Geography or German.