Geography vs Art, Stressy DD !

[mad?]

DD2 is in Y11 and, despite my misgivings, by choice she would give up everything for art and does not find it a burden at all. Her timetable for the rest of the year is such that she will not miss any lessons or revision sessions. Art keeps her sane and she organises her life such that she has all day every Sunday to do it, if required. She loves this and would probably want to organise her life this way even if she was not doing the GCSE. She will take Art A level and is absolutely happy with this. That said, GCSE Art would have been complete torture for DD1, a burden beyond bearing. So, in short, it depends on DC, if your DC loves art and would do it anyway got for it,if not, think about it a little more deeply. It depends on the child Good luck

[Guest55]

I don't understand how she won't be missing lessons for the final exam; can you explain? They have to do a certain number of 'sustained hours' which means full school days ....

[mad?]

Most of the 'sustained hours' take place when the kids are already on study leave, where they are not, they are timetabled so they miss one games afternoon. During the recent mocks, the 'real' exam timetable was largely replicated (albeit in condensed form) and DD went in for two half days before term started to do this.

[Guest55]

Their study leave must start very early then? Our lessons go on until just before the first written papers so there is no room for the Art paper during study leave.

[mad?]

Yes it does, long before the first paper!

[Peridot]

Hi G55 and mad? - My son is also in year 11 and I'm not aware of the extra art hours having any impact on other lessons. They have slots at lunchtime and after school where they are strongly encouraged to go and work in the art room, and the department seems to be quite organised. Having said that, maybe it's just something we've not been told about yet...

The school also now has mocks and results before Christmas so there is a little more time for revision/preparation for all subjects in the spring term (and meant we all had a nice break at christmas/new year). I'm seeing a lot of focusing from my son on the subjects he didn't do quite as well in as he would have liked (namely Greek, which is quite challenging!).

[Peridot]

His study leave starts on 1 May. Is that usual?

[Guest55]

Peridot - it's the final exam which goes over a couple of days right at the end of other courses. It's also a shame they have to spend so much time out of lessons 'keeping up' with their Art; parents need to know this when options are chosen.

May 1st seems very early to me; ours is usually the end of the second week in May.

[modernista]

Thanks for all your replies. I talked more to her yesterday and told her about the long exam.
I suppose study leave and revision classes would vary greatly from achool to school. Although it is a great pity to miss 10 hrs of revision, in reality the art would take several times more of your time and I am worried about this.
There is no question of not doing a music gcse. She is grade 5 already so as far as performance is concerned, she is already there. Besides, she does really well in music essays because she 'gets' it. She would happily be a professional musician if she was confident it would pay her well. So I am not ruling this out especially if I win the lottery soon!
Her music commitments outside school take forever but she really enjoys it. However she can not be doing Art when she is away from home. If the school lets her do some photography as part of the course, she could do a project related to music/ musicians.
Thanks to you people, I feel I can ask the Art teacher specific questions now.

[Peridot]

I guess the answer to all this really is only do Art if you really, really want to, and go into it with your eyes open knowing how much work is involved. It's not an easy option.

Modernista if she wants to do music go for it. Sorry to throw in a red herring there! Music was my main focus at school and university and it gave me the expertise/qualifications to enable me to change career and go back into music teaching once my children were school age.