Going to bang my head on a wall now!!

[Amber]

Crying out for some here. Disbanding of connexions was shameful.

[Looking for help]

Well he perceives the lack of physics and chemistry to be a problem - physics he'd rather not take for some reason .

So far our experience of careers advice has been nil. The older three at the GS had a woman who was their careers advisor and she made it clear she only wanted to talk to the top students , none of mine qualified as top students, so no helpful information there cheers for that , super selective
The current cause for my concern - the school have so far not introduced us parents, but my son has said he doesn't seem to want get involved. Bless .

[SteveDH]

Is there any chance he may change his mind in what he wants to study at uni.
There are other subjects that have a high maths content, such as engineering, however something like engineering would also require Physics or Chemistry, preferably Physics but some Unis will accept Chemistry (or even biology) on top of Maths and Further Maths for a 3rd a level.. even for Mechanical Engineering.

Also there is some crossover between the Maths and Physics A Level..

[KB]

Relevance of chemistry to maths degree is minimal at most but agree that physics with maths will open lots of doors, although if looking at stats then he probably isn't interested in the engineering side?

It sounds more like general indecision issues that as you say could be from all sorts of causes.

[Looking for help]

Thanks Steve and KB. I think he's is just undecided. I think it maybe too late to change now, but he's not so excited by physics. We've discussed engineering , he's not keen on that. He said last night he was spooked by poor AS level results in the year above for chemistry which is why he opted out of it in the first place.

[kenyancowgirl]

Crying out for some here. Disbanding of connexions was shameful.

And, that, ladies and gentlemen, is the crux of why careers advise in schools is so shameful. As a Careers Adviser of more than 10 years, I was very proud to be part of an extremely dedicated and exceptionally professional service. You try working in an educational institution that gets paid for bums on seats and yet still remaining impartial to the students, giving them information about ALL the options out there, not just the ones their school does. You try working with 16-24 year old NEETS (not in education, employment or training) - especially when they have been disenfranchised form school probably since primary - and their main concern is about where they are going to sleep tonight, or what they can eat, not about a job or training.

I get very fed up with people pontificating and sl**gging off individual Careers Advisers, when the reality is, as Amber point out, the Government decided to cut all funding to this valuable service - they decided that school children didn't need careers advice. Some five years later, as kids are going to university and out into the workplace, the fact that they were excluded by govt policy from having access to a decent careers service, is now becoming clear. Read the news and see that people in the know are saying "what we really need is a careers service in school". No sh*t Sherlock!! You had one - and it was blinking good - even if it was called Connexions with an x. And I was really proud to run the service in my area. And the people that worked there were exceptional. Don't blame the careers advisers, blame the policy makers that didn't value them enough and made huge swathes of them redundant overnight.

And in answer to the OP, no, you don't need Chemistry for Maths. However, for somewhere like Imperial, they look very favourably on strong science a levels - eg Maths, Physics Chemistry as A levels for access to their degrees in maths, physics and chemistry!

[KB]

All in all there doesn't seem to be a really strong need or desire to change.

Some schools will let them swop up to this coming half term so he could no doubt catch up if he did change right now but most schools would also want a proper reason for changing.

At the end of the day if he is adamant and the school are happy then there's probably little downside in changing so I'd let him decide and keep a watching brief that he catches up by the end of half term.

Just going through indecision re post Y13 options - always something!

[catmum]

Niece did maths at Oxford with A levels in maths, german, economics and english, she did say she felt a bit "odd one out" as most had done sciences but had no problems with the course itself. He should probably stick with what he prefers to do unless he really wants to do chemistry.

( Have been banging my head on a wall for some time now! )

[Looking for help]

Thanks Kenya cowgirl - I had no idea the government had cut this funding, sorry.
I wasn't really criticising particularly just saying it didn't really offer much help.
Kb I think he may just want to change as he has realised he's going to have to actually read the books this year .
Cat mum -my head is been banging for so long I think I've given myself concussion.
Glad all decision making will soon not be my problem