Views on my son's option choices please

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2childmum
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Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:02 pm
Location: S E London

Views on my son's option choices please

Post by 2childmum »

Choosing options seems to have come to this household rather late compared to most, but the long awaited booklet arrived last week.

My son is doing the usual english/maths/triple science options, along with electronics, RE, and German (probably - could change to Spanish). He has to choose 2 more and has narrowed it down to 2 from History, Ancient History, Music and Latin (which is a level 2 certificate rather than a GCSE, and he would be studying it almost from scratch). Ancient History and Latin are taught by the same teacher, whom my son likes, but who could possibly teach him English as well. He is thinking about a career in science/engineering, but has always loved history, and is thinking of studying history or classical civilisation at AS level to compliment his likely choice of sciences.

I have said I think he should do one of the histories so that he gets the EBAC. He is swayed by the idea of doing both histories, but I'm not sure of the wisdon of doing that. He plays the trumpet to grade 6 standard so the performance element of music should be ok, but I suspect he will not like most of the music which is studied.


Does anyone have any useful insights?

Many thanks :D
Tree
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Location: bucks

Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by Tree »

Hi

My dd is in year 11 just doing her gcse's and is doing history and music, she also was grade 6 trumpet in year 9 so they are quite similar, she has loved history but it has been dominated by mostly modern history mainly the 20th century but this was what she most enjoys, she has been less keen on the music and although she has found the performane and creative tasks easy enough is struggling with learning what she needs for the written/listening paper, she has found her grade 5 theory v useful though has your dc done this ??

not sure about the others but i assume latin and ancient history would go well together ?
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by Guest55 »

I'd go for the music - you are virtually guaranteed full marks on the performance which is 30% of the mark.

My DC studied the Edexcel course - not much theory and studied a range of music styles from classical to Britpop so do check which syllabus.

I would not worry about the EBACC - it's not a real qualification.
2childmum
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Location: S E London

Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by 2childmum »

Thanks for your views so far.

The fact that the music does not cover much theory and covers such a range of music is the very reason he is put off. He would love to study what I studied for o-level - lots of theory, harmony and all classical music. He dislikes most jazz, pop music, or most other types of music from the 2oth century and looking at the syllabus (Edexcel) there seems to be rather a lot of that!

I have been looking at university websites (about another matter) and several are saying that whilst they don't require the EBACC at the moment they are keeping their eye on what happens with it and may require it in the future. I would rather he had it just to be on the safe side. In any case, I know he will choose at least one of the histories so will have it anyway.

Any views on studying both history courses? He already knows quite a lot about the modern history course, so the Ancient History is appealing.
aliportico
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Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:19 pm

Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by aliportico »

The university admissions stuff I've looked at say that if they change their stance on the ebacc that that will only apply after they have announced the change. Does that make sense, lol? So if they are saying to current year 9s that they don't require it, then in 4 years' time they won't expect them to have it.

Does Ancient History count then? How ridiculous that that counts but RE doesn't!

Ancient History and Latin sound like they would go together well, if he could bear so much of that teacher :-) Does AH have controlled assessments? Latin is all exam, another reason I'm glad dd1 is doing it!
aliportico
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Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by aliportico »

Oh, I'd forgotten by the end of that message that you said it wouldn't be GCSE Latin! What does the level 2 entail?
2childmum
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Location: S E London

Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by 2childmum »

Ancient History does count towards the EBACC - I agree that RE should count.
It has one controlled assessment (about the Egyptians) and the rest of it is examined at the end - it covers the origin of Rome, the Persian wars and probably something about women in politics. It looks really interesting - I would choose it! My son would like there to be a GCSE in Military History, which he would probably pass if he took it now!

The Latin is a WJEC level 2 award (although I think they also take the Level 1 alongside it). There are no controlled assessment; each level comprises two papers which both involve reading an unseen passage, translating part of it and comprehension about it. They are also hoping to cover some Roman history as part of the course, although they won't take an exam in it (there's a novel idea - learning stuff just for the fun of it!) There is also an exam in Latin Literature, which they may cover if there is time. I'm guessing that it will depend on how quickly the students pick up the Latin. One of the negatives in choosing this school was that they didn't do Latin, so it is a nice surprise to be suddenly given this option.

My choice would be Ancient History and Latin, but I do understand my son's slight reluctance to have the same teacher for both.

We also have to have a reserve choice - I think we will have to doctor the form a bit so that if he can't do one of the histories he gets to do the other - he could end up with Latin and Music and no History!




Edited to remove the split infinitive - the infuence of the Latin teacher (who loved this sort of thing when he taught my son English) is rubbing off already!
Last edited by 2childmum on Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
ourmaminhavana
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Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by ourmaminhavana »

I wouldn't worry about the ebacc at all. (I'll PM you.)
Does your DS have any idea as to what he would like to do next? What are his main interests?
Y
Posts: 463
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:49 pm

Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by Y »

Our experience with history is that it has been a huge amount of work. I don't know if ancient history would be the same - but it might not be a good idea to do both at once.
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Views on my son's option choices please

Post by Guest55 »

Remember to check how many exams will be at the end of the course as no modular exams are taken. That's why you should seriously consider music as only one final paper worth 40%.
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