GCSE Latin v French

[HSP2201]

Son (Year 8 Grammar School) is choicing GCSE options. He is finding it hard to choice between Latin and French. So far we have heard that Latin gets much harder in years 10/11.

Son attains slightly better at Latin. He has been told that he is currently in top 1/4 for highest attainment in his year. He grasps Latin more easily and most important,,enjoys the subject. But he is concerned will he cope with subject at GCSE level.

French, he is doing well in but finds speaking french difficult and struggles with the vocabulary.

So far his preference is Latin.

Would really appreciate any advice from parents, especially if your son/daughter is studying Latin or in same predicament.

Thank you.

[Daogroupie]

I am a big fan of Latin. Is this OCR Latin? Take a look at the new syllabus and see if it interests him. It is a highly academic subject. Can he perhaps talk to some Y10/Y11 students about what it is like to study at that level. DG

[JamesDean]

My DS is also in yr 8, so I can't help with whether the difficulty levels increase further up the school, but when we had our options evening the teachers were very clear that if you were a bit shy or had difficulty speaking a language out loud, then Latin was definitely the better option than an MFL.

HTH,

JD

[HSP2201]

Thank you for prompt responses. Son has subject brochure so will check which board tomorrow. He has spoken with year 10/11 boys who gave positive feedback. They did say gets hard but then which subject doesn't get harder at GCSE.

Ultimately we want him to decide so he feels confident about his decision. We advising him and I've tried to research both subjects to share information with him.

Once again.....thank you.

[franticmum]

We had the same dilemma for 6th form as DD chose to do both for GCSE. She prefers latin and dislikes speaking in french, although she is actually quite good at it but suffers from lack of confidence which does not affect her grade. In the end she chose latin as the thought was, as an adult, she could always pursue French as adult education, etc, but not many, if anyone every offers latin in the same way.

Latin is also very highly thought of, I believe, and will sort of help her with her career choice in veterinary medicine.

Sometimes, I think I wish she had chosen French but it is her decision and logic tells me what I've stated above.

For GCSE, I wouldn't worry about the speaking in French or the alleged harder subject of latin. The school will presumably focus on improving speaking as it is part of the marking structure and as others have said, all subjects get harder.

[JaneEyre]

Despite being French, I agree with all those promoting Latin in this case. As franticmum asserts, your DS will be able to pursue studies in French easily during his life if he feels the need to do so... Hopefully, in a few years time, he will be less shy...
If he enjoys Latin and is good at it, that is just great! I hope his enjoyment is everlasting!

[HSP2201]

Thank you for recent responses.

Responding to first reply, it is not OCR Latin. Having checked school brochure, it's with WJEC Level 1 & 2 Certificates in Latin Language, Latin Literature. Says, carries the same number of performance points as GCSE. Quite confused now. Not sure what this means.


A friend's son currently at same grammar school in year 11, has said that many boys are attaining low grades D E U as it's too hard. There's no information on school website showing previous grades achieved, apart from those who got A*-B grades. So can't see how many students got grade C below.

We want him to make the decision, as he will be studying Latin for next three more years. His preference is Latin. We just wanted to hear from parents on how they kids finding Latin gcse.

[3b1g]

My eldest is doing the Level 2 certificate with WJEC.

The Latin language has been fine. It follows on naturally from the Cambridge Latin Course books (the WJEC specification was jointly written by the Cambridge Schools Classics Project). 2/3 of the marks are from a core language paper and 1/3 from a harder additional language paper. My son did the Core language paper at the end of Y10 and got a high A grade. He will be taking the Additional language paper at the end of Y11. He does OCR past papers as practice and says they are similar in difficulty to the Additional language paper.

Due to long-term health problems, my son had to give up some subjects in Y11, and Latin literature was one of the subjects he gave up, so he will only end up with one of the two Level 2 certificates.

[Amber]

He can't do both?

[ToadMum]

Thank you for recent responses.

Responding to first reply, it is not OCR Latin. Having checked school brochure, it's with WJEC Level 1 & 2 Certificates in Latin Language, Latin Literature. Says, carries the same number of performance points as GCSE. Quite confused now. Not sure what this means.


A friend's son currently at same grammar school in year 11, has said that many boys are attaining low grades D E U as it's too hard. There's no information on school website showing previous grades achieved, apart from those who got A*-B grades. So can't see how many students got grade C below.

We want him to make the decision, as he will be studying Latin for next three more years. His preference is Latin. We just wanted to hear from parents on how they kids finding Latin gcse.

If they are predicted only to be likely to achieve low grades, the school may not allow them to enter the actual exams in the summer. If your friend's son is talking about fellow year 11s, the grades he is quoting may be from their mock exams?