Poorly chicken

[chickencam]

YD is at a grammar school, she is struggling with science subjects at the moment and has been advised by the school to do double science not triple. Our feeling as parents is that she should strive for the three and if she ultimately ends up with say 3 B grades that would be better than an A grade in double, because she will have had a more in depth teaching of the subject and it keeps her options open for the future.

 

She feels that she is not capable of doing the triple, but she generally lacks in confidence and to be honest effort too at times. Our two older children both did triple and both got As and A* s, we have made it clear to her that we don't feel that if she doesn't get the same grades as her siblings she will have in any way failed. I don't think that she sees it that way or believes us on this. I would just like her to have the same opportunities and reach her full potential what ever that may be.

 

I am also cross with the school because they have advised this and we have no say whatsoever, they have emailed her and she gets to respond. If she hadn't come to us about this she could have made this important decision by herself. The deadline is Friday afternoon, of course she has had the email since Monday and we heard about this 3 hours ago.

 

Any advice out there please. She is interested in becoming and art therapist. Edited to add that she is coming to the end of year 10 and the school have been teaching her set a module behind the rest already.

Thanks

[bluekarin]

If it were my daughter struggling I would tell her drop one and do double science. I think it best to do well in to few, than have several medium grades. As you say her class is behind a module as well, which unless she can catch up in her own time, they might not do so in class. My eldest two are in grammar schools here, so I do have some understanding of this schooling and the pressures it entails. My ED is doing her A levels, well, has just sat the As a few weeks ago and is now dropping one of her subjects, history, as she doesn't want to continue next year, despite what her possible grade might be. School made it very hard and we had to fight her case to drop it, but they have seen sense now.

 

Also, even if you have told her you won't feel she has failed if she doesn't get the same grades, she will still have a little voice in her thinking this. My youngest is like this and no matter how many times I say to her as long as you are happy with the grade you get for the work you put in, then that's all that matters, I can see she does compare herself the her elder siblings.

 

It's a toughie seeing as you only have a short while to sort this. Would have been nicer to talk it over for the week

[helenc]

If I was my daughter I would let her take double science as she should still be able to take sciences at A level but also if she felt it was a subject she struggled with would she really want to take it at A level, as Bluekarin says its better she has 2 better grades than 3 medium grades. Is there another subject that she would like to take instead or is it just that she will take one less subject?

 

I was in the opposite situation to you, my daughter is very good at science but wanted to do double so that she could do textiles, we advised her to take triple science but ultimately the choice had to be hers. It didn't make any difference in terms of A level choices as she took Physics and has had no difficulties with it.

[Willow]

Since she doesn't think she'll need the triple science I'd encourage her to go with the double. She will do better overall if she isn't struggling with something. She may even get more interested in science when she isn't struggling so even if she does then decide to a science at a-level it still doesn't mean the decision to go to the double science was the wrong one.

 

When I was at school I took French and German because I thought two languages would look better despite being rubbish at languages I'm still rubbish at languages and have picked up the basics what I need when I've needed it and forgotten everything I've learnt when I haven't been using it I really should have only done one language and I'd have done better.

[The Dogmother]

I agree, and 2 good A grades will always be more sought after than 3 B grades.

[mullethunter]

Until 6 years ago I taught science in a secondary school. If my understanding of your situation is correct, triple science means taking the three separate sciences, whereas double science is the three all rolled into 1 and then awarded two GCSEs.

 

The triple science is a lot more 'straight' science - it would give your daughter a much more in depth understanding of the all the basics. Double science (at least the curriculum I taught) teaches the real basics but is more geared towards understanding science in the media and that sort of thing.

 

If your daughter feels the triple would be too much, and definitely isn't going to need it in the future, then the double and working hard to get a good grade there probably is the best option. However if she is planning to take any at A level, doing the triple now would make the transition much less of a shock.

[bellekatz]

In my experience, Triple science is a lot more work than double science. I have had two go through Grammar school, one , who didn't want to do science did double science, and the other , who is doing a science degree now, did triple. If she doesn't want to end up in a science field, she is just as well doing double science, it may help her get higher grades overall is she doesn't feel bogged down by something she doesn't enjoy as much as other subjects, or finds the workload too much alongside everything else.

[chickencam]

Thanks for the advice, we also looked on student room and a few other places. The piece of advice that swung it for us in the end was that if you struggle with one particular area then it could drag the overall double science grade down. She agreed that she would rather have a couple of good grades and one lower one than two average ones. She has been very mature about it and we have promised to support her in any way we can. She has already booked some extra lunchtime lessons before the end of term.