english baccalaureatte - non core subjects

[Rob_T]

please can someone 'educate' me on what is currently taught in schools.

the baccalaureatte has 5 core subjects:
maths, English, two science qualifications, a foreign language and either history or geography.

the above makes sense as a set of core subjects on which to build a rounded informed and competitive level of education.

can anyone tell me what the options for gcse's are these days? i'm sure it's changed, i was the first year for gcse's (1988)

in my day / school it was simply:

maths
english
physics
chemistry
biology
latin
french
geography
history
music
computer studies
scripure
business studies
economics
european studies

[koolchris99]

There are hundreds of GCES's to choose from, some more micky mouse than other. I did

Maths
Eng lang
Eng lit
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Geography
History
P.E
German
D.T

At my boarding school there were some other options, art, photography, drama, business studies, French, Spanish, Latin, Chinese, statistics, er thats about it i think.

EDIT: here is the list.

Compulsory subjects

* English
o In many schools students also have to study English literature
* Mathematics
* Science (students can study Science in many different ways):
o One GCSE: Core Science (which includes parts of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics)
o Two GCSEs: Core Science and Additional Science
o Three GCSEs: Separate Biology, Physics and Chemistry

[change] Languages

* Modern Foreign Languages
o Arabic
o Bengali
o Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin)
o Pakistani
o Dutch
o French
o German
o Modern Greek
o Gujarati
o Modern Hebrew
o Hindi
o Indonesian
o Irish
o Italian
o Japanese
o Korean
o Latin
o Maltese
o Persian
o Polish
o Portuguese
o Punjabi
o Russian
o Spanish
o Somali
o Turkish
o Urdu
o Welsh
* Classical Languages
o Ancient Greek
o Biblical Hebrew
o Latin

[change] Technology

* Design and Technology
* CAD / CAM
* Electronics
* Engineering and Manufacturing (Double Award)
* Food Technology
* Graphic Products
* Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
o Applied ICT (Double Award)
* Product Design
o Electronics with Resistant Materials
o Resistant Materials
o Resistant Materials
o Systems and Control Technology
o Textiles

[change] Humanities

* Classical Civilisation
* Economics
* Buddhism
* Geography
* Geology
* History
o Modern World
o Economic and Social
o School's History Project
* Hinduism
* Humanities
* Islam
* Judaism
* Philosophy & Ethics
* Religious Studies
* Sikhism

[change] People and society-related subjects

* Citizenship (Personal Social Health Education)
* Health and Social Care (Double Award)
* Home Economics: Child Development
* Home Economics: Food and Nutrition
* Law
* Psychology
* Social Science
* Sociology

[change] Expressive arts

* Applied Art and Design (Double Award)
* Art and Design
o Fine Art
o Graphics
o Textiles
* Ceramics
* Dance
* Design
* Drama
* Expressive Arts
* Fashion Design
* Graphics
* Film studies
* Media studies
* Moving Arts
* Music
* Photography
* Sculpture

[change] Others

* Additional Mathematics
* Applied Business (Double Award)
* Archaeology (may not currently be available as a separate GCSE [1])
* Astronomy
* Business Studies
* Business and Communication Systems
* General Studies
* Human Biology
* Human Physiology and Health
* Nautical Studies
* Outdoor Pursuits
* Physical Education (PE)
* Rural and Agricultural Science
* Sports Studies
* Food technology
* Btec
* Statistics

[FunkyGibbon]

At a school very near me:


Compulsory Subjects
English
Information Technology
Maths
Physical Education 1/2 Award
Religious Studies 1/2 Award
Science

Options (You should choose up to three of these subjects)
Art & Design: Fine Art
Art & Design: Three Dimensional Design
Applied Art and Design Double Award
BTEC First Certificate in Sport BTEC
Business Studies
Child Development
Dance
Drama
Food & Nutrition
Geography
Graphics
History & Classical Civilisation
Information Technology Double Award
Modern Languages
Music
Physical Education
Resistant Materials
Textiles

[V88Dicky]

FunkyGibbon said:

At a school very near me:


Compulsory Subjects
Religious Studies 1/2 Award

Imaginary friend/sky pixies studies?

WTF for?

[FunkyGibbon]

V88Dicky said:

FunkyGibbon said:

At a school very near me:


Compulsory Subjects
Religious Studies 1/2 Award

Imaginary friend/sky pixies studies?

WTF for?

National Curriculum rules.

[otolith]

V88Dicky said:

FunkyGibbon said:

At a school very near me:


Compulsory Subjects
Religious Studies 1/2 Award

Imaginary friend/sky pixies studies?

WTF for?

Don't have a problem with it if it is essentially anthropology rather than religious instruction.

[MentalSarcasm]

otolith said:

V88Dicky said:

FunkyGibbon said:

At a school very near me:


Compulsory Subjects
Religious Studies 1/2 Award

Imaginary friend/sky pixies studies?

WTF for?

Don't have a problem with it if it is essentially anthropology rather than religious instruction.

When I did RE at GCSE it was a combination of learning about different religions from a neutral standpoint (so it was; this is what Hindus believe, these are the festivals, this is their holy book etc etc) rather than attempt to convert, and a selection of ethical things as well which tended to end up in rather loud debates. Off the top of my head topics included the rights of the mother over the rights of the foetus when it comes to abortion, and something about whether pornography was demeaning to women.

[Tsippy]

MentalSarcasm said:

otolith said:

V88Dicky said:

FunkyGibbon said:

At a school very near me:


Compulsory Subjects
Religious Studies 1/2 Award

Imaginary friend/sky pixies studies?

WTF for?

Don't have a problem with it if it is essentially anthropology rather than religious instruction.

When I did RE at GCSE it was a combination of learning about different religions from a neutral standpoint (so it was; this is what Hindus believe, these are the festivals, this is their holy book etc etc) rather than attempt to convert, and a selection of ethical things as well which tended to end up in rather loud debates. Off the top of my head topics included the rights of the mother over the rights of the foetus when it comes to abortion, and something about whether pornography was demeaning to women.

Ours covered how evil and racist white people are

[MentalSarcasm]

Tsippy said:

MentalSarcasm said:

otolith said:

V88Dicky said:

FunkyGibbon said:

At a school very near me:


Compulsory Subjects
Religious Studies 1/2 Award

Imaginary friend/sky pixies studies?

WTF for?

Don't have a problem with it if it is essentially anthropology rather than religious instruction.

When I did RE at GCSE it was a combination of learning about different religions from a neutral standpoint (so it was; this is what Hindus believe, these are the festivals, this is their holy book etc etc) rather than attempt to convert, and a selection of ethical things as well which tended to end up in rather loud debates. Off the top of my head topics included the rights of the mother over the rights of the foetus when it comes to abortion, and something about whether pornography was demeaning to women.

Ours covered how evil and racist white people are

That was covered by English literature at my school XD

[Ganglandboss]

When I chose my options in 1993, the subjects were presented in groups. You had to do English Language, English Literature, Maths, Combined Science, Technology and one from each of the following groups:

Option A - Modern Language

• French
• German

Option B - Humanities

• History
• Geography

Option C - Mickey Mouse Subject (more than one could be taken at the school's discretion)

• RE
• Music
• PE
• Business Studies
• Media Studies
• Art
• Latin
• Additional choice from A or B

RE, Latin and Media studies were taught after school as an extra subject as the groups were small.

[Ten Ninety]

Rob_T said:

the baccalaureatte has 5 core subjects:
maths, English, two science qualifications, a foreign language and either history or geography.

the above makes sense as a set of core subjects on which to build a rounded informed and competitive level of education.

It might make sense, but only for a limited subset of children. For many, perhaps most, children it's a ridiculously inappropriate notion. This is indicated by by the results - around 17% actually achieved it in 2010. My school achieved 13%. Much merriment was had when we discovered that our favourite toffs over at Eton College had achieved... wait for it... 0%!

Ah, you've got to love 'performance tables' for schools when they're based on such accurate, complete, meaningful and fair data. As Mr Gove said to parents the other day, "Go compare" indeed. Just don't ask too many questions about the accuracy of what you're comparing.

Of course the reality is, the English Bac in its current (retrospectively-applied) form is yet another political creation. It has been kept deliberately narrow this year (no arts, music or RE) in order to keep the results artificially low. It will then be 'relaxed' over the coming years to include more subjects, and of course alonside this schools will be forced to 'encourage' students to study the 'right' subjects, meaning the percentage will go up and the government will crow about what a wonderful job it's doing at 'improving' results.

Sorry. You didn't ask for that. Just a bit of a sore point at the moment. Anyway, in response to the question that you actually asked, the range of GCSEs on offer varies considerably between different schools. This is mainly thanks to the (happily now defunct) notion of pretty much every state school being a 'specialist' school focusing on a particular area like Languages, Humanities, Arts etc.

[JagLover]

I don't agree that a foreign language should be one of the core 5. To my mind a language is just a bonus not essential.

[koolchris99]

Ten Ninety said:

Rob_T said:

the baccalaureatte has 5 core subjects:
maths, English, two science qualifications, a foreign language and either history or geography.

the above makes sense as a set of core subjects on which to build a rounded informed and competitive level of education.

My school achieved 13%. Much merriment was had when we discovered that our favourite toffs over at Eton College had achieved... wait for it... 0%!

I suspect you'll find they just didn't publish their results, many schools do it.

[Ten Ninety]

koolchris99 said:

I suspect you'll find they just didn't publish their results, many schools do it.

No, it's because Eton choose not to get their hands dirty with normal plebeian GCSEs and follow iGCSE programmes instead. Despite being 'more challenging' the iGCSE is not counted for performance tables. A number of other independent schools are in a similar position of scoring 0% as a result, despite the fact that they are excellent at providing precisely the sort of narrow traditional curriculum that the English Bac is supposed to promote.

I hardly think Eton masters or their customers are remotely concerned. But it does show how performance tables are meaningless as a result of so many of these stupid data anomalies. As another example, an 'outstanding' state school local to me scored 0%, simply because their students do two short courses in humanities instead of a single full course.

Parents would thus be well advised to continue ignoring nonsensical 'performance' data (fortunately most already do) and carry on making their school choice decisions on rather more sensible criteria.

[MiniMan64]

JagLover said:

I don't agree that a foreign language should be one of the core 5. To my mind a language is just a bonus not essential.

I respectively disagree, kids in schools are bad enough at English, I'm glad that langauges will be encouraged more by this.

Bear in mind as well a lot of kids choose not to persue these "hard" core subjects any further and the million and one other random GCSE's people can do are carried on as much easier subjects to a higher level.

[turbobloke]

Ten Ninety said:

koolchris99 said:

I suspect you'll find they just didn't publish their results, many schools do it.

No, it's because Eton choose not to get their hands dirty with normal plebeian GCSEs and follow iGCSE programmes instead. Despite being 'more challenging' the iGCSE is not counted for performance tables.

Isn't the Gove-ernment planning to change that?

[FunkyGibbon]

Ten Ninety said:

koolchris99 said:

I suspect you'll find they just didn't publish their results, many schools do it.

No, it's because Eton choose not to get their hands dirty with normal plebeian GCSEs and follow iGCSE programmes instead. Despite being 'more challenging' the iGCSE is not counted for performance tables.

Accredited iGCSE are now included in the performance tables for the first time:

http://www.education.gov.uk/performancetables/scho...

DfE said:

iGCSEs

In order to better capture the attainment of pupils in the Independent sector accredited international GCSEs (iGCSE) have been included in the Performance Tables for the first time. iGCSEs that were not accredited at the beginning of the period of study but have since been accredited are also included. This means that Cambridge International Certificates and their legacy Cambridge International Examinations iGCSEs are included in the performance measures. Other iGCSEs which had not been accredited at the time of publication are not included. Many of these "missing" iGCSE results are in Mathematics and individual science subjects and this continues to impact on some of the indicators published in the Performance tables for Independent schools.

So it looks like Eton College (and others) did an unaccredited Maths or science iGCSE therefore all its threshold measures would default to 0%.

[FunkyGibbon]

Ten Ninety said:

Parents would thus be well advised to continue ignoring nonsensical 'performance' data (fortunately most already do) and carry on making their school choice decisions on rather more sensible criteria.

Indeed - they should especially treat the CFR financial performance with a pinch of salt. Unless it is to ask why there is such a disparity in funding levels per student depending on location.

Edited by FunkyGibbon on Saturday 15th January 13:43

[Ten Ninety]

turbobloke said:

Isn't the Gove-ernment planning to change that?

Yes. I hadn't realised that they'd accredited some already for this year's tables as Mr Gibbon has illustrated above. And those not yet accredited will almost certainly be included in future, to help deliver the statistical 'improvement' necessary to keep the politicians happy.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out - if they press ahead with rumoured plans to remove BTEC and other 'vocational' qualifications from the performance tables (a move which has the potential to destroy many state schools' 5A*-C and value-added measures) then the English Bac will be the only measure likely to show any national improvement.

[JagLover]

MiniMan64 said:

JagLover said:

I don't agree that a foreign language should be one of the core 5. To my mind a language is just a bonus not essential.

I respectively disagree, kids in schools are bad enough at English, I'm glad that langauges will be encouraged more by this.

Bear in mind as well a lot of kids choose not to persue these "hard" core subjects any further and the million and one other random GCSE's people can do are carried on as much easier subjects to a higher level.

The point of having a 'core' curriculum is that it covers essential skills. Learning a foreign language is not likely to be an essential skill for most. Even if your job involves foreign travel etc, it will still probably be to a country whose language you didn't learn. Given that most educated people abroad speak English it is a luxury to learn a foreign language here.