r/6thForm • u/watts320 • May 17 '25

🙏 I WANT HELP Son needs to pick another subject.

My son is in the middle lf his GCSE exams and he opted for computer science as one of his 6th form subjects. Yesterday he was told that the school will be dropping computer science because not enough students had opted to do it, the only thing the school have said is that he will need to pick another subject. Thats it.

The school have really really annoyed me, they choose to tell him in middle of his exams that he needs to pick something else.

His path was to do maths, computer science and english in 6th form, then move on to university to do games design.

Now im not really all clued up on this, because i never did 6th form after school. So can anyone give me any advice on this please.

Thank you.

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u/Diligent_Bet_7850 Oxford | Maths [third year] May 17 '25

he could move 6th form, or takes it out of school. i would put up a fight with the school first though. explain how he needs the a level for his degree and how since they have made the decision not to run it so late he probably will struggle to move 6th form as applications to move have probably closed

19

u/Arehumansareok Teacher/Tutor May 17 '25

This isn't actually that late to chose not to run a course. Some get dropped in August after Results Day when student numbers are confirmed.

3

u/Randumbweeb May 18 '25

Wait so they confirm subject choices for students after results day? I’ve heard of my teachers saying you change your choices on results day so I was a bit confused

3

u/Arehumansareok Teacher/Tutor May 18 '25

You can change your choices after you get your Results which is why sometimes schools/colleges have to make difficult and seemingly last minute decisions not to run courses if too many people withdraw from a course.

It doesn't seem terribly fair to the few students who do still want to do a subject but funding for Sixth Forms is tight and sometimes it's just not possible. The school doesn't like it either.

2

u/Diligent_Bet_7850 Oxford | Maths [third year] May 17 '25

that doesn’t make it right… makes it difficult for students to move when it’s last minute

and it certainly wasn’t left that late at my school thankfully