ATAR Notes: Forum

Administration => New Users Lounge => Topic started by: mshah on September 15, 2019, 10:23:49 pm

Title: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: mshah on September 15, 2019, 10:23:49 pm
Hey guys, I’m currently in year 9 and was considering my VCE English pathways. My school currently offers all three main English options (Norm, Lit and Lang), but they will stop offering English Language next year. My class in particular has already started preparing us for literature by making us do things like close analysis of passages and then writing passage analysis essays. However, I really dislike both literature (because I find close analysis very time consuming and annoying) and standard English (because it is so bland and I hate picking out themes, characters, etc). I have looked into what English Language covers and from my understanding, it is the study of the language and linguistics, which seems super interesting to me, especially when comparing it to the other two. So, I’m now stuck because I really wanna do Lang but my school doesn’t offer it anymore and mainstream is boring and I’m worried I won’t do well in it, which may screw my ATAR. Can someone please explain how I should convince my school to start offering Lang again? (I have a few mates that may be interested in it too.)
Thanks.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Aaron on September 15, 2019, 10:34:35 pm
So what you have to understand is that if you particularly are in the public/government school system, funding is tight regardless of where you are. Schools will not run subjects for the sake of it and will better distribute their human resources to other required areas.

In an ideal world, everybody would get to do the subject they wanted with no worries at all. It does not work that way, however, as there are several considerations e.g. timetable blocking, enrolments, specialist staffing for the subject, etc... Unfortunately the smooth running of the school's operations outweighs your personal subject preferences (as harsh as that sounds, schools too are a business).

Government schools in particular (at least the ones i've been at as a teacher) have a high proportion of part-time staff which makes the timetabling even more complicated because the allotments given to teachers are tougher due to their requirements too.

I'd recommend that if you and your mates want to do Englang, you go and speak to the Head of English or your coordinator/manager to discuss it. When I was in high school, I fought for about 2 years to get a VCE Computing class to run as it too is not a popular subject. Persistence pays off and if you can demonstrate you have more than 2-3 people that want to do it, they may just consider it. I've seen subjects with 1-2 students run at some schools, but jeez unless you're at an independent school I can't ever see that happening frequently.

Your other alternative is Distance Education (now known as Virtual School Victoria).

Cheers.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Stormbreaker-X on September 15, 2019, 11:27:47 pm
Isn't it compulsory for schools to offer English Language? I am pretty school all schools offer it.
Yeah unfortunately my school is a public one and it sucks in terms of subjects allowed, if you really want it you can always try private schools.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Aaron on September 15, 2019, 11:32:17 pm
Quote from: Stormbreaker-X
Isn't it compulsory for schools to offer English Language? I am pretty school all schools offer it.
No to both.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Bri MT on September 16, 2019, 08:30:08 am
So I have two experiences here (in a public school) that you may be able to learn from:
1. I studied english language by distance ed in year 12 after studying literature in year 11 and not enjoying it. The process of getting approved to study eng lang DECV took me a long time - I'd wanted to swap to eng lang in unit 2 but due to funding allocation reasons, I was only able to swap at the start of year 12.

2. I studied physics in year 11 and the school was going to cancel it in year 12. The main thing we needed to do in order to have it run was collect a list of names of people who would studying physics in year 12 (this meant changing some of my classmates' minds) and present this to our co-ordinators.


I highly recommend you get your few mates who 'might' be interested and get them to commit + chase up the rest of the year level to see how many still want it to run. If you have less than 5 people who are willing to study it I cannot see it going ahead, but the more names you get the better your chances
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: hums_student on September 16, 2019, 09:48:31 am
Adding on to Bri’s point, you should definitely fight for it even if it doesn’t seem very likely. In year 11, we managed to convince our school to run a global politics class with 5 people, and ancient history with only 3. It took a lot of convincing but worked out in the end.

It could also potentially help if you could also find younger year levels who would be interested in accelerating in the subject, to show that even if this subject may start off small, it could grow. In my case, I got a bunch of then year 10s who said they’re interested in taking global politics / history as a 3/4 in year 11, which helped a lot. That might be a bit harder with Eng Lang but it’s worth a shot.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: J_Rho on September 16, 2019, 10:02:34 am
WOW, my school refuses to run a subject unless theres like 15+ students who wanna do it
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Geoo on September 16, 2019, 10:41:01 am
That sucks, I wanted to do englang as well, but they no longer offer it at DECV either due to low enrollments.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: J_Rho on September 16, 2019, 10:48:53 am
That sucks, I wanted to do englang as well, but they no longer offer it at DECV either due to low enrollments.

Yeah same, kinda silly that its not offered at decv considering many many schools dont offer it
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Stormbreaker-X on September 16, 2019, 11:01:24 am
Can a school choose not to offer math in vce if not enough people want it?
I am pretty sure all schools must offer math and science tho, but just asking out of curiosity.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Geoo on September 16, 2019, 12:06:49 pm
Can a school choose not to offer math in vce if not enough people want it?
I am pretty sure all schools must offer math and science tho, but just asking out of curiosity.
They do have to offer at least one maths I believe, but in terms of the sciences no. In rural areas, teacher can be in short supply for those subjects, like physics for example, so they don't offer it. It just depends on teacher demand, subject demand etc. Not 100% sure though.
Yeah same, kinda silly that its not offered at decv considering many many schools dont offer it
I know right! I was pretty annoyed since you'd think they would have every VCE subject, but they don't. There are quite a few missing.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Stormbreaker-X on September 16, 2019, 02:10:13 pm
They do have to offer at least one maths I believe, but in terms of the sciences no. In rural areas, teacher can be in short supply for those subjects, like physics for example, so they don't offer it. It just depends on teacher demand, subject demand etc. Not 100% sure though.I know right! I was pretty annoyed since you'd think they would have every VCE subject, but they don't. There are quite a few missing.
Yeah math is a 100% must offer, as it serves as a prerequisite for many courses at university. Science especially chemistry also serves as a prerequisite for many courses too.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: mshah on September 16, 2019, 09:14:09 pm
Hey guys, thank you all so much for your responses. I go to a catholic school, so I wouldn’t say private but it’s definitely not public, and I guarantee you that funding wouldn’t be an issue. The reason they’re not offering it next year anymore is because apparently kids who pick Lang, generally do it cause they hate reading and then don’t work hard and end up doing very poorly, even though two kids got a raw 45 in it a few years ago... Thanks for your advice once again, I’ll probably convince a few more mates so that I have 10-15 names as ‘evidence’ of the fact that my year level is keen to do eng Lang, and I’ll speak to the head of English and/or the assistant principal.
Thanks.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: mshah on September 16, 2019, 09:18:03 pm
Oh yeah I forgot to mention, it’s kind of ridiculous to me how they don’t offer all types of English, as it is very important, if not the most important core Subject in VCE, but they offer subjects like software development (no hate, just using it as an example) in which there are hardly 10 kids.
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Coolmate on September 16, 2019, 09:23:52 pm
Hey guys, :D

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet but, you could try and ask your school/ principal/ careers adviser, if you could do an online course for the subject you really want to do? ??? You will have to do the subject through an external provider :)

Hope this helps!

Coolmate 8)
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: mshah on September 16, 2019, 09:26:46 pm
Hey Coolmate, thanks for your response. I will make sure to keep that option open in my mind.
Thanks :)
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Coolmate on September 16, 2019, 09:32:52 pm
Hey Coolmate, thanks for your response. I will make sure to keep that option open in my mind.
Thanks :)

That's ok, no problem! ;D👍
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: J_Rho on September 17, 2019, 09:11:21 am
They do have to offer at least one maths I believe, but in terms of the sciences no. In rural areas, teacher can be in short supply for those subjects, like physics for example, so they don't offer it. It just depends on teacher demand, subject demand etc. Not 100% sure though.I know right! I was pretty annoyed since you'd think they would have every VCE subject, but they don't. There are quite a few missing.

Surely if we get enough people that wanna do Eng Lang we could ask VSV to run it...wouldnt hurt to try
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Zappi on October 09, 2019, 07:44:30 am
It's definitely a lot better to do it in school if you can. I've heard anecdotally that doing EngLang through Distance Ed's tough but doable :'( Tell me if I'm wrong through, I haven't had that experience myself.

My school's also stopping EngLang classes next year because of low enrolment. Them making it compulsory for EngLang and Lit students to do mainstream English as well doesn't help :-\
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: SanchaTheSeeker on October 22, 2019, 03:05:45 pm
My current school has the same issue. In my opinion, I don't really see why a school wouldn't offer ALL English subjects when Eng is compulsory anyway. I believe that all students should have a say in which eng subject they choose as there's no way they can get out of it. I suggest bringing a few people that want to do EngLang too to come with you to the English coordinator or VCE coordinator and talk to them about it. As many people have said, the more the better and I think that you should do it as early as possible because if the subject does get considered and approved, it might take a year or so for it to actually be offered. I think you're in the perfect position as a Year 9 to go ask now and I hope your school offers it in 2021/2022. Good luck!
Title: Re: How Do I Request My School To Offer A Subject That is not popular?
Post by: Aaron on October 22, 2019, 06:03:07 pm
In response to the above - it is very easy to assume (as a student) that everything can just happen at the click of a finger but unfortunately schools do not work that way, neither does timetabling. It's all about the finances (and the very important technical constraint of lines/blocking, ensuring that the timetable "works") if we go to the source of every consideration possible.

It'd be fantastic if every single english subject could run, as well as every other VCE/VET subject in existence. Unfortunately that's a fantasy idea and will never happen. Hence why services such as VSV/DECV exist (obviously not the only reason why they exist).

Definitely approaching with interested students who want to do the same subject is a great starting point, however so many things could ensure this isn't possible. For starters, if there isn't a qualified English Language or Lit teacher then that will involve recruiting another teacher which definitely won't happen if there isn't much interest. Secondly, it has to be financially beneficial to the school to run that particular subject which would involve students wanting to do that subject or it being a critical subject (unfortunately while you think Lit/Englang are critical, others do not. The same could be said for somebody who is STEM-inclined and think that Maths or Sci is important and that every single one of these should run).

I'm not trying to sound like a total dick here but as a teacher I do know the backend of what happens when decisions like these are made and it's not as easy as students think to make decisions like this happen. Unless it is a viable decision and one that can be accommodating to the needs of the school, it will not happen.