Is it important to support our children to choose their A level subjects?

Yes I do.

Others will disagree with me vehemently.

That’s great.

Disagree with me all you want. It’s what I strongly believe.

Although my son will only be 4 in July this year, I already have this on the forefront of my mind.

People will tell me to ‘Stop it!’ and ‘He’s still so little!’ but if someone had thought so carefully about my A level subjects as I’m already thinking about his perhaps I wouldn’t have had to struggle so much between my 20’s and my 30’s!

I’ve been speaking a lot about this with my clients and on my social media and there are very mixed views.

I have parents telling me how important it is to support our children to choose their A level subjects and other parents telling me that children should follow their passions and only choose A levels that they are ‘enthusiastic about’.

Sure, you need to love what you study. But ultimately if the A levels you choose are not going to support you to get into the University that you will ultimately want to go to and study what you ultimately wish to study then is there even any point?

If you know you want to study medicine then you know you will need to be studying Chemistry, Biology, Maths and most likely Physics. If you know you want to study Law then you will need to be studying English Lit, History, perhaps languages and perhaps sciences.

If you know that to even be in with a chance to study at top universities you will need AAA then where you choose to send your child to school to study will be very important won’t it?

To me it is very important to support my son to choose his A level results and to steer him in the direction of ‘being passionate’ about the subjects that he will eventually need to study and support him to the best of my ability to achieve the grades that he will need to achieve.

This life is a competition. Most often not a fair one! We all know this already.