All pupils in England to do maths to age 18.

[TheOstrich]

I always did quite well at school except for maths. Arithmetic was bad enough but algebra and geometry usually finished me off. Needless to say I did not take maths at O Level. However, I was good at English and English literature. Probably why I ended up a secretary for most of my life.

LOL, Medsec!

I always did quite well at school except for English and languages. Shakespeare was bad enough but French and Latin usually finished me off. Needless to say I did not take English at A Level. However, I was good at arithmatic and other maths-derived topics such as statistcs. Probably why I ended up an accountant for most of my life.

Sort of adds weight to WM's last post!

[Kaz]

Medsec, very similar story. Hopeless at Maths but excellent at English, History etc. I was fortunate to be entered for CSE and scraped a good pass ( blood, sweat and tears) which equated to the lowest GCE pass, and that got me into the Civil Service where 5 O’s were required including English and Maths.

I really wish they would stop trying to push all kids down an academic route!

[miasmum]

I loved, English Language, but not literature. Biology and typing and also audio typing , got O levels in all of them Which is probably why since 2002 I have finally loved my jobs as a medical secretary

[JoM]

I was good at maths for the first three years of secondary school, I was in the top set and we had the same teacher throughout that time. She was an excellent teacher who took the time to explain things and was approachable if you needed extra help, she was confident I’d pass at O Level.

For the O Level years we had a different teacher. Again I was in the top set. The teacher was horrible, he bullied a girl in our class and reduced her to tears during lessons a number of times, after a few weeks her parents came into school and requested that she was moved to another group.
Once she was gone he had to find a new victim, and that happened to be me. He’d frequently humiliate me by making me answer questions which we hadn’t yet covered, when I couldn’t answer or answered incorrectly he’d shout at me and call me stupid. Unlike the other girl I didn’t sit back and take it so spent more time sat outside the classroom than I did inside. As a consequence I wasn’t entered for the O Level but passed the CSE with the highest grade which was the equivalent to an O Level grade C (like Kaz).

[Workingman]

Jo, I was treated very differently. I was also in the top maths set, as well as other subjects, and because my Catholic Secondary school shared the same site and many facilities as the Grammar school a few of us did a thing called the 13 plus. From that I did O Levels in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Tech Drawing, and passed them all.

However, the school was very relaxed and many pupils were allowed to do what Shell did - take exams in subjects they liked and were good at rather than pick from a 'one-size-fits-all' menu. The only 'core' subjects at the time, mid 60s, were Eng Lang and Maths, but outside of those pupils were reasonably free to choose. It was a large school of about 1,500 pupils so it probably had the facilities, classrooms and teachers to go that way.

The national curiculum, Sir Keith Joseph, with its focus on academic subjects has been a bit of a disaster for many.

[miasmum]

Well to be fair WM, the conversation with my mum went something like this.....

You have to do English Lit and Lang, (Lit I got an O 'level E) and maths, then chose 5 other options. I chose biology because I loved biology. But I also loved school and was having a lovely time, but not working very hard. So the next part of the conversation went along the lines of audio typing, typing and office practice take up three options, choose them and you'll always have job, and you might as well learn to cook so do home economics (that bit was a waste) so there you go, work at them, carry on enjoying yourself and you'll always have a job. It was my mum that was relaxed about it, more than the school. This was in 1979

I actually wanted to do English Lit CSE as they read interesting books and wrote reviews on them, but no I had to do O level so Shakespeare, Hardy, etc and I lost interest pretty quick, although I did like Macbeth, Julius Caesar not so much

[Kaz]

Jo, that also happened to me, but it the last year of Primary. A horrid little man called Mr Wise, I'm sure he was the reason I disliked Maths after that. Well maybe not so much disliked, but convinced I was useless at it