Choosing the right courses to ensure that you both succeed and have some challenge in your work is very important. All courses will have some form of examination, some will have a controlled assessment element, and others will be assessed entirely on a final examination, so choosing the right type of course for you is important.
Is anything compulsory?
There are some courses that all of you have to follow and can’t opt out of doing. These are English Language, English Literature, Maths, Combined Science (unless separate science is chosen as an option), PE and Individual Development (ID). The groupings for these courses will be based on your progress and predicted grades at the end of Year 9 in the core subjects. These will be based on internal test results as well as teacher assessments. After that, there is a range of subject choice to fill the remaining hours of school time, but there are a few limitations as well.
The government have promoted the importance of the English Baccalaureate subjects (History, Geography, French/German, Combined Science or Computer Science) and have emphasised their importance with employers, colleges and universities. At Idsall School we look at this in a positive way and see it as in the best interests for the future prospects for our students. Research shows that these subjects also happen to be the ones most regularly asked for by college and university courses. We have the ambition for more of our students to go to ‘top universities’ and the EBacc suite of subjects is recommended by these universities. The EBacc subject combination gives a broad base that doesn’t restrict, but will allow more opportunities at 16 and 18 when students make further choices.
We continue to offer a wide range of subjects to compliment the EBacc core; including Art, Business, Health & Social Care, Computer Science, Drama, Food & Nutrition, ICT, Music, PE and Sport, Product Design / Textiles, RE, Separate Sciences, and Construction.
A key point to consider for all students will be progression on to post-16 education or training. To give you a head start in finding places for the next stage of your educational career, getting GCSE passes at Grade 4 or above in English and Maths will be an important goal.
The Construction course will take up two option blocks and will be taught on one whole day.
The courses you finally choose will be challenging and interesting, but give you the opportunity to get the best possible grades in the exams so that your choices after Year 11 are as wide as possible.
Aspects of Personal and Social Education, Religious Education and Careers will also be compulsory and all students will study these within their Individual Development course. All students are expected to do core PE where all students will have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills.
Students will be given extensive individual advice about the courses and levels that are appropriate for them; courses which will help them to achieve further success in education and employment. We do our best to provide the preferred combinations of subjects for all students, but for various reasons this is not always possible and the final decision about the options taken must rest with the school.
If you have any queries, please contact: Mr G. Barbary (Head of Year 9), email: [email protected]