Year 9 Options
How Do I Choose My Subjects?
Students will choose four option subjects at the end of Year 9.
In order to give students the best chance of being placed on their preferred courses we haven’t grouped the options subjects into blocks yet. We’ll do this process after the students have made their choices with the aim of catering for the majority of students.
It does mean that not everyone will be able to be placed in all of their preferred courses. For this reason, we’re asking students to make six option choices, the first being a choice between history and geography, then their first, second and third choices for the other three option blocks as well as two reserve choices. Where we can’t place a student on their preferred courses we’ll endeavour to use their reserve choices instead.
All You Need To Know
You will start Key Stage 4 in September next year, the courses will last for two years. The qualifications that you gain at the end of your time at Haberdashers’ Abraham Darby can have an impact on the rest of your life and will help to decide:
- Your future learning and academic success
- The money you earn
- Job satisfaction
The decisions you and your teachers make about options are therefore very important. Collect information, seek advice, be realistic and most importantly, don’t underestimate what you can achieve.
What Should I Think About When Choosing My Options?
- DO choose a subject that will allow you to fulfil your potential in the future. Try to ensure your option choices give you a balance of subjects; you may have a good idea about what you want to do for your future career but remember, things may change and what you might want to do now may not necessarily be what you want to do ten years down the line.
- DO seek advice from mentors, teachers and parents.
- DON’T choose a subject because you like the teacher.
- DON’T choose a subject because your best friend is choosing it.
- DON’T choose a subject because it looks easy – they never are!
EBacc
The English Baccalaureate – though not a qualification in itself – is a measure of success in core academic subjects; specifically English, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language. Students have to achieve a Grade 5 or higher to get this qualification in all five of the subject areas.
These are subjects most likely to be required or preferred for entry to university degree courses and ones that will keep the most doors open for students in the future.
What Is An EBacc And Why Is It Important?
So, should you take EBacc subjects? Universities will be most likely to look for specific GCSE grades in English, maths and possibly different sciences and humanities – but these subjects are compulsory to take anyway.
It’s up to you to decide whether you take the language option.
The top universities in the country are grouped together in an organisation called the Russell Group. There are 24 of them. These universities like to see that students have a broad range of subjects and would want students to achieve high grades in most of the EBacc subject areas.
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is a way in which the school is judged by Ofsted. It’ll be one of four measures used from 2016. Whilst it’s not compulsory, Ofsted will take it into account when inspecting the school. The measure shows where students have gained a Grade 5 or above across a core of academic subjects at Key Stage 4.
EBacc Subjects
The EBacc comprises:
- English
- Mathematics
- History or geography
- The sciences
- A language
To pass the English element of the EBacc students either need to:
- Get a 9 to 5 pass in English GCSE
- Get a 9 to 5 pass in English language GCSE and achieve a grade 5 in English literature GCSE
To pass the humanities element of the EBacc students need to gain either:
- 9 to 5 in history or
- 9 to 5 in geography
To pass the science element of the EBacc students either need to:
- Get a 9 to 5 pass in core and additional science
- Take three single sciences (from biology, chemistry, computer science and physics) and get a 9 to 5 pass in two of them
- Get 9 to 5 passes in science double award
Computer science GCSE has been included in the science element of the EBacc since 2014.
To pass the language element of the EBacc students need to:
- Get a 9 to 5 in any language (French, German or Spanish)
Subjects
Careers Advice
As part of our preparation for their next steps, we’ve given our students access to a careers platform which has information about careers, the routes to take and labour market information.
This is a subscription site so students will need to log in, they should have a sticker with the login details inside their planner. Please click the link below to access the site:
Contact
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Parents
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