GCSE options in Y8 or Y9?

[elephantoverthehill]

May I just ask whether students at your secondary school are starting Gcse courses in Y9 of Y10 please? At the school where I teach Gcse courses now start in year 9 due to the new specifications and I thought this was now quite standard practice. Is it? (DD is at a different school and currently in Y8 but there has been no mention of options yet). Thanks.

[ReinettePompadour]

Year 10 except PE which is started in year 9 because its compulsory to do anyway so they might as well gain a qualification in it. This is new this year though.

[TheSnowFairy]

Year 9, has been for a couple of years.

I'm interested to see how it works, DS1 is in Year 11 and did his in Year 10. DS2 is Year 9 so has been doing his a few months.

[AlexanderHamilton]

Ds goes to a school in an area with the middle school system. He is in Year 9 & is just starting to choose his options. However they have started covering the syllabus in maths, English & science.

Dd also chose her options during year 9. They started the science syllabus as soon as it was available in Year 9 though (she’s the first cohort). Her school gets quite a few students transferring from other schools in Year 10.

I think Year 8 is too soon to choose as it means children narrow their choices down very early. Dd for example loved her mani ties but wasn’t able to choose geography & RS.

I am in favour of partial options though. This is where schools allow children to drop certain subjects at the end of year 8 so they can drop for example art & food tech but keep music & D & t etc. Or opt to do a 2nd language instead of an arts subject if they want to.

[Sotired1]

Do Ofsted prefer one system over the other?

[elephantoverthehill]

Sotired I have no idea but why would it be a factor?

[snowbellj]

Dd is at a grammar school. They choose their options in y9 and start them in y10.

[millimat]

DD started her gcse courses at the beginning of year 9.
I've not heard about pe being compulsory @ReinettePompadour?

[JoeMaplin]

Options in year 8, start gcses in year 9 here (high achieving comprehensive).

[Sotired1]

Elephant - sorry can't do bold

I just wondered if they preferred one over the other and that's why some schools then choose year 8 or 9.

Sorry I didn't mean to derail

[Hellsbellscockleshells]

At DS’s school they pick options in year 9 but don’t start studying them until year 10. But at recent y9 parents eve all teachers said they had starterted civering the GCSE work in year 9.

[Hellsbellscockleshells]

DS is at a Grammar School

[elephantoverthehill]

Sotired I see your point now.

[TotallyWingingIt]

Chose options in y8 and start them in yr9 here. This is the first year they are doing it like this though as my son in y9 has chosen options this year at the same time as y8s

[TotallyWingingIt]

The first year at my sons school I mean. Can't speak for anywhere else

[NotSoFlatStanley]

Choose year 8 for my daughters' school and start studying in year 9 (& take Eng Lang GCSE in year 10). So far, so good for us and the bonus that you can drop subjects that you don't have much interest in (core subjects excluded 😉)

[MsJolly]

First Year school doing it this way but options yr8, begin course yr9 - they say due to increased content of course

[SnowbellinA]

Hells dd is also at a grammar school and they gave definitely been doing GCSE maths / Eng etc pretty much from the start. We choose options in y9 and start in y10

[thebookeatinggirl]

Ds currently Y9. Just taken his options and they will start classes in those with a new timetable after Easter (so from Summer Term Y9). Having said that, all his teachers at open evening said they started covering GSCE syllabus stuff in Y8 as content so heavy now.

Dd , current Y11 (same school) chose options at end of Y9 to start in Y10 as has been playing catch-up ever since.

They have obviously decided to start earlier..

[cantkeepawayforever]

Choose options Y9, start Y10 (good copmprehensive).

Science, Maths and to an extent English do start the content in Y9 - they're compulsory anyway, so unaffected by when options are chosen.

Otherwise, the school believes in breadth of education for all for as long as possible - 5 genuine option blocks for GCSE - so it maintains 2 languages, 3 humanities, PE, art, drama, music, 3 tech sujbects etc for virtually all (few don't do the second language) all the way to the end of Y9.

[grafittiartist]

As a teacher I think year 8 is too early to chose. As a parent, it was perfect! Hadn't expected that.

[EvilTwins]

I don’t agree with options in yr 8. DC should do the full range of subjects until the end of yr 9. It’s not just about dropping whole subjects too early, but the trend of moving to a 3 year KS4 means that the amount of content covered in all subjects shrinks - DC could end up studying just their GCSE texts in English, for three years. I get that it puts them in a potentially “better” situation for exams but the focus on grades is getting ridiculous.

[elephantoverthehill]

It all sounds like quite a mixed bag then. Dd's school is going through massive upheaval, returning to council control after having been an academy, they have also lost their sixth form. I have always supported the school and they did well by Ds1, Ds2 I'm not so sure but that is more down to him than the school. Two colleagues moved their Dcs from that school to my school at the beginning of the year. I am just wondering if I should do similar.

[BringOnTheScience]

DC2's school has shifted to the yr9 start for this year. We're in the guinea pig cohort. The other schools in the MAT changed at the same time.

It's causing issues for the local UTC which normally takes pupils from yr10.