Pros and cons of starting GCSEs in Y9

Our school used yo start in Y9 but have now changed to Y10. I prefer it in Y10.

If dd had to narrow in Y9 she would have chosen some subjects she hated by the end of Y9. J think it's too soon.

I think it does depend on what your DS is like. I looked at both yr 9 and yr 10 start schools for mine and felt year 10 would be much better for him. He is dyslexic and has a very spiky profile so it's really hard to tell if he's going to be quite non-academic or suddenly fly, neither would surprise me. So I felt the longer he could go without being pigeonholed the better. plus he loves arts subjects and responds well to the breadth of the curriculum.
However my DB is a teacher and he is a big fan of the year 9 start, he reckons as monchat says it allows DC to get shot of things they dislike and thus often have a negative attitude towards, and really focus on the rest.
Another thing to think about is what opportunities the school offers to DC on top of GCSEs. at one year 9 start school I looked at it seemed as though once GCSEs were chosen DC had just one hour a week 'enrichment' where they could choose between everything else - dance, drama, music, sport, Art etc. this was a school where bands and sports teams etc were pretty inaccessible therefore it felt like DS would be getting a pretty narrow education from a young age - which in his case would have been likely to turn him off school.

My DS's school is mid-way, initial options chosen in y8 for y9 then narrowed down to final options in y9 for y10. Allows them to stop a couple of subjects after y8 if they really don't like them and try new ones such as sociology and photography for a year before committing to GCSE. They start the gcse work for content heavy subjects such as history towards the end of y9.

Ds1 finished his GCSEs this year. They choose option subjects in year 8 so year 9 is their option subjects only. He started GCSE History content after Easter of year 9 maybe May?

It meant that they were still covering their final topic in February of year 11 when they were sitting mocks asking them questions on a topic they had not completed. I think the content may have finished in March/April time.

Most other subjects started their GCSE content in Year 10 and were still on-going well into year 11, it meant they were revising stuff they had done and also still completing topics in English Lit or German etc.

Ds2 is in year 9 and they have definitely already started History GCSE content but it is a hell of a lot of information to take in. I know this because I tested DS1 for his revision and the facts, figures, dates, names of people etc was huge in comparison to other subjects.

English literature alone was 3 books - one Shakespeare, one 20th Century modern and one 19th Century book, 15 poems not only to know but to compare. History was much more content heavy.

There has started to be ofsted backlash against schools who start GCSE in Y9. They feel it narrows the curriculum too early. I imagine that schools who currently do this will stop in the next couple of years.

Starting in Year 9 has been great for my DS who had a number of subjects he really hated, and so was able to drop at the end of Year 8, rather than being forced to study them for another year. As he has a - shall we say- "laid back" mentality, the fact that a lot of Year 11 will be spent on revising is also going to really help him.

It was not so good for DD, who had a genuinely difficult choice, which might have been easier if she'd had another year to choose. Plus she's a hard working steady student, and I suspect she'll find year 11 deathly dull by the time she gets there.

another benefit has been that the curriculum was so broad in KS3 there were some subjects they only did for 2 hours a week for 10 weeks. At least specialising early has meant that they can study these subjects properly!

My son is in Year 11. He chose options at the end of Year 9 so GCSE courses are taught over 2 years. It seems plenty of time as most teachers say they will be finished teaching the syllabus by Xmas and then it will be revision until the exams. I can't imagine what they would have done with another year.

However, my son couldn't wait to drop subjects like Art, Drama and Music so that would have been a definite advantage if they chose options at the end of Year 8.

I know kids at schools who do start GCSEs in year 9 and they seem to be doing fine though so I'm not sure it makes much difference. I would base school choice on other things.

For me, this would be my list.

Pros:

• An extra year to get through the content
• Students who are showing limited skill or interest in creative arts or DT can drop them, which lowers disruption for those who enjoy it or are good at it.

Cons:

• The focus seems to always be teach the content in y9/10 then spend all y11 revising. It make some questions how effective the teaching was in the first place. There's no need to finish GCSE courses really early if it's being taught properly and the idea of months of revision is a bit of a throwback in my opinion.
• Not all schools offer a broad KS4 so students end up on a very narrow KS4 pathway and have their curriculum limited from the age of 13 (e.g. some schools most students don't study any humanities at ks4)
• at my school many of the BTEC courses are easily taught in under 2 years so 3 years would be ridiculous, and probably would lead to students suddenly being told they have 3 hours extra maths and English a week, which isn't good for most pupils in my opinion
• I think it's a sign of a school that isn't confident that it can get results because GCSEs are a 2 year course
• based on schools in my area, it usually means the school sees kids as data in a spreadsheet
• It gets boring for everyone. There's only so many times you can teach the same question 3 for English language before it becomes white noise to the students

DD is in y10.
Her school has taken a middle path.
For going in to y9 they had a 'mini options' process with the creative and performing arts whereby they could choose 2 of each to continue, or 3 and a second language.
In y9 they also started the GCSE syllabus in Science (and RE short course to be taken end y10).
But they didn't choose 'options' until mid y9 for starting in y10.

What worries me about choosing in y8 for starting in y9 is they are choosing after less than 5 terms in secondary. Both DD1 and DD2 would have made different (and less good) choices if they had had to choose then. DD1 would only have been 12.5 - far too young imo.