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Original poster

Gcse options- did your y9 get their choices?

29 replies

Westernfiels · 04/07/2026 20:20

Dc got options back last monday and great got their 2 choices. However other friends ended up with 1 option that wasnt one they picked at all. And another got choices 3 and 4.

i guess the problem is they presented to the kids they were very likely to get choice 1. And it was rare not to.

i think as well it is because they only have the 2 choices as 2 are taken by mfl and a humanity

Also i think they said they do first choice first but dont prioritise the ones who didnt get that’s 2nd choice. So classes could be full from 1st choice then others get the 2nd choice leaving some down to 3rd /4th or below.
Did others kids get what they wanted?

OP posts:
clary · 04/07/2026 22:04

My DS2 had to pick hist or geog, MFL and then there were two other slots. IIRC he had to offer four choices for those but got both his top two. I recall him saying if he didn't get PE (top choice) I was to go in and complain!

I think a lot of schools have to ask for options as it may be tricky to fit in what people want, but from memory pretty much everyone got their top two.

Original poster
Westernfiels · 04/07/2026 21:55

Thats great.
Ours seemed to promise a lot. And imply there was no set number of classes etc. But not really deliver.
i can understand some subjects might be really popular but some of the subjects not got were
business, music, pe, art.

With the ebacc gone now there really wasnt a need to have a geo/history restriction either. We didnt want either of those so that did affect dc as they would also be able to do computing instead.
but they are saving money by using full geo/history classes

OP posts:
BirdLandedonmyHead · 04/07/2026 21:51

Most of DDs year got theirs... they had to pick one from list A (humanites, CompSci, languages) and two from list B (the above plus all the arts, technology, vocational subjects PE etc). They decide on the number of classes after they have the choices submission... there were four Geography classes but only two history for example.

ScoliMum55 · 04/07/2026 21:36

DD’ school just worked around the kids and their choices each year - no set number of classes to plan around etc. Unless advised that they wouldn’t be academically capable for a certain subject (very rare) every child got the exact subjects that they wanted.

They had a compulsory MFL unless extenuating circumstances and were strongly advised to take at least one of the sciences. Apart from that, they had 4 other choices to do what they wanted with.