Another yr9 options question

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How acommodating do the school need to be to ensure everyone gets their option choices?
And is it better NOT to put a reserve choice so that more effort is put into timetablomg your real choices.

DD is getting stressed on this already, even though they've not even had their booklets.
Basically, her three free choices ( Geography, French and Music) are the subjects she wants to do at A level - plus either maths or chemistry.
So she doesn't want to have any " reserve" options as her "future would be ruined" (her words) if she cannot take her choices.

She seems to think that as languages are not compulsory (or encouraged) with triple science, there are likely to be timetable clashes.

The school does not offer any twilight options, but I"ve told her if it came to the crunch, one subject could possibly be studied independently. Mot ideal though, as she already attends a w/e music school, and are trying to find an English tutor.

Most schools have options placed into blocks and will have been timetabled already using the block system. Hopefully your DD's choices will all be in seperate blocks. I think if they are asking for a reserve subject then your DD would have to put one down.

My DD goes to a school where they take one option a year over years 9-11. We will have to go throw will she get her first choice 3 times! Thankfully DD got her first choice last year and is currently doing Geography in Yr9. She is hoping to do Geology in yr 10 and Psychology in Yr11. But we will be back to the drawing board so to speak if they decide not to run these courses. There are rumours that Geology will be pulled to allow for another Geography class. DD is hoping that this won't be the case as the only other subject she'd consider is History, which she would only do if there was not any alternative.

Do you know why they don't like them to do French with Science?

We had DS's options book on friday and there are no blocks, just a list of sujects from which you must choose 3, plus a reserve. I was expecting blocks of some sort too.

I'm not sure where you would stand if she is adamant she needs to do all her choices, if they can't accomodate her. But I can't see it will help if she doesn't put a reserve down. I don't think they will change their timetabling to fit one student and she may be told what option she is doing as a reserve.

As far as I know from previious years there are no blocks. Just chosing subjects from a list.

There's no real reason why they should not do a language AND triple science - just that a lot generally don't want to, it stopped being compulsory last year, as the school recognised this. So DD seems to think that's where a clash is most likely.

The only other subject she would be happy with is Drama. But she would want that as an extra, not at the expense of one of the other academic subjects.

Given that Geog and French would be needed for Ebac I'd say it was a given that your DD will get those options. Is Music a popular choice at your DD's school? If it is then that could be a problem if they are only able to timetable the one class, but again given what you've said about your DD doing weekend Music classes etc I would have thought she would be an ideal candidate for Music. Hope it all goes to plan and you find out soon.

Magentadreamer - Music is probably the least worry, as she is probably already beyond GCSE standard, so could in theory miss the school lessons.
As music with language(s) is also a popular choice, I cannot see that clashing.
They also generally have 4 or 5 geography groups depening on popularity.
As she is on the G&T list for Geography and MFL (I think), they should be quite helpful there.

I think she would consider giving on the triple science if it came to it.

Re the Ebac, will be very interested to see whether the compulsory language is brought back. Think that's on the agenda for the PTA meeting this month.

The way subjects are timetabled at my DS's school, all options are studied on Tuesday and Wednesday; mainly so those kids who go to college have the least disruption to their other subjects. If she very strongly wants to do those three subjects I would make sure the person in charge of options/head of year knows why. If she has another subject she would like to do if she can't have all three then she should state it (Music may well be optional if she has Grade 5 theory etc.).

In most schools, most pupils get their choices. Some don't because: too few choose something to make the class worth running (unlikely for French or Geography), there is a maximum class size and it is just exceeded (but if you make it clear why those ones are so important this should be taken into account), or someone needs extra support so gets that instead of an option.

Talk to someone at the school to see if this worry is real.

Good luck!