When, in Y9 (state comp) can I expect to hear about GCSE options?

[Tansie]

DS1 is going into Y9 in a couple of weeks. His subjects have been pretty much the same for Y7 and 8. The school only officially 'set' for Maths (the top set do Stats GCSE as well) and MFL (the cleveries get offered a second MFL in Y9). Everyone else does everything.

Though I gather from other parents that he'll only get 'options' on about 3 subjects, the rest being 'compulsory' as it were, when should we expect to have to go in to discuss it? Soon or towards the end of Y9?

TIA.

It was the february of year 9 for my DCs - school had an information evening and then a parents evening so there was plenty of opportunity to discuss choices.

I would agree - about the middle of the school year, to allow it all to be sorted out before the poor sod who has to do the timetable needs to start.

February-ish.

Exactly the same as webwiz for my ds. Just before Feb 1/2 term there was an information evening, then just after there was a Parents Evening, so you could discuss with the teachers if they wanted him if they advised he did take a subject or not. Week or so after that, you had to get the forms in. I understand there were some minor shuffling arounds after that, it's to get the rough numbers in for school rather than the specifics.
There wasn't a huge amount of choosing to be done, tbh, once you have your compulsories, you choose one out of (in our case it was) 4 boxes, and by the time you've ruled out something he really doesn't want to do, and ruled in something he really does want to do, it doesn't give too much decision making.

At ours in Feb, they ask the DC what they might want to take, and draw up the option blocks from this (so if music is looking popular, it will go into two rather than one blocks). Then in March, there is the same information and parents evening.

Have you looked at the school website? On ours is the list of compulsory subjects and total available options, although you can't see what combinations you can do.

February here too

I was asking dd about her school (she's about to go into Yr9), and she didn't have any idea, but ds (who knows quite a few girls at dd's school ) told me they do the same at dd's school, as at creamteas's school. They have to fill in a questionnaire about what they would like to do as a career, what subjects they are thinking they might like to take, etc., and then they draw up the option blocks from this information, so the options are slightly different each year.