Options - REALLY p*ssed off with school

[MrsBright]

I have only one child. I have therefore never 'done' this GCSE selection stuff before. The school obviously assume that all Year 9 parents are as clued up on all this as they all are and they don't need to give us any info about the process, timelines etc etc.

On Wednesday DD brought home a letter about Parents Evening - in a week's time. No prior warning. I am already annoyed.

No mention of Year 9 options in letter, so I email the school asking (politely) if we are to get similar 'no notice' for this crucial moment in our daughter's education. No reply.

This afternoon a letter in the post - 'Dear Parent' standard number - with a confusing spiel about the Parents Evening and another Options Evening that because it so badly written looks like it has the same purpose. I phone the school office for clarification. Tonight DD comes home with identical letter they were all given at home-time - clearly I am being patronised with the posted copy. And btw we still don't have the info about what the Options actually ARE. That apparently will be available at the Parents Evening with the Options Evening 2 days later, and the 'form back at school' deadline 2 days after that. That's a week from start to finish.

Am I being unreasonable here? Why on earth didn't we get all of this info BEFORE Christmas so that we could plan our lives, and prepare daughter for this? And why do we get only one week to decide something that could have monumental implications for our daughter's future?

Are all schools this effing INCOMPETENT?

You're just starting the process

She actually starts the subjects in 9 months time at the start of year 10. Options choosing is usually firmed up by about May.

The timetable is very complex so all of that won't be in place yet.

A weeks notice of Parents evening is not really usual, we get 2 weeks but we expect them early this term anyway so they're not a surprise.

Not at this school. ONE WEEK from start to finish.

Does the school have a calendar on the website? That's where I get most of the information about DS1 and DS2's school. That's how I know that there will be an Options Evening in the first week of February.
The website is also where I downloaded the Options Booklet from last year, so that I can read up about the subjects (I realise there will be some changes between last year and this year) and understand how many DS1 can choose etc.

Nope. A website that has nothing in the 'Diary Dates' at all, and is rarely updated.

Not all GCSE courses start at the beginning of Y10. DS1 is in Y9 and has already started his GCSE courses in Chemistry, Biology and Physics. He will be starting English (language & literature) this term and most of the others in April.

Perhaps calm down a bit?
email the school asking (politely) if we are to get similar 'no notice' for this crucial moment in our daughter's education. No reply

I am dubious about your 'politely', I'm afraid!
They will tell you stuff at the meeting. Calm down.

My last comment was addressed to LFC.

Could it because the age they now leave has changed? So will they still do gcse's in year 11?
Until it all got screwed around with, by year 9, options had been chosen.

As with regards to parent/teacher night, tis common to be given a weeks notice, if you are lucky. Remember in the past getting a letter on the Friday for the following Wednesday.

At our school the dates for parents' evenings are given out in September, so parents get anywhere between a few weeks and a couple of terms of notice.

No specific detail has been given yet about what those options will be. Teachers will apparently make recommendations to individual students at the parents' evening. General information about the process and procedure will be given to parents at an options evening.

The deadline for the options forms is a couple of weeks later.

Some of the GCSE courses have already started, so some of the decisions have already been made.

At my school pupils initially choose a "wish list" and then an attempt is made to timetable it to suit as many as possible. Then the proper options are handed out with columns of choices. This may well be a "look see" what is available. Also, we send out a calendar at the start of the year so dates are reminders, not the first time.

Really. Relax. She will already have fairly strong opinions and there are rarely more than one or two real choices to make.

It doesn't seem a lot of notice, or a lot of time for due consideration...

However, having said that, there are often not that many choices from which to select her options, and usually the schools are really good about putting together balanced programmes that will keep students options open in the longer term.

As a general rule, if your DD is academic I would advise her to stick to the usual academic subjects. Be wary of picking vocational subjects like BTECs, unless she has a problem with exams. Although they CAN lead onto level 3 (e.g. A level standard) and then to Higher Education qualifications, they would severely limit her options.

If your DDs school has a Careers Adviser attached, he/she will hopefully be at the Parents Eve & you could have a chat about the options available & how they might affect her career choices...

We had info in late December, Options Eve 36 hours ago & Parents Eve will be in 12 days, forms to be in a month after that. But to be honest the whole thing could have been done in a week from my POV. I am not sure how much deliberating you want. they only have four options typically, not a lot of choosing to do.

The part (at our school) that takes ages is the staff interviews with careers advice who will help them rank all the options; that must take the school a few weeks.

Our options info had a variety of dates listed for the exact same events, bit funny. Never anything useful on website, either.

Our school starts GCSE programme after May 1/2 term, so 4 months not 9.

As others have suggested, you should look on the school website and see what may be there in terms of options booklet or at least something re GCSE subjects available. A quick email to the tutor/head of year asking for clarification wouldn't go amiss if the website is no help

We have an options evening in a couple of weeks time, with parents evening in early February. At the options evening I understand we will be given all the detail on the courses and options. As yet, there has been no mention of deadlines for decisions, although clearly it will be after that.

The school is generally very hot on organisation, so I'm trusting that everything I need to know will be revealed in good time.

The dates of parents and options evenings should have been set before the beginning of the school year as they are directed time and teachers need to plan them in.
There should be a school calendar with all of these dates - ask the school for a copy of that so you don't get caught out by anything else.

We have a parents' evening then options paperwork, in both year 9 and 10. calendar published each term and key dates online a term in advance. Maybe you are just unlucky that this is has been timetabled so early on .

I think Helpyouchoose website may list all the options at every state school (you can search by school name); worth a quick look (DS goes on there a lot, school website is rubbish). Student centre doesn't seem to know as much as we do and emails seem to go unread because people retire without giving out new details.

I just found our copy of paper calendar and it does have options eve & parents eve on there (well I never!) But I didn't understand what those meant (am foreign), plus it was on the side of paper without school contact info so the calendar was displayed with the term time dates and only June-July calendar (oops).

So I'll know what to take note of in future. Life is always a learning experience...

We were given a school diary at the beginning of each term with meetings in it such as options, parents' evenings, school play, practical exam dates etc. I do not see why schools cannot put such dates on a website in good time however. Also there are not many choices to be made at GCSE. Your DD will know what she must do and what she is good at and the school should expect a breadth of subjects and not all of one type, eg no humanities but lots languages.

Just looking back at our GCSE options process last year, it all took place during March, so your school seems to be getting things sorted out early.

I would be amazed if it really is less than a week from options booklet to decision, because you do need a few weeks to mull it over.

That said, in our case selecting the options was pretty straightforward and actually not all that critical.