starting KS4 in year 9 - pros and cons?

[MrsCreosote]

Can any secondary school parents/teachers give their opinions please about extended Key stage 4 i.e. choosing options in year 8 and working on them over 3 years (9-11)?
They do this at one of the secondary schools we are considering but I am concerned that my daughter might get bored working on her subjects for 3 years and also that its quite early for them to choose their options early in year 8. I think the reason they do it - presumably- is to increase the chance of good GCSE results across the school.
Any insights or opinions very welcome
TIA

Devilish - I know it was aimed at the government don't worry.

Phew!

I think ds3's (fingers crossed) school will be doing GCSE's over three years for a different reason than ds2's grammar. They have a very different approach to teaching/learning & will appreciate the extra time to explore topics in different ways. They already have an extended school day for this reason.

It's fine for ds2 & ds3 who already have strong preferences in subjects, but can see it's harder for those who are unsure.

"A lot of those DCs seem to change their options at the end of yr 9, having changed their minds about subjects, which seems to defeat the object, really?"

This has been made practically impossible at DS's school- you can make a case, but you have to convince the head teacher, and as far as I know, only a couple of people have managed it so far!

I think it's a good idea as it gives them more time on the subjects they prefer/are better at, and as long as there is not too much choice anyway.

Thanks everyone for such detailed responses. Lots of food for thought. Its a community comprehensive we are considering and the reason they have the 3 year key stage 4 is to give the low and mid attainers (which make up a large portion of the intake) a better chance of getting good results - which they do - like many of the schools round here in east London the school scores very highly on progress. Plenty of kids need lots of EAL support etc so its to give them a better chance primarily I think. As far as I know they don't sit any GCSEs early.

My daughter will probably be one of the 'more able' students and already loves just about everything at school except sport, and particularly loves humanities, music/drama/art, science etc so she may find it hard to narrow her subjects, especially so early on (ie year 8). Someone else from this school said he found it hard to choose between French and Spanish at the beginning of year 8, for example, as he had not being doing Spanish for that long.

This is my first child going into secondary school so its all a bit new to me.

So there seem to be both pros and cons of the extended key stage 4, I don't know what to think!

Also they can change their minds re their options up to the end of the first term of year 8, after that no changing allowed

But it doesn't really matter whether you do Spanish or French, does it?

They're both the same from an options point of view.

Ours can change at end of yr9 & yr10 so the inflexibility of your system is bad in my mind.

Then again, the whole set up may well change as soon as 2 yrs time. I would use other criteria to decide what school.

The secondary my DDs go to does this. For them it really works - they can ditch the subjects they have no interest in (DT, ICT, Music) and focus on the ones they really care about. The school does not have anyone sit GCSEs early though - instead they do a lot of work on broadening and deepening understanding of the subject. So DD1 is now in Yr10 and has just started the GGCSE history topic of the American West - but in Yr 9 she did a whole segment on suffrage in Europe, WW1 and the Napoleonic war, and was assessed just as it if was for real - she really enjoyed the extra material and learned a lot of useful essay writing technique. The same method is used across all subjects. The school had record GCSE results this year despite a tricky catchment with a lot of deprivation.

I can see how it would be limiting for a young person who has not yet made up their mind about what direction to choose though, there are definite downsides.

I wouldn't choose a school specifically for a 2 year course, because it seems to me the tide is turning towards 3 year GCSE's - and by the time your dd chooses options all local schools may be running 3 year courses.