Does anyone know how Brighton College's GCSE options work?

[DeadDuckFace]

I've asked the College twice, once via email and once face-to-face at an Open Day and for some reason they are being strangely evasive about it and just saying that it will be discussed when the time is right. The thing is, ds is due to join in year 9 so it's an important consideration when deciding on schools. It's frustrating because they have been great to deal with otherwise but for some reason won't say how the GCSE options work. If anyone has dc at the College could you please message me or reply to this thread. Thank you!

The thing is, how options work can change from year to year.
In a period of 6 years, my DD's school has used at least 3 different methods just regarding triple science and whether options are blocked:.

1. accelerated triple science only, option blocks
2. accelerated or normal pace triple science, option blocks
3. triple science non accelerated, but not using an option, no option blocks So anything they tell you about this year's y9 may well be different for next year's y9...

Is there a 'crunch' question, such as doing 2 MFL, or not having to do an MFL? You could try asking that? e.g. In the past 4 years has it been possible for students to do 2 MFLs? Or In the past 4 years has it been possible to do Art and Music? or whatever.

Thanks Teens - I know the basics which is 2 languages (but not sure if it has to be specific ones), maths, English and triple science but nothing else. If I don't get anything more specific I might see if I can try the 'crunch' question technique with them but there's a few things I'd want to check so it would be so much easier if they just said what they had done this year for example to get an idea of how it works!

@DeadDuckFace

Hi there,

I work for the College and your post was recently flagged up to me by a colleague. Our Admissions department have provided the following information, which I hope helps make things clearer:

'Pupils study the core subjects in English, maths and science. As English consists of both literature and language, these equal six subjects, allowing pupils to then choose four options from a wide choice of humanities, languages and other subjects. We have specific evenings when we talk through the different options at 14+ with our current parents and pupils but I would suggest speaking with the pupil's Housemaster or Housemistress if they would like some further guidance.'

Do let me know if you need any more information or have any further questions - I'll try to come back to you as soon as I can.

All best,

John @ Brighton College