Y9-2024/2025

[CouldNotStayAway]

Hi everyone, just starting a new thread for the new academic year.

Link to the previous thread here - Y8-2023/2024

That’s interesting, @PuttingDownRoots. DD’s school has advised them to choose what they enjoy, as it is rare for GCSE choices to limit further options. DD’s school does have a sixth form, as do most schools around here I believe, though there is quite a bit of movement between schools post-GCSE.

I don’t think DD’s school is very strong on career education. I suspect they rest on their laurels a bit as it’s a grammar school so they will assume that the vast majority will take the A-levels – university path. That’s a bit narrow minded these days though, especially with the costs associated with going to university!

Yes, I think it nay be a grammar vs comprehensive thing. I vaguely knew about T levels but looks like I'll have a lot more research to do over the next couple of years! DD is bright but not superstar bright, plus dyslexia means she's heading for 6/7s at GCSE. We do think she'll be happier on a more coursework than exam based trajectory in the future. But doing the BTEC now won't rule out A levels in two years time. Shes doing separate sciences, Spanish and Geography alongside it .

It's good to see some updates.

DS chose options at the end of year 8, and year 9 has been focussed more on the chosen subjects (and for the boys to change if they think they've made the wrong choice).
DS chose French, computer science, geography and DT. He was going to do DT and art (art in place of comp sci); but it was a thread on Mumsnet that got me thinking (a thread about the enormous amount of work required for 2 portfolios); so after my wobble and talking it through with him he decided to switch. He's really into coding/website designing and all things computers so is finding comp sci and nice easy subject, and that's reassuring.

Not much else happening school wise, just drifting through the year.

The school seems to be going all out on trips this year. One or the other always seems to be off somewhere. Yr9 DD has been hill walking, two careers events and next week its "Girls in Stem" event. Her younger sister has been to London, the racecourse for maths, and tree planting. Not to mention they both have residential trips next term....

All the schools seem to be so different. We had an earlier than usual report and parents evening and then an evening at the school (which was a bit pointless in my option).

My son has four subjects to choose and doesn’t have to take a language. They’re “encouraged” to not take both History and Geography but they can if they really want to but then choose a back up subject in case the timetable doesn’t work out, which is what my son is choosing to do. He’s also chosen Business Studies over computer science which I’m a bit disappointed with.

Its very difficult to offer advice on what subjects to concentrate on when he hasn’t a clue what he wants to do though.

We had parents evening and officially submitted choices last night. In the end they asked for three choices and 2 back ups.
And very proud of DD... she has gone up two "levels" in English this year already, and the teacher thinks she may go up a third. Her English predicted grade has therefore gone from 4 to 6. Literature still a bit ropey though.

GCSE options gone in here too... Mad how quickly GCSEs are coming around

My DS has year 9 PPEs at the beginning of May. It’s set up as the first practice for GCSE. They picked most of their options at the end of year 8, except for choosing between history and geography, which they do at the end of this year. I think DS is getting rather fed up of hearing about GCSEs already! He is also hearing quite a lot about year 10 work experience.

@PuttingDownRoots well done to your DD for making such good progress in English! I get the impression that that all-important ‘pass’ in English can be either Lang or Lit but doesn’t have to be both – is that correct?

Looking back to your comment about school trips, it does sound like your school is proactive! My DD has a France trip in the summer, but that’s all there is for Y9 as far as I can tell. I did ask the English teacher at parents’ evening whether they ever do theatre trips as Much Ado about Nothing will be on at the RSC at about the same time as the Y9s will be studying it, but she said that it’s too much expense and logistical challenge to offer such trips to 180 students… which I thought was a bit depressing! We’ve booked to go as a family anyway.

@Thesquaregiraffe I’m sure I’ve heard that GCSE CS isn’t a prerequisite for studying it at A-level or university, so hopefully nothing is lost in that direction. Do you feel that Business Studies is seen as a lesser option in some way?

It’s all happening so fast with options and even being examined on bits of the GCSE curriculum for @cwanne's DS! DD recently mentioned that they have started the GCSE science curriculum this year, and I know they do exam-style questions in their (frequent!) tests.

Resurrecting this quiet thread. I’m guessing all the DCs have submitted their options choices by now!

DD had exam week last week, so this half term break is a proper break as there is basically no homework. DD has decided to read about the Korean War and Afghan-Soviet War. She hasn’t even chosen history for GCSE! She’s doing plenty of relaxing too…

When do others find out whether they have got their GCSE options? DD thinks it won’t be until the last week of term, which the cynic in me thinks is to make sure they keep trying in all the other subjects in the meantime. Which is fair enough, I suppose!

I hope everyone is having a lovely half term break!

The only subject we know about so far is Science as they've just issued the invitations for Triple Science. I'm guessing that will mean a Set reshuffle once they know who has accepted the invitation.
(DD has. Her sister is confused why someone would voluntarily sign up for that much extra work but suspect if in two years she gets her invitation she will also do it!)

We found out via letter on our parent app the allocated options and DD hasn’t got her first choices
she choose
French
Geog
PE and RE but the school have since decided they aren’t running RE, her first choice reserve was History but she hasn’t been allocated that so she has been allocated Business Studies

She is gutted and doesn’t understand why she can’t do both History and Geog when some friends are but I know it’s all about timetabling etc, just rough when we have to wait this week whilst we are on half term to see if there is any way she can take History

The deadline for options was February but we haven't heard anything yet.

DD was invited to do triple science, so I'm guessing that she'll get that one. School also put her in the EBacc group, so she's bound to get Spanish as that was the language option.

DD thinks she'll hear after half term but that's just a guess.

DS is supposed to be revising for tests, but has been too unwell today. He's seldom ill but he's been in bed today, not even any screens, so that means he's feeling rubbish. He usually does bounce back quickly, but obviously no revision today.

Trying to help him with English and it's ridiculous what they ask for in Shakespeare at this stage. DS is bright but has ADHD and can barely get his head around the language, but rather than starting them off with just, say, getting them to show understanding of at least how characters are feeling etc the curriculum seems to demand they know all these tropes of tragedy like 'Hubris' and 'Hamartia', which is blantantly bloody leftover Michael Gove/Boris Johnson 'Let's teach 'em like a public school in the 1800s' nonsense 😡I mean, I am a philosophy/literature grad and can be cynical of trying to be 'down the kids' but this is totally unrelateable, plus it made some sense in a context where students were all studying Latin, Greek and Classical Civilisation but seems bizarre now.

DD’s school hasn’t had any setting so far (grammar) but we’ve recently heard on the grapevine that the girls will be put into maths sets in Y10. The school really discourages competition between the girls, but I guess maths sets are inevitable. We don’t believe they set for anything else though. Everyone does triple science.

@Lisamummy22girls That is disappointing for your daughter! I’m sure it’s worth asking whether there’s any chance they can let her have her reserve option of history instead of business studies. Fingers crossed for her.

@Echobelly It seems mean having exams just after a school holiday as the DCs can’t fully relax during the holidays without feeling like they ought to be doing some work! I hope DS is feeling better today.

I did A-level English (admittedly, a long time ago!) and I’ve just had to look up hubris and hamartia!

Yeah @LetItGoToRuin - I hoped they might be July but no, next week, and they only gave them all the revision notes last week (which is loads). They have at least let DS only sit subjects he's taking at GCSE so he has a bit less to do, as he is still having difficulty doing tests (totally froze up in first set this year, only froze on French and English last ). I think he's not going to do so well this time round between only having a week to revise and having been ill yesterday.

They seemed to be getting revision homework for about three weeks before DD’s exams, so it was a gentler build-up than your DS has had, @Echobelly!

At least your DS’s school has made a reasonable accommodation for his needs – I hope it works out for him.

DD prioritised revising for her options subjects (I hope she gets given these options, haha!) and resented the geography, history, computer science and art exams she had to take. She said some girls simply didn’t answer the last (4-mark) history question if they hadn’t chosen history, simply because they couldn’t be bothered 😮 I’m relieved DD is not that rebellious!

@LetItGoToRuinits the same at ds school, we only recently found out they will put the boys into sets for maths, but seems like that’s the only subject they do this for. Same reasoning, about trying to keep it equal-
they stated that was the reason 11+ scores for all those who achieved the standard weren’t shared; just to ensure an equal footing.

no exams in y9; which is nice. They’ve had end of topic tests as usual, but y9 is the only year they don’t do end of year exams. Ds is happy with that 😂
They started the gcse course in a fair few subjects, geography, computer science and a few more. I do like the idea of having 3 year spread; but I’m sure there are pros and cons to this technique and others too. Everyone selected their choices in year8, so year 9 they had their choices timetabled. They’ve still had lessons in other subjects but at a reduced level (except things like PE).

I can’t believe we’re heading towards the end of year9, these last three years seem to have flown by!

Good luck those waiting for options. Hope things work out. We did all that last year and got all first choices thankfully.

End of year exams here are in July. They start doing them in the hall from Y9 to get them used to it so they have to wait for the real exams to be over. It will be interesting to see how they go.

Well a bit of an interesting update, turns out they do have end of year exams 🙄 somehow some of the students seemed to have misunderstood (the exams will be in the classrooms instead of sports hall- and for some reason the boys understood that as no exams 😂)..ds is now contemplating doing some sort of revision.

Weve recieved the end of year reports which seem early!

That's hilarious @CouldNotStayAway, typical teenagers!

School has just emailed to say they want DS to drop French and do a BTEC instead and I was utterly delighted.

Relief was a bit tempered when it turned out DS is reluctant because he's worried a BTEC with close off options for him - I wonder if he's heard snarky comments about them from other kids, but I did look into this and it doesn't sound like one BTEC won't harm his chances at uni at all and the school insists it won't.

DH is taking the view that DS has 6 weeks to wildly impress school, which isn't likely to happen and he has said as much - I think he just can't do French because of his ADHD, as some people with it have serious difficulties with languages.

Oh God I really hope they won't change their mind, I can't take the stress of DH trying to 'teach' DS French, honest to God I have seriously considered divorce for the first time in my life because of it.

What Btech?

Mine is doing 8 GCSEs and a BTech and they seem to encourage even the academic ones to chose a lighter subject. (Shes hopeful for Animal Care, and likely to get it)