This week, our Year 8 students attended their Options Assembly delivered by Mrs Leng and Miss Weatherill. The assembly was an introduction to the process that all students in the year will be going through over the next few weeks to choose their options for Year 9.
Although there will be no formal qualifications given in Year 9, the aim of these options is to equip the students with the foundation skills and knowledge for Year 10 & 11, when their formal examinations will take place. It’s a starting point for our vision – ‘to send every young person into the world able and qualified to play their full role in it’.
The students were introduced to the suites that they can choose to study next year – each student will choose two suites. Within these suites, there will be a mix of subjects they will study, which they can then choose to specialise in when it comes to Year 10 & 11.
For example: if the chosen faculty is Art, the student will study Fine Art, Craft & Design and Photography on a rotational basis throughout the year. After learning the foundation knowledge for these disciplines, they may then choose to specialise in one of them in Year 10 & 11.
A Google Form will be sent out to students over the next few weeks to add in their chosen faculties. We aim to give all students their first and second choice but we ask students to rank their top four faculties from the list in case for whatever reason, we cannot offer a particular subject.
Mrs Leng’s advice when choosing options:
Do choose a subject that you enjoy
Do choose a subject that you’re good at
Do choose a subject that is suited to your aptitude and personality
Do choose a subject that is related to your ambitions
Do choose a subject that compliments your learning style
Don’t choose a subject just because you like the teacher
Don’t choose a subject just because your friends have chosen it
Don’t choose a subject because parents want you to do it
Don’t choose a subject because it is an ‘easy option’ – there is no easy options and they all have challenges built in
Next step:
We will be hosting our Options Evening on Wednesday 2nd February for parents and students. There will be a presentation delivered by Mrs Leng about the process. Following this, parents and students will have the opportunity to visit Subject Stalls in different classrooms around school. Here, you can find out more about what each option entails and ask your teachers any questions.
“You are in the driving seat for your future. Others can help and guide you but ultimately you create the future you want through belief, hard work and more importantly, dreams and goals of where you want to go.” – Mrs Leng
