Options
Choosing which subjects you are hoping to study for key stage 4 is perhaps the first really important decision you will have to make in your life. Hopefully this is an exciting moment for you as you start to make steps which will shape your future career, and begin to transition into being a young adult.
Choosing subjects opens doors to careers, so you will be needing to look beyond the next two years of your Fernwood journey, and start to consider what you might wish to do in both the next step and beyond.
Over the coming weeks you will be supported through these choices by assemblies, your subject teachers, and also your tutors. There will also be information to listen to, read and digest. Most importantly, you need to choose subjects that you both enjoy studying and can also be successful in.
Pathways
All children have been placed within one of 3 ‘pathways’ for options, and you will have received a letter to tell you which you are within. This decision has been taken by your academic staff, in conjunction with your head of year and head of key stage too.
Core Curriculum
There are some subjects which, because of their importance for life and the world of work, are considered to be essential for all students. So next year there will be some parts of your timetable where you will have no choice. But luckily, these are all exciting subjects which you would want to continue with anyway! Core Curriculum Subjects include:
Optional Curriculum
The remainder of your timetable will then be made up of your ‘option choices’. These are subjects which may follow on from KS3 lessons or might even be courses new to you.
As a school, our advice will always be for students to follow a broad and balanced curriculum. What we mean by this is for you to try and choose subjects which will give you choices at the end of Key Stage 4 (Year 10 and 11), keeping doors open so you have a broad range of options and pathways available to you when you make your choices for post 16 education or training.
You will be advised to avoid picking all your subjects from the same family of subjects. For example, it would not be sensible to study both GCSE Drama & Technical Award - Performing Arts: Drama, which despite being highly creative, will ultimately narrow your choices. A good first step is to consider the subjects at KS3 which you have been most successful in so far.
Information on what each course will entail is available within the pathway webpages. There are videos from most subjects, along with written information that I encourage you to read thoroughly. Some children are quite surprised during year 10 as to what studying a specific subject actually entails, in comparison to what they imagined it would involve.
FAQs
What should influence my choices for Key Stage 4?
The best advice is to think about which subjects you enjoy the most. You are beginning to think about careers, and you are very unlikely to pursue a career in a subject you have less fascination for. Interest, engagement and enjoyment are really important for success too, as you are likely to work harder in a subject where this is so. Also, consider how useful a subject might be for your future, and will it give you a degree of breadth to your choices? Finally, for subjects that continue from key stage three, reflect on your latest report, as to which subjects you were achieving highly in.
Which subjects your friends are choosing is universally the very worst influence you can possibly have! You are different from them, so what might work for them, won't necessarily work for you too!
What Pathway am I on?
You will have received an email or phone call confirming if you have been designated to Pathway 1, 2 or 3. Your tutor will also know this information if you have forgotten.
How do I enter my options?
For pathways 1 & 2 this process is carried out through an online form which is linked within your pathways above. You will need a username and password to access this which is emailed to you.
For pathway 3, your key worker will be meeting with you 1:1 and will complete your options choice using a paper based form. This will go home for your parents to see before being finalised.
When is the deadline for the options online form?
Friday 28th February 2025
Will I get to do all of my preferred options?
We will do our best to make sure that you can study all the subjects that you want to study. However, we must let you know that on occasions situations may arise which mean that we are not always able to offer you your first choices; such as not enough people choosing a particular subject for it to run, all the places are taken in a subject or certain subject combinations may be impossible to timetable. The vast majority of pupils get their choices every year, and we will do our upmost to facilitate this.
Is there any support for helping me to make my choices?
Over the coming weeks you will be supported through these choices by assemblies, your subject teachers, and also your tutors. There will also be information to listen to, read and digest. Most importantly, you need to choose subjects that you both enjoy studying and can also be successful in.
Careers Advice
As part of their entitlement to careers education and guidance, Year 9 students receive a planned programme of lessons to give them help and information so that they make good career choices. This support is offered through PD lessons and is supplemented wherever possible by professionals.
Options Evening (for parents & pupils) – Tuesday 4th February 2025,
The event will be an in-person, evening event, which will include:
- A presentation from Mr Jones – Assistant Headteacher.
- An opportunity to visit subject areas, and speak to staff (and KS4 pupils) about the various courses on offer.
- Tutor groups FERNWD: 6pm to 7:15pm
- Tutor groups SHCMTY: 6:20pm to 7:45pm
What happens if I change my mind?
We would encourage you to do some really deep thinking now, rather than rush to a decision you may regret later. That said, this will undoubtedly happen for a small handful of pupils. Simply, the earlier the change is put forward the better. This needs to come in the form of an email from your parents to your head of year, where we will then pick you up to talk about it. Once the options have been confirmed (late May / early June) they are 'set in stone' and any movement after this point is extremely challenging.