Tonight, parents and carers of year 8 students are invited to attend an options evening led by Headteacher Mr Burnham. The evening will give parents/carers an insight into the options process that all year 8s are going through to pick their faculties and subjects for the next academic year.
There will be three main assemblies delivered by Mr Burnham at 5pm, 5.30pm and 6pm, which will include a presentation talking through the process, the year 9 core curriculum and the options that students can pick – as well as advice for students and parents/carers when it comes to finalising option choices.
Following the main presentation from Mr Burnham, faculty sessions will run every 15 minutes. This gives parents/carers and students the chance to virtually chat to faculty leaders about the subjects and see if the subject is a good fit for the student. These talks have been booked via Google Hangouts and each 15 minute slot will have a welcome talk, a short video and time allocated for Q&As. The link for these meetings will be emailed to your child’s student email address.
Next step:
After the parents’/carers’ option evening, the Google Form will be sent out to all year 8 students’ school email address – this is what the students will complete to request their options. Videos from the faculty leaders will be published, which will give an overview of the faculties, as well as the options booklets explaining the faculties in more detail.
“Choosing options at this stage may not seem important, but the choices that you make over the next few weeks will start to shape any choices you make in the future. We’re committed to offering you as much as possible so that you get lots of experience and I know that it can be confusing, especially if you don’t know what you want to go on to study or what career you want. I’ve got three simple rules when it comes to options; choose something you enjoy, or choose something you’re good at and achieving in, or choose something that will be useful for a future career. If you follow these rules, you won’t go wrong.
“Year 9 is the foundation for your GCSE years. The knowledge and skills you gain will set you up to achieve something really special in year 11. These choices could set you on an incredibly successful career path. My biggest piece of advice – think carefully, read lots about the subjects, ask lots of questions. Make sure you have all the information you need before you choose.” – Mr Burnham
