https://www.informedchoices.ac.uk

What sort of future planning should students be doing?

Where possible, if students have a goal to aim for, this can help focus their choice of courses. Having said that, we fully understand that many students will either not have a career path planned out or may change their plans. Our curriculum has the flexibility to accommodate this and we would also encourage students to choose a broad range of qualifications over Years 9-11, to keep their future options open.

Attainment 8

The government has set a new Level 2 Threshold measure called Attainment 8. Attainment 8 is starting to become part of the admissions criteria for some further or higher education establishments and employment. A student’s Attainment 8 score not only indicates their average grade, it also demonstrates performance across a range of subjects. It expects students to have achieved best possible grades in:

● GCSE Maths and GCSE English

● Any three GCSE qualifications from the Sciences, geography, history or modern foreign languages

●A further three qualifications which can be either BTEC Technical Award/OCR National, GCSE or other approved qualifications. We will therefore support students in the core curriculum and through their Guided Pathway choices to achieve this threshold.

What if students cannot do their chosen course?

We build the Guided Pathway subject blocks based on student choices rather than ask them to pick from pre-determined blocks, so we hope that the courses offered will be available to all the students who want them but we will ask you to give us alternative/reserve choices. Despite every effort to give all students their preferred choice, this may not always be possible. Alternatives may have to be considered if:

• Too many students opt for a particular course

• Too few students select a particular course

• We wish to advise a better range of courses to meet a student’s needs

• We will write to you in the summer term to confirm your choices.

Can students change their mind?

We always do our best to ensure that all students’ choices can be matched but please bear in mind that students who submit choice after the deadline may not find it possible to be placed on their first choice courses. As soon as the options deadline has passed, work begins on timetabling. Alterations to choices may not be possible from this point onwards. Once a decision has been made and a course begun, it is extremely difficult to make any changes. It is therefore essential that time and thought be given to the combination of courses to be taken.

What support is available to help decide which Guided Pathway subjects to take?

Please take a look at our 'Careers' section below to see what typical careers our subjects can lead to. Students are welcome to discuss course choices in relation to their future career plans and current level of performance with subject and form tutor staff. Or if you would like to speak with a member of the senior leadership team. Please request an appointment here.

Please return to the home page for the deadline to submit your course choices and the form for you to complete. You will find this at the bottom of the page.