S5/6 Information

Fifth year pupils: All pupils study five subjects. S5 pupils will also engage in a new life skills programme in which you will have opportunities to continue to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work with a continuous focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.

Pupils expecting passes at National 5 should attempt five Highers in fifth year. Recent research shows that those who take on a heavier workload will in the end come up with better results than pupils of comparable ability who take less demanding courses. For university entrance, the typical "going rate" is four Highers at A or B, but the more popular courses will demand more than this.

Remember that to attempt Higher, you should have a pass at National 5 level at B or better.

Further guidance will be given on your individual options before making your choice of subjects.

You will continue to have:

- 1 period per week of Personal and Social Education which will allow personal support to enable you to gain as much as possible from the opportunities that exist within the school and support your planning for transition beyond school.

- A further period will be spent exploring a range of issues and concepts in Religious and Moral Education.

Sixth year pupils: In sixth year, you will be expected to take at least 4 courses. Unless you are taking 3 courses at Advanced Higher level.

You will also be given the opportunity to participate in a range of electives and become involved in the wider life of the school.

S6 is seen very much as a bridging point to the adult world, to further study, be it at College or University and to the world of work. You are encouraged, if you wish to become a Prefect but everyone is expected to become an ambassador for the school and a role model for more junior year groups.

We try our best to give pupils all of their choices, however on some occasions this is not always possible. This can be down to a number of reasons such as those noted below, and it is therefore really important that pupils think carefully about their reserve choices.

• Too many pupils have selected this subject for the number of classes that we can run, this can be due to number of staff in the department, facilities/equipment.

• Not enough pupils have selected that subject which means the class is not viable to run that year.

• Staffing can change during the course choice process which means a subject can no longer run,

• There may be a clash between the two subjects that a pupil wishes to take, as both run at the same time they will need to choice one as a first choice and another choice in a different column.

If we cannot accommodate a pupils subject choices, we will use their reserve choices. If there are any problems with your choices, your Guidance Teacher will re-interview you to discuss your course choice options again.