The Introduction of the Seven Subjects

Every year, the third year students pick subjects for their fourth year at school. They have the opportunity to pick four subjects while also taking the mandatory Maths and English. This is going to be different next year as Elgin Academy are proud to say that they are one of the pilot schools for fourth years taking seven subjects including English and Maths. 

In an interview about the topic, Mrs Grant replied to the question “do you know what prompted this change?” She answered, “We were very aware that there wasn’t equity amongst Scotland with the number of subject choices. We wanted to pilot the possibility of seven subjects in S4 which we have been allowed to do. It has really been about our students being up there and being able to compete with the rest of the country in terms of the number of qualifications and trying to widen the offer of subjects that students have.” 

It’s a lot about taking the students’ knowledge from third year into fourth year. It also means that in fifth year, you have a wider choice of options as you can pick five subjects from the seven students did previously, instead of five subjects from six options. The staff's main thoughts are making sure their students are in the best possible positions moving forward with our qualifications in comparison to the rest of the country.

Mrs Grant has said “the idea and decision has come from the school's staff, parents, partners, and most importantly the pupils”. The curriculum gets reviewed every year with staff and students, and then the school reviews the data that they get given from the Scottish government. This has all played a part in the school’s change to seven subjects in fourth year.

Another question asked was if the current S4 year would retake the year if they could take seven subjects and she responded with “it’s a good question as individuals might like to but it's not something we have focused on as a year group as the change was for the year group below them but it would be interesting to see.”

Like most things though, there are some downsides to this. Instead of having five periods a week of each subject there will only be four. Since the consultation has been completed and it has been agreed that it is moving forwards, staff have time if they wish too to adapt their courses accordingly so they are ready to start on the 22nd of May. As well as this, students will have to choose very carefully when picking their subject choices in second year as they will have to choose from those subjects going into their fourth year. 

A few years ago, third years had two periods a week of their subject. This was then changed to three periods a week which meant that students had less subjects to take, and were less stressed. This has led to now, because of the change of subjects taken in fourth year, third year pupils will be able to take a lot of what they are studying into fourth year. 

If you do not want to take a subject from your third year into fourth, you’ll be able to take it at a later time in your fifth and sixth year. The level of the subject would be decided on your grades in similar subjects. For example, if you had taken two social subjects in fourth year and wanted to take the other one in fifth year, the school would also look at your English grade too to get a better understanding of what level you would be working at whether that be National 5 or Higher.

They will be looking at everything in the course from third year to fourth year so the third year is as important as it is now in preparing students for the start of their senior phase. 

When the SQA are developing a course, they will attach learning hours to it. A National Five has twenty four credit points which means 240 hours of learning. They are standardised to  make sure there isn’t too much content in one and not enough in another. Out of the 240 learning hours, 160 of those hours are done in school and the rest is made up of prelim revision and homework which is done outside of school. With the change in the time table, in an effort to deal with exam stress, there is the addition of a study period once a week where pupils will be able to study or catch up on any subject they choose. 

When pupils have that period they can get a study pass from a department where they can go to a different department to the one they are studying in and use the equipment in that department. Take music for example; students can get a pass and go and practice on an instrument. The timetable will be made up of 28 periods of subjects, two periods of P.E which makes thirty periods, one period of a wider achievement, one study period and one period of PSE. 

It is all about things being planned accordingly and making things flow throughout the year and making deadlines and doing well in all departments. This will be reviewed at the end of the year and maybe it might be a permanent thing in the future depending on the outcome…