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Year 9 Options

In the summer term Year 9 students will be making their options for the subjects that they will be studying in Year 10 and 11. This letter will outline the process and highlight the key dates for the events surrounding the options process.

In the run up to these events the students will have an assembly focusing on the options process and providing key information. They will also have targeted sessions with their form tutors focusing on the different subject choices and next steps. These sessions should help students begin to think about their choices and prepare questions and prioritise which subjects they wish to see further and speak to the teachers for during our choices evening.

Choices Evening - Wednesday 17th May

This will be on Wednesday 17th May from 5.00pm to 6.30pm. Students and parents will be able to come into school to speak to teachers for all of the available subjects and get more information about all of the courses on offer. There will also be a talk in the theatre to guide both parents and students through the options process, with the opportunity for questions afterwards. There will be two opportunities to listen to the talk at 5.15pm and 6pm.

Presentation from Year 9 Choices Evening 2023

Individual Choices Meetings - Week commencing 22nd May

Once students have had an opportunity to view all of the information and speak to the subject teachers as well as discuss their options with you they will be provided with an individual meeting slot during this week. Students will meet with a member of staff to discuss their option choices and also to provide reserve choices. The member of staff is there to answer any further questions and help the students make informed choices. The choices will be made during that interview and will be recorded by staff. Students will not need to fill in a form for their options which has been the case in previous years.

During this week students will be attending lessons as normal and will just leave their lessons briefly for no more than 10 minutes for their meeting. Unfortunately due to logistics we cannot invite parents and carers in for these meetings so we encourage you to have the conversations with students at home prior to these meetings about the choices they will be making. Hopefully any questions you may have will be answered before hand during the choices evening, however should you wish to speak to the member of staff conducting the meeting the please email admin@hertswoodacademy.org with the subject header ‘Year 9 Options’ and we can arrange a call.

The Options

All students will study the following subjects

Maths
English
Combined Science
Geography or History (students will choose between)
PE

Students following our EBACC pathway will then continue with the modern foreign language they already study, either French or Spanish. Students following our mainstream pathway will study citizenship.

In addition students will be able to choose two options from the following list of GCSE (academic) and BTEC (vocational) subjects.

GCSE Courses	BTEC Courses
GCSE Business GCSE PRE GCSE Psychology GCSE Sociology GCSE Sport GCSE Music GCSE Photography GCSE Product Design GCSE Art GCSE Drama GCSE Food GCSE Geography (if not already chosen) GCSE History (if not already chosen) GCSE French (if not already chosen) GCSE Spanish (if not already chosen)	BTEC Business BTEC Dance BTEC HSC BTEC PE BTEC ICT

We hope that the information provided has been informative regarding the options process and we look forward to welcoming you into school for the choices evening on Wednesday 17th May where we will be providing further information and will be available to answer any questions.

In the meantime please do begin the conversations with students about their options, particularly thinking about what they may wish to study in sixth form and which career paths interest them as well as which subjects they enjoy. Do also encourage students to discuss their choices with members of staff in school.

Year 9 Options 2023