1. Welcome to Year 9 Options Evening
‘The school’s curriculum is aspirational and inclusive. Pupils enjoy the challenge of academic rigour’ (Ofsted Dec. 2015)

2. Settle College featured in the 2016 Parliamentary Review, where regarding our curriculum, we state:
‘We are very well placed for Progress 8 (the new accountability standard) without having to force the students to go down pathways that may not be appropriate for them. Our guiding principle is always to follow our ‘moral compass’ rather than to shape our curriculum around the requirements of League Tables.’

3. Under the newly reformed GCSEs your son/daughter will take undertake a greater number of exams, which makes this comment from one of our Year 10 students, even more relevant:
“It is good to have the chance to take two options in Year 10 and then two options in Year 11 because it will help to reduce stress, especially with the amount of exams we have”

4. Why options across Y9-11?
It avoids an excess of exams at the end of Year 11.
It allows us as a small school to offer a broad range of subjects.
It works for our students…look at the results…

5. Extract from the School League Tables:
There is not a single school, similar to Settle College, in the country, where students perform better.
(Most recent comparison data January 2017)

6. 2017 GCSE Exam Highlights
Our Progress 8 score of places us very highly nationwide. This means that on average, our students perform at around half a grade better per subject than students across the country, from a similar starting point was not unique. This has been replicated for each year of the Progress 8 measure
The Progress 8 score exceeds 82% of schools judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted and 96% judged ‘good’.

7. 2017 GCSE Exam Highlights
Our Progress 8 score was consistently strong across all ‘groups’ of students:
overall
for boys
for ‘disadvantaged’ students
for ‘middle’ prior attainers

8. Progress 8 A 3-minute video explaining the progress 8 measure is on the school website.

9. Options - Our Curriculum Offer
Year 10
Core subjects (all students)
English
Maths
Science PE
PRCE (GCSE RE Full course for some students taken at the end of Year 10.).
Option subjects
Students select two subjects and a reserve for Year 10. This time next year they will repeat this process for their Year 11 choices.
Subjects are taught in mixed Year 10/11 classes and the courses are completed in one year.

10. Year 10 Option Subjects Offered:
GCSE Art BTEC Business Studies GCSE PE GCSE Food Preparation & Nutrition GCSE French GCSE History GCSE Geography BTEC Engineering GCSE Design and Technology
NB These subjects are guaranteed to run, as they have already been selected by Year 10 students. Some however will only appear in one of the option ‘blocks’.

11. Year 11 Option Subjects we Plan to Offer:
BTEC Business Studies GCSE PE GCSE Drama GCSE Food Preparation & Nutrition GCSE French GCSE Spanish GCSE History GCSE Geography IMedia (BTEC equivalent) GCSE Music BTEC Engineering GCSE Design and Technology
NB It may not be possible to run an option subject if too few students choose it. We plan to offer GCSE Art every other year, so please select it for Y10 if you wish to study it as a GCSE. If numbers seriously exceed those anticipated, we would add it to our offer for Year 11.

12. Health Warning:
We have outlined our options offer until summer 2020, according to Government legislation as it currently stands, but this is always subject to potential change.
Occasionally a new subject specification is launched with very little warning. If this happens and it affects your son/daughter we will keep you fully informed. This has happened very recently with students currently undertaking GCSE Computing. Their assessed work (already partially completed) will not count towards their final grade.

13. Grading Change
All subjects are now graded on the 9-1 scale on the following page.
Currently the League Tables refer to a ‘standard pass’ (4+) and a ‘good pass’ (5+)…But
New ‘benchmark’ figure = 5 (B/C). In future this is likely to be the grade required by courses/employers who previously asked for C+

15. Progress 8
In order to meet Progress 8 measure students need to select at least one of these subjects by the end of Year 11: French Geography History Spanish.

16. Considerations – Humanities Subject and a Language
The Russell Group of Universities ( recommend that students who are likely to aim for as place at a top University follow the following pathway at GCSE.
At Settle College, we allow students to follow this pathway by selecting the relevant subjects at GCSE.
English
Maths
Two Sciences (or Triple Science)
One Language
One Humanities subject (History or Geography)

17. Considerations – Progress 8
Students must take a Language or a Humanities subject (we don’t insist on BOTH).

18. The Importance of Progress (8) (P8) and Attainment 8 (A8)
AS qualifications no longer exist for all sixth form subjects
Employers and universities will therefore increasingly use GCSE results to make offers.

19. Year 9 Students – The Finer Details
All exams are linear and not modular.
Spelling, grammar and punctuation are highly important.
Assessment varies according to course.
Challenge has increased.

20. The Choices
Full details in the Option Booklet
The Option Booklet is also available on the website.

22. Requirements
In each of Years 10 and 11 students will follow two option subjects creating a two year pathway.
On the option form, 3 options must be selected (1 being most preferred choice, 3 is a reserve choice).

23. Allocation of Options
We will try to allocate the first two choices wherever possible.
It may be necessary to delay a Year 10 choice until Year 11, in order to prioritise those entering their final year of GCSEs.
It may not be possible to run a Year 11 option subject if too few students choose it. This statement applies to those subjects planned for Year 11 only (page 17 of the Option Booklet).

24. Year 9 options
Subjects that can only be taken in Year 11 and not in Year 10 (subject to take-up):
Music
Drama
IMedia
Spanish

25. Your son/daughter is now underway with their three year GCSE course in the core subjects.
Comments from our sixth form students:
Gave enormous confidence.
Had 3 years to develop skills which really made for a smooth transition to Year 12.
It made me think longer term, including what I might want to do after GCSEs.

26. Beyond GCSEs
When considering GCSE Option Subjects, it is worth having ideas for beyond Year 11.
Mrs Lambert, who is available to offer guidance tonight can arrange a careers interview if your son/daughter needs some assistance.
For a small school, we offer a very wide range of ‘A’ Levels and Level 3 courses.
We offer a wide range of ‘facilitating’ subjects, as defined by the ‘Russell Group’ universities. (

27. Give yourself time!
The option choices are NOT awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. No decisions will be made before the deadline date of Friday 2nd March. This is after Year 9 Parents’ Evening. But I will start working on allocations immediately after that deadline.
The following staff can offer support:

28. Form Tutors
Subject Teachers
Student Services
Mrs Lambert - Attendance and Careers Officer
Mrs Lodge - Assistant Headteacher and Special Needs Coordinator
Mr Murphy – Assistant Headteacher and Business Studies teacher
Ms Doyle - Assistant Headteacher in charge of options or any other member of the Senior Leadership Team.

29. Thank you for listening
Thank you for listening. We are staying around, should you have any questions