1. What next? Course Choice Evening
for current S3,4 and 5
pupils and parents
What next?
Wednesday 7th February Courses Exhibition 5-7pm Talk: 5:30, repeated 6:30

2. Inspire, endeavour, achieve
What do we stand for?
Inspire, endeavour, achieve
Be all you can be
Navigate to success
Personalisation
Choice
The right level course at the right time

3. The Orkney Offer - an integrated Senior Phase
Courses available across Orkney
Choose the course level appropriate to you,
not your school year
Benefits
Increased choice of courses
Less popular subjects more likely to be viable
Mixed-level classes less likely
Dealing with the reality of a small community whilst trying to give our young people as many opportunities as possible

4. National 4/5, Higher, Advanced Higher
26 subjects in school, 12 more at college
Foundation Apprenticeship – 7 areas
HNC and Degree modules
The Options
6 courses per school year
Extra N4/5 college course on Friday afternoon
26 subjects on offer at school, at National 4, 5, Higher and Advanced Higher levels
a further 12 subjects at the college at National 4, 5 or Higher, plus the opportunity of a Foundation Apprenticeship in 7 business sectors and modules from HNC and degree courses
That’s a lot of options
If you are currently in S3, you potentially have 18 slots to fill, depending how long you want to stay on at school. You may even have more, as Orkney College are interested in talking with us about running some extra National 4/5 courses on a Friday afternoon, giving you 7 possible course slots.
So how do you choose?

5. Not all subjects require the knowledge from the previous year
Highers in S4 if have the skills – aim high!
N5 in S6 if change your mind or want a new skill
Encouraged to think about all 3 years when you make your choices – obviously not everyone plans to be in school for all 3 years of senior phase, but the option is there if it’s right for you, and some of you are already in S4 or S5.
This is the form you will use with your Guidance teacher to help you plan it out, and if you plan to leave after S4 or S5 you can just ignore those boxes
This is a boxy looking form – but think outside the box of school years
Don’t automatically think you can’t do a National 5 if you didn’t do the subject in S3, or can’t do a Higher if you didn’t do the subject at National 5. Obviously it will take some hard work to catch up – talk to the teachers.
Equally, there’s no rule that S6 is all about Advanced Highers. There’s no reason why you can’t do a new National 5 in S6 if you’ve got the ability – doors you think you’ve closed earlier may still be open to you.

6. ? Enjoyment Ability Opportunity So how do you choose?
Basic factors to consider – no point choosing something you don’t enjoy. Senior phase courses require you to put in a lot of work in your own time, and you will find it very hard to be motivated to do this if you don’t enjoy the subject.
Ability – we all have things in life we’d love to do, but have to accept we just don’t have the ability to do. If you saw me trying to hit a ball when we played crash mat rounders for Children in Need, you would recognise that aiming for a career in sport was bound to lead to disappointment. Your reports this term include a “recommended level for progression” which level of course your teacher thinks you would be suited to do next in their subject. Prelim results, and how you get on with class and homework will also help you decide this.
Opportunity – When you choose courses, you are opening doors for your future, and you are also closing doors. Make sure you are happy with the doors you are closing, and if you are very unsure about your future path then try to choose subjects which provide a wide range of transferable skills.

7. How not to choose… My friend’s doing it My mum said she enjoyed it
I’m not good at it, but you have to do it for the job I want
I hate it, but it looks good on your CV
I (don’t) like the teacher
It has to be your own choice, right for you.
You are not your friend
You are not your mum – and the course may well have changed since she did it, so make sure your information is up to date
If a course is essential for entering a career, those skills will be needed in the job. If you don’t like doing them in school, you probably won’t like doing them in the job – is this really the right career for you?
If you’re choosing a course to impress someone else, but your heart isn’t in it, that probably won’t be enough to sustain you when the work is getting hard
Teachers move on, things change – no guarantees they will be there next year or beyond

8. Help with choosing It’s YOUR choice! PSE lessons 1:1 interviews
Library sessions
Careers Officer
“My World of Work” website
Mrs Firth
It’s YOUR choice!

9. The process Free choice of courses
Must be signed by PT/Guidance/parent
Must be in preference order
Must meet deadline
Current S3, 5th March
Current S4/5, 23rd March
Aim to accommodate all choices (including reserve subject)
Checked by pupils after Easter holidays
Ms Hegarty
Over the last few years we have had several different ways of arranging how to optimise the number of pupils who are able to do all the subjects they want. For the last few years we have successfully used free choice as a means of S2 to S3 options, some of you will be familiar with this. The benefits of free choice are that it allows us to group together pupils from different year groups who want to do a subject at a particular level and put them together to make a class. Unfortunately with the number of classes we are able to run it is not always possible to give everyone all of the options they would prefer in one year, which is why this needs to be looked at over a longer time period.
I use a computer programme which uses algorithms to pool all the information and optimise the choices. Not subjective. The aim is to give as many people as possible the subjects they would want. Which is why the preference order is important. The programme starts at the top to give the preferred choice and then works its way through. The reserve choice will be used when it is not possible to allocate the first 6 so that most people’s choices can be accommodated.
The deadlines are different for different year groups but it is important that they are kept to as I will begin to do this the next day, it does take a while and I will need to speak to those people whose options (including the reserve) cannot be accommodated. A little after the Easter holidays all pupils will see the subjects that they will be studying next year, to make sure that they are happy with them

10. So here’s the form.
This is the S3 one, slightly different as Maths and English are essentials in S4, so they are put in first. 4 slots for the other subjects plus 1 for the reserve.
If a mistake is made and accidently the wrong order is put in, just write 1st, 2nd etc on the form.

11. Here is the S4/5 form.
Possible to leave school at this point, so boxes at the top. If you are leaving to go to college etc. there is a process so they should speak to their Guidance teacher about this as we like to know where they are going on to.
Maths and English are not essential at this point but it is always useful to get to a certain level in these subjects,

12. Good decisions are based on good information.
How not to choose…
II I What do you mean I have to do a written exam in Woodwork? I’m good at making things, not writing!
Oh no! I’m going to fail!
Good decisions are based on good information.
Don’t be like this student – make sure you have all the information you need. Use tonight to find out all the information you can and ask the teachers and college lecturers all the silly questions that come to mind.