Nower Hill High School
Y9 (2009-2010) IMPORTANT DATES
FOR GCSE CHOICES IN Y10 & Y11 2010-2012
GCSE Courses Booklet 2010-2012
Year 9 Key Stage 4 Courses Programme
2010 – 2012
During this term we will be working with you and your sons and daughters to prepare them for their Key Stage 4 Courses, which start September 2010.
As part of this preparation we invite you to a Parents’ Meeting on Wednesday 10th February 2010, at 7:00 pm, in the School Hall to explain the Learning Pathways process and to input relevant subject information.
Your son/daughter will receive a copy of the Key Stage 4 Course Brochure 2010 2012 during the day on Wednesday 10th February 2010 when they too will receive the Learning Pathways presentation.
An Individual Learning Pathways form will be issued to your son/daughter with the course brochure. This should be completed to indicate your son/daughter’s subject requests. These must be returned on the following dates:-
Register Numbers 1 to 13: Monday 8th March 2010
Register Numbers 14 to 26: Monday 15th March 2010
To further aid your decision making, we invite you to meet staff at the scheduled parent/teacher consultation evenings where discussions on your son/daughter’s progress can take place. Dates as follows:-
Register Numbers 1 to 13 inclusive:Thursday 4th March 2010
Register Numbers 14 to 26 inclusive:Wednesday 10th March 2010
As usual an appointment system will be used and because of the numbers involved, I would ask you to restrict each interview to five minutes. The home/school diary should be used to note the times of the interviews. Please bring your child’s latest tracking data sheet to the meeting with you to help inform discussions.
Please acknowledge receipt of this information by signing the appropriate entry in your child’s diary.
We look forward to working with you closely at this important stage of your son/daughter’s education and trust you will be able to attend these events.
Mrs Gill May
Assistant Headteacher Pupil Support
September 2010 – Any pupil wishing to change course must apply to do so – with a letter in writing from his/her parent/carer addressed to Mr Livesey, before:- End September 2010.
* If we are unable to allocate any pupils preferences, for example if a course is not running due to insufficient numbers, we will see any pupils concerned and make sure parents are informed. If you do not hear anything from us you can safely assume that all preferences have been allocated.
LATE FORMS WILL TAKE LOWEST PRIORITY IN THE EVENT OF A COURSE BEING OVERSUBSCRIBED.
HOW TO DECIDE ON YOUR PREFERENCES
It is important that, with the help and advice of parents and staff, all pupils should consider carefully the consequences of their choices and their motives for choosing subjects. The choice of subjects and the decision to discontinue some subjects may have important implications for future careers. Pupils who have specific career or job groups in mind must ensure that they are selecting the subjects they will need. Further guidance and advice on this matter can be obtained from our careers specialist. Many of our pupils have very little idea of their future careers at this stage and we advise them to select as broad a range of subjects as possible.
When selecting subjects, pupils should consider the following: -
Interest: Pupils should choose subjects, which are likely to maintain their interest throughout the course.
Ability and Aptitude: Every course requires different types of degrees of skill, talent or ability. Those subjects which pupils have achieved success in already are more likely to be those which will gain pupils examination success at 16.
Teachers: Pupils should not choose a subject simply to be with a favourite teacher. There is no guarantee that they will be in a class with any particular teacher as the timetable changes each year.