Time To Make Your GCSE Choices - Our Comprehensive Guide Offers The Best Possible Support

Tollbar Academy Year 9 students get advice on their GCSE Options as Options Fortnight begins at the Academy today.

Choosing which subjects to study for GCSE can be easier for some but a daunting process for others. Tollbar Academy has created a comprehensive guide which launches online today and brings together students, parents/carers and teachers in a partnership to help our Year 9 students make the right decisions for them and for their futures.

Following a year when all of our face-to-face contact has been curtailed by the pandemic, the Academy is hosting a substantial online suite of information and resources to help students make well-informed choices that meet their future needs. During the next fortnight we have timed our Year 9 Parents Evenings and subject reports to coincide with this online platform to enable best-possible decision making. 

Our Key Stage 4 options provide students with the opportunity to study a broad and balanced, knowledge-led curriculum with a clear emphasis on academic rigour and excellence.

Victoria Watts, Interim Principal at Tollbar Academy, explained: “In a challenging year we have not rushed this options process. We have provided extra time for students to reflect and think about their current subjects and future options, and students have had longer to talk to their subject teachers about this.”

To access our comprehensive Year 9 Options guide, go to our Key Stage 4 Options section on this website. This includes the Options Booklet, which is a guide outlining the options process, decision-making factors, frequently asked questions and post-16 pathways, as well as detailed overviews of the curriculum subjects taught in Key Stage 4.

In addition to this, introductory presentations from Curriculum Leaders about each qualification are available to view. These are important to see, particularly for those subjects that your child may not have studied previously.

A summary of the Options process and how to select choices is also included in this area in order to aid parents/carers and Year 9 students with the online procedure which needs to be followed to submit your choices.

Victoria Watts added: “We encourage students and parents/carers alike to actively engage with us over the next two weeks so that together we can facilitate choices that are best suited to every Year 9 student.”

Year 9 students discuss GCSE options.