11 Plus Exams Forum

Can anyone let me know the options system at Colchester country high school. Which subjects are compulsary at GCSE, do all girls take triple science or is double science an option? Do they have to take "ebac" subjects and how many free options are there?
I appreciate it may change, but just to give us an idea.

This is how I think it runs, DD (yr9) is at ballet so without her wisdom...

Compulsory;
English Lang (yr 10), English Lit, Maths (yr 10), Statistics, Religious Studies (yr10), Physics, Chemistry, Biology. I don't believe double science is an option

Options;

1 from History or Geography
1 from French or German
2 from the rest - Drama, Art, Psychology, Spanish, Latin, Dance (not offered this year has been previously) and some others - can't remember what else, or the either of the options not chosen above so you could choose Geography if you chose History above.

They also do an ICT qualification in yr 9, and CCT in yr 10.

They brightest also get to do a further Extension project equivalent to half a GCSE.

Having re-read this I think I may be missing a compulsory one for some reason thought DD has 9.

Hope that helps.

Why do they do some early when all the research shows this is not good?

The other compulsory subject is probably critical thinking.

As to "all the evidence shows this is not good", obviously not all the evidence points that way - but that should be a discussion on a different thread otherwise we'd end up derailing the OP...

aang - why do you think that Ofsted are asking about early entry and critcising schools who do this?

Do all girls get A*s in Year 10?

This is relevant to the OP's question because parents should be challenging the school on this.

Thanks for that djy76 .A couple more questions
Is the CCT - critical thinking?

And does Gcse PE have to be taken as an option or is in done in the mandatory PE time?

Its looking like her preferred options of spanish, music, pe and latin are not all going to be possible.

Indeed CCT is creative and critical thinking.

PE GCSE is done in addition to the general PE lessons.

At present your DD could do 2 of the options she is interested in, she will be asked to rank three (my DD put Dance as number 2 but not enough other people wanted to do it we are told so she has her 1st and 3rd choice) although of course the way they offer options may change.

Thanks. Yes it will be interesting to see if anything changes, they introduced spanish (admittedly only 1 lesson a week) mid way through year 8 so I wonder if it will go into the French / German box in future? Dd did Spanish at primary and has always wanted to continue it. This gives us an idea though, with exam results currently coming in she is starting to talk sbout which subjects to take and drop.