Curriculum Choices

Welcome to the Year 9 Curriculum Choices Process for 2024!

Parents Evening – Thursday 19th January: A chance to see how your child is progressing in each subject.

Curriculum Evening – 1st February: The system for making those choices will be explained and the Key Stage 4 Curriculum Booklet will be distributed to parents during the evening and can be found downloaded from this web-page. Parents and students also have the opportunity to speak to Curriculum leaders, looking at work of older students completing these courses to allow students to make well informed decisions about their future learning.

Year 9 Careers & Aspirations PD Day – 9th February: This day has been carefully put together to allow students to deepen their understanding of option subjects and potential career pathways.

Mentoring Day – 22nd February: A chance for parents, students, and the tutor to discuss what sort of subjects best suit the student’s interests and what they want to do in the future. There will also be a careers fair with a wide range of local college and training providers present for you to have conversations with your child about their future beyond ALNS.

Deadline – 4th March: Deadline for option choices to be completed.

Introduction

This is a very important and exciting time as students will shortly be making choices about the subjects that they wish to study next year. Picking the right combination of subjects is not easy. In some circumstances compromises must be made although we try our best to give students the subjects they want to study.

The aim of our Key Stage 4 curriculum is to provide students with the curriculum they need to enable them to be both successful and fully prepared for the next stage of their education, employment, or training. We hope this page will provide lots of information about each subject and links to possible future careers.

The Curriculum Process

First, have a read through the below documents/pages to help you get some ideas as to where you would like to go.

Your Options

Learn more about all the subjects on offer!

Decision Time

Once you’ve made up your mind, read through the pathway booklet and understand the restrictions as to what subjects you can and cannot take together, click the button below to submit your options choices!

Note that once you submit the form, your choices are final and cannot be changed except in exceptional circumstances

You should also understand that whilst we try our very best to get everyone into their first choices, it is not always possible and you  may end up with one of your other choices.

Purple Pathway

The Purple Pathway provision is our traditional academic pathway. Students study the Core subjects (including Double Award Science) a Language, a Creativity* subject and 2 further choices from the available options and they study these over Years 10 and 11.

Green Pathway

The Green Pathway provision is like the Purple Pathway, but it has a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) focus. Students study the Core subjects (including separate GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics), a Language, a Creativity* subject and 1 further choice from the available options and they study these over Years 10 and 11.

Silver Pathway

The Silver Pathway provision is also similar to the Purple pathway in that students study the Core subjects (including Double Award Science), a Creativity* subject and 2 further choices from the available options and they study these over Years 10 and 11. The difference for the Silver pathway is that students do not continue to take a Language GCSE. In its place the students work toward a portfolio-based Level 1 course in Personal & Social Effectiveness. This course supports students to develop themselves and their own performance, to develop their abilities in working with others and problem solving.