KS4 (GCSE and Vocational) Options 2024/2025

With students now approaching the end of Key Stage 3, they will shortly embark on their Key Stage 4 (GCSE and Vocational) journey with us at Workington Academy. We will  support our families through this process to ensure that each student can both enjoy and achieve their full potential at the end of year 11 and beyond.

This year we have combined our progress evening with our options evening to streamline the process and to enable more individualised advice and guidance to be given. These evenings are on Wednesday 13^th and Wednesday 20^th of March. You will be invited to attend one of these via letter and email. During the evening, we would like to welcome you into the Academy to explore all the options available alongside your son/daughter to help them make this important decision. The evening will include an information and guidance presentation, opportunities to visit departments, discuss subjects with teaching staff via appointments and ask any questions you have of the staff available on the evening. There are two presentations, one at 3.50pm and one at 6.05pm please attend one of these talks to receive the key details.

Students in year 9 will also be given lots of information on our Key Stage 4 curriculum during form time, assemblies and taster lessons. All students also have access to Unifrog which will enable them to explore their career options and subjects relating to specific careers or further educational routes. In addition to this information they will be able to attend taster lessons for some of the subjects with which they are unfamiliar.

Students are able to arrange a meeting with a qualified careers advisor if they wish to seek further advice. This can be requested via Mrs McAllister or Mr Simpson, alternatively the local career advisory service, Inspira, will be available at the GCSE Information Evening.

Please do spend time with your son/daughter discussing the subjects which they enjoy and feel that they would like to study further at Keystage 4. Below is an outline of the KS4 Curriculum which is arranged in to a pathway system to ensure students are selecting subjects appropriate to their academic prior attainment. Please note that you will be asked to choose a second choice subject as a backup option, however unlike many other schools, we at Workington Academy build our curriculum and timetable around our students rather than give options blocks. As a result of this, last year 98% of our students were able to pursue their first choices*.

Within school, we are making every effort to support our students in their decision-making and the Options Evening is an opportunity to gain as much information as possible about the subjects, course content and delivery styles available to your child.

There are three possible pathways for students through the options process. These are designed to ensure a realistic and appropriate choice of courses is made.

PATHWAY 1

Pathway 1 students will follow the English Baccalaureate pathway which requires them to study English Language, English Literature, Maths, Science, Geography or History and a Modern Foreign Language (French or German).  Students will then have one free choice from the list of subjects. Within pathway 1 a group of students will be selected to study triple science.

PATHWAY 2

Students on this pathway will study a core of English Language, English Literature, Maths and Science.  They must also choose one from the following four subjects: Geography, History, French or German.  They will then have two further free option choices.

PATHWAY 3

Students on this pathway will study a core of English Language, English Literature, Maths and Science. They must also choose one from the following four subjects: Geography, History, French or German.  They will then have two further option choices from a list of vocational subjects.

Each parent will receive a letter containing the pathway their son/daughter has been allocated to. This year students will be able to select their options online using a platform called Applicaa+, students will receive an email after the options information evening. They will select 4 subjects and then be able to rank them. Following their submission parents are able to authorise these choices before they are submitted to the school. The initial deadline for completing this process is Tuesday 9th April

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss the options process or pathways further, please contact either Mr Simpson (Deputy Headteacher) or Mr Sewell (Director of Learning) via email.

Students who are most happy and successful in Years 10 and 11 are those who have considered their choices with care.