The school is always reviewing our Year 9 pathways for Year 10 – 11 in light of changes to the Department for Education’s approval of qualifications and they have yet to make a formal decision on the courses which will be accredited for Year 10 in September 2020.

Clearly, this means we will need to make swift decisions and be able to make rapid changes to our planning. This is not ideal but it has been the world we have lived in for the last few years.

The next Year 9 Pathways Evening will take place for the current Year 9 in March 2020 and we will present our intentions there at the latest – even if the Department for Education has still not made its mind up.

Every student will be placed on well-informed and appropriate Pathway – either Purple, Red, Blue or Gold – and this will be determined by hard facts on their ability, achievements and approach over the last three years.

There will be certain principles which underpin our planning:

 All students will do Maths, English and Science as per statutory requirements.
 All students will be educated in ICT, RE and PE as per statutory requirements.
 We will pursue the E-Bacc route of Maths / English / Science / Humanities (Geography or History) / French – particularly for those students best placed to successfully undertake this route – as per statutory requirements.
 We will offer a broad and balanced range of subjects so that all students have a pathway appropriate to their ability and aspirations.
 We will seek to reduce exam stress by managing courses and assessment so that students are not overwhelmed at the end of Year 11.

Even so, we cannot guarantee which precise courses we run – even once they have already started.

However, we will only ever offer qualifications which are formally approved and so are recognised as being high-quality. This may result in us having to change courses even after students have selected subjects.

There is little we can do about this – we can either carry on with an ‘unrecognised’ course or we can switch to an approved option – and we will always choose the latter. Indeed, in recent years all schools have had to change courses / components part-way through Year 10 and Year 11 when sudden alterations have been announced.

Those students in Year 9 should already be thinking about the subjects they wish to continue with but would be best placed to wait until the Year 9 Pathways Evening on Thursday 12 March 2020 as no decision will be finalised before the DfE publish their approved courses.

Nonetheless, if you wish to enquire about Year 9 pathways then your contact would be Ian Rose, Deputy Headteacher, via office@friaryschool.co.uk.