This is perhaps the most important moment in your school career at Stewards. Of course, the day you joined in year 7 is very important and the time when you take your GCSEs at the end of year 11 is very important. However, the decisions you make in year 9 about which subjects to take in key stage 4 will influence your final two years at Stewards and what comes afterwards for you. It is crucial that you get your choices right for you. Not for your friends or anyone else, but for you. What do you want to do after you leave in the summer of 2026? Which subjects are you going to enjoy the most in years 10 and 11 so that you work hardest in them and achieve the most success? How do you make sure you have the right combination of subjects to open as many doors as possible after year 11?

This is your options process, and we are all here to do all we can to help you make the right choices. Starting with the options evening on Monday 25^th November, this is an important time, and we look forward to working with you to make the right choices for you.

There are some important changes to the way that the options process is being organised at Stewards Academy this year. Whilst the outcome will be the same as in previous years because in September 2025 you will have a full timetable made up of the compulsory and optional courses for key stage 4, the process and the curriculum have both undergone some changes which we are very confident will deliver a better experience for our students both as they choose and then once they have chosen.

The process

We are starting much earlier than before, with the first Year 9 Options Evening on Monday 25^th November. This is the chance you have to find out about the courses and then make your first draft round of choices. To be absolutely clear, the choices you make in December are not your final choices. They are to help us to organise the timetable and groupings as efficiently as possible for September 2025 by building our final options offer around what you, as a year group, have shown us are your choices. You can change when the final options process happens in the spring.

The curriculum

The overall subjects on offer remain the same as in previous years, but you have a lot more flexibility. You are required to do English, maths and science as GCSE courses, and there will be non-examined courses such as PE and Ethics & Values. However, beyond that, you have a free choice of four options.

Helping you make your choices

Every student will have an options interview with a member of the senior leadership team or house leadership team between their first round of options choices in December and the final choices in March. There will also be a year 9 parents’ evening where you can talk to subject teachers about your options as well as your overall progress.

The final decisions

You will make online choices first in December as previously explained, and we will use this to build the options blocks. We will then come back to you in March for you to make your final options choices from the blocks that we will have created in order to ensure we can deliver the courses you want as efficiently as possible when we build the new timetable for September 2025.

Changing your mind!

You are allowed to change your mind on options choices from the day you start year 10 in September 2025 through to the end of the first half-term in October. At that point, your subjects will be locked in through to the end of year 11. Remember that the December process is the introduction of the trial run. It does not set your choices in stone. It helps us if not all of you change completely between December and March, but your December choices are just an initial indication of your plans.

The new options videos

New for this year are short videos made by each subject where teachers introduce their subjects to you. Subject leaders across the school have been producing these over the last few weeks ready for Monday 25^th November, and we will share how to access them via an email on Arbor. We are confident these will prove helpful to you as you think about your choices. They are to be viewed alongside this booklet so you have as much information as you can.

Options Timeline Part 1

Year 9 Options Information Evening: Monday 25^th November 2024

Online Options Choices system opens: Monday 2^nd December 2024

Online Options choices system closes: Friday 13^th December 2024