Year 9 Information Evening

Agenda• Welcome – Miss Wren

• Achievement: English and Maths GCSE Exams – Miss Wren

• Work Experience- Miss Wren

• Pathways beyond Year 11- Miss Wren

• Reporting Tracking and Assessment - Go4Schools -

• Mrs Ager

• Attendance to Maximise Learning – Mrs Ager

• Behaviour for learning- Mrs Ager

• Final remarks – Mrs Ager

GCSE Grading

• GCSEs will be graded 1-9 in the summer of 2020

• A grade 4 is currently considered a standard pass

• A Grade 5 is currently considered a good pass

• Current thinking is that students who not achieve a Grade 5 in English and Maths will continue with these subjects until they are 18

• Grade 9 will be awarded to fewer students than the previous A*

Maths GCSE

Course Structure

•Mathematics is a linear course.

•No course work

•Examination Board – OCR (J560 series)

•8 lessons over a fortnight

Course Assessment

•Course is assessed at the end of the three year course. (Summer 2020)•Students are entered for a higher or

foundation tier.•The course is examined by way of

three written papers•2 calculator and 1 non- calculator

paper.•Each paper is for an hour and a half

Entry Guideline and Qualification

• GCSE grades are numbered 1 to 9; 1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest grade.

• Students sitting a foundation paper will be awarded a grade between 1 and 5

• Students sitting the higher paper will be awarded a grade between 4 and 9.

• Please note that Students who do not achieve a grade 5at GCSE will have to resit their GCSE Mathematics examination with whoever provides their 16 – 19 provision.

• There are no formulae given on the examination papers and students will have to remember all necessary formulae.

Revision

• Students can use mymaths to assist with their revision. The login for mymaths is copleston and the password has been given to the students.

English GCSE

Key information on the course

GCSE grades are numbered 1 to 9; 1 being the lowest

and 9 being the highest grade.

There are NO tiers of entry (all students do the same paper)

Please note that the suggested benchmark grade (equivalent

to a C grade) would be a Grade 5.

There are no texts taken in to the examination papers and students will have to remember all necessary key ideas and quotes.

English Language

There are two exams for English Language, both at the end of the course.

• 1.Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading and Creative Prose Writing.

• Candidates will be asked to read an extract from a fictional text from the 20th Century and then answer a series of questions on it.

• For the second part of the exam, candidates will be asked to do a piece of creative prose writing. There will be a choice of 4 titles.

• Students will be studying this module in the Spring term.

English Language Component 2

19th and 21st Century Non-Fiction Reading and Transactional/ Persuasive Writing.

This exam is the longer exam- 2 hours long.

Candidates will be asked to read two non-fiction extracts. One piece will be 19th century and the other will be 21st century.

They will then be given two transactional/ persuasive writing tasks to complete.

English Literature

There are 2 exams for English Literature. Both are CLOSED BOOK (i.e. no texts can be taken into the exam.)

1. Shakespeare and Poetry.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare with an extract from the play to analyse. Students will then have to respond to a more general essay question on the play. Year 9 students are currently working on this.

For the second part of the exam, there will be two questions on poems from the ‘WJEC Eduqas Poetry Anthology’. One of the questions will involve comparing poems.

Literature Component 2

2.Post-1914 Prose/ Drama, 19th Century prose and unseen Poetry

This exam is the longer one- 2 ½ hours.

Section A Post-1914 Drama:

For Section A students will study ‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell (which they have already studied in Year 9). In the exam they will be asked to analyse an extract from the play.

Section B 19th Century Prose:

For Section B students will study ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. We will be studying this text after half term.

Section C Unseen Poetry from the 20th/ 21st Century: Students will be asked 2 questions on unseen poems, one of which will involve comparison.

Warning!!

Please note that students who do not achieve a 5 grade or above at the end of Year 11 will have to continue to study English Language until they

either achieve a 5 grade or turn 18.

Revision and Support

• Students can read (and re-read) all set texts and anthology poems at home

• GCSE Bitesize

• Read non-fiction and discuss language choices

• ‘York Notes’ are fantastic and can be purchased anywhere and online

Reminder:

Our Set Texts:

‘Blood Brothers’ by Willy Russell

‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens

‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Shakespeare

Work ExperienceMrs Jenna Witting

June of 2019- Year 10

A single 2 week placement

OR two 1 week placements

Preparation for work experience will take place throughout year 10 but you can be thinking about this

sooner!

When is work experience?

How do I get work experience?1. Arrange a DIY placement with one or two different

employers. Who do you know? Complete a DIY form so that pre-placement checks can be done. You can start thinking about these

now!

2. Apply for a placement provided by the school. Only a limited number is available. Vacancies will be put on the school website in January of Year 10 and letters of application will be written in English lessons.

Applications to primary schools can only be made through us in January and we ask that pupils do not apply for vacancies to their previous primary school.

What type of work should I look for?

Any!Last year’s placements included:Mechanic, PC repair, back stage theatre, sports assistant, architect, dog grooming, teaching assistant, magistrates court, web design, pharmacist, farming, baker, accountant, barber, events, roofing, retail, charity work, advertising, construction, beautician, football club, exotic animals, engineer, hospitality, equine care, librarian, magistrates court, dentistry and gardening to name just a few!

Pathways

• Students need to start to think what they will do after they finish their GCSEs.

• All students must stay in education or training until the age of 18.

• There are many options available including Sixth Form, Suffolk College and Apprenticeships.

• Year 9 students will receive more information about all of these options this year and moving into Year 10.

• The school has a specialist careers advisor, Mrs Ladbrook, who is available on Mondays and Thursdays for students to talk to if they with to discuss their plans for the future and provide them with any support they may need.

Copleston Sixth Form

• Many of our students naturally progress into the Sixth Form at Copleston.

• Year 9 students will find out much more about the Sixth Form next year, but some of the key features are:

- Wide range of courses available to study

- Excellent outcomes for all students

- Purpose built study facilities

- Excellent care, support and guidance for students

- Outstanding track record of getting students into university, employment and Apprenticeships

- Highly Successful Basketball and Dance Academies

Go4Schools

• Benefits of Go4Schools for parents

• “Live” information about your child’s attendance at school (updated over night every day)

• Up-to-date information about your child’s progress, and their assessment results, via the online mark book

• Information about your child’s behaviour in school – rewards and sanctions (and why they have been given)

How to access Go4Schools

• Ensure that you have provided us with your current email address.

• Use that address to log in to the Go4Schools website

• Request a temporary password

• Log in with the temporary password , then change it to something you can remember

• Start accessing the site!

Attendance

Attendance

Attendance• Regular school attendance is important in order that

you reach your full potential.

• Lessons missed only serve to disrupt continuity and learning suffers as a consequence.

• Every day off, visits to the dentist or doctor and holidays in school time, result in missed learning.

• The information on the next slide is taken from the Department for Education, and demonstrates the possible impact of attendance upon attainment.

Chances of Success at GCSE

74.3

60.4

53.1

44.6

34.7

26.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

93.5 - 100% 92.5 - 93.4% 91.5 - 92.4% 90 - 91.4% 88 - 89.9% <88%

% Attendance

A*

- C

% A

ttain

men

t

You will see from the graph how drastically attendance affects attainment.

There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is no choice about the work itself.

WORK WITH YOUR TEACHERS.

You have an advantage;You attend a VERY GOOD

SCHOOLVERY GOOD SCHOOL

Key Dates

• Monday 2nd October Art Trip

• December/January Computer Science Museum Cambridge

• 5th & 6th December Christmas Dance Show

• Monday 15th January Science Exam

• Report 1: 9th February

• Thursday 1st March PSHE Future Development and Careers Day

• Thursday 8th March Y9 Parents' Evening

• 1st May Strictly Copleston

• Report 2: Friday 8th June

• Saturday 9th June Ardeche Trip- Still 8 places left!

• Thursday 21st June Celebration Evening

• 3rd, 4th & 5th July Summer dance show