Year 9 Futures Zone
- Home
- Students and Parents
- Year 9 Futures Zone
Year 9 Futures Zone
The Year 9 Options Process
At MEA Central our vision is a ‘fantastic future for all.’ The bedrock of our vision is excellent academic results, and we deliver a challenging, knowledge-rich curriculum to prepare students not only for the new GCSE assessment regime but also further education and life beyond.
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum values the arts, technology and physical activity and prepares our students to ‘meet every citizen as an equal’. The choices students will make about the subjects they wish to study at Key Stage 4 will support their continued accelerated progress and deliver excellent results in 2026.
We expect our students to meet our high expectations in terms of commitment and work ethic, but we also seek to ignite their intellectual passions and curiosities so that they become autonomous, fulfilled learners during their time with us.
Over the next month, students should reflect on these passions and strengths. They will learn about effective decision making in their Social and Cultural Capital lessons and have an opportunity to meet one-to-one with their ‘Futures Coach,’ to discuss their choices.
Parents can support their child over the next month by discussing their future ambitions and interests and helping them to identify their talents and aptitudes. It is important to remember, however, that no career or future study will be limited by the choices students make at Key Stage 4. This is simply the next, new and exciting step.
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects include further academic subjects which the government encourage as many students as possible to study in order to access a broad curriculum. In order for students to access some further education or university courses in the future, students are expected to have achieved a strong pass (grade 5 or above) in the core and EBacc subjects. The full EBacc Suite of subjects include Science, a Language and either History or Geography alongside the core Maths and English subjects.
We are asking students to make choices based on subjects they enjoy and are succeeding in. Following the completion of the option process, we will decide the best qualification route.
This will be one of the following:
- GCSE graded 1 - 9
- Cambridge National Vocational Qualification (equivalent to one GCSE)
- Vocational Certificate (equivalent to one GCSE)
How are students allocated to choices?
We will ensure all students are allocated choices based on what is the most suitable pathway for them on an individual basis. There are however some requirements for students to meet in order to be allocated certain subjects.
The following data is taken into consideration when decisions are made:
Students' attendance to school and punctuality to lessons. All students should strive to have above 96% attendance
- Attitude to learning and behaviour data
- Evidence of students working hard in their chosen subjects and living our values of ‘hard work’ and ‘participation’
- In addition to the this, there are some additional entry requirements for Triple Science and Computer Science as stated above. To gain access to Triple Science students should be achieving 70% in Big Test in Science. For Computer Science, students should be achieving 70% in Maths. Please be assured that we will place your child in the pathway which will lead them to their fantastic futures.
As always, we thank you for the continued support you provide for the school and your child. We look forward to supporting your child make the best choices.
Download key documents below