Modern Foreign Languages

Choosing the right subjects for GCSE House Life

COMPUTERS/EMAIL

Your son/daughter will make initial GCSE choices in February so that next year’s timetable can be blocked The house computers are for academic work only. and staffing planned. They will confirm their choices at the end of this term. There is the opportunity to add Please do not tamper with any of the computer settings – if there is a problem please report it to a any supporting comments on both initial and final member of staff. option-choice forms if you feel particularly strongly about the choices that have been made. Once the final Save your work on to the school network - you will then be able to pick it up on any computer in options form is submitted, the allocation of options school - or at home! will be made based on the information supplied on the form. You may bring your own lap-top to school but it is your responsibility and you will need to look after it. Ink and paper are expensive - please do not waste them by printing out unnecessary stuff!

Once choices have been made, the College reserves the right to withdraw any courses for which there is Access to your email address and the College network: insufficient demand. We try to accommodate all subject choices within Your username for the school network will be your surname followed by your first initial. e.g. Joe Smith the prescribed framework. However, subjects are = smithj. sometimes oversubscribed and availability of staffing prevents additional classes. If this is the case, we will First and second initials are used in cases where the username is already in use by another pupil or contact you to discuss alternatives. staff member. e.g James Smith = smithja On the following pages, you will find more information Houseparents will be given a list of usernames and passwords for their pupils for the start of the about each subject, as well as some useful advice from academic year by the IT Office. the Head of Careers and Higher Education, Sharon Allmark. These will help you when weighing up the When you first arrive at the College, in order to access the system you need to log onto a school various factors involved in making the most computer. There are computers in your House, the library and the ICT rooms for you to use. appropriate choices. 1. Log in using your username and the password given to you by your Houseparent. 2. You will now need to set your own password (Please note the criteria below for setting your password). You will be asked to enter the ‘old’ password (the one given to you by your

Stephen BadgerHouseparent) in the top box. Then enter a password of your choice in the ‘new’ password box

Deputy Head (Teaching & Learning) and again in the ‘confirm’ box. 3. Passwords must not contain any part of your user name. They should be at least six characters long, there must be at least one CAPITAL letter and one number.

GCSE Reforms House Life

4. If you forget your password you can contact the IT Office for help. • All GCSE subjects are now graded and assessed using the new 9-1 structure; 5. The College has a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) facility. Please refer to the College VLE for • 9 is the highest grade, awarded to the very best candidates in the subject. The official definition of a grade-9 instructions on how to connect your device. candidate is that they will be ‘in the top 20% of those achieving grades 7-9 in the subject’;6. You will also be issued with a Printer/Copier PIN by the IT Office via your Houseparent. You will • In every subject, the content is more demanding and the assessment more rigorous than previously; need this for printers and all copiers that have a touch pad attached. • The assessment will be mainly by exam. In some subjects such as Drama and Art, other types of assessment will be used only where they are needed to test essential skills. For further information about assessment, please speak DO NOT GIVE ANYONE ELSE YOUR PASSWORD to the relevant Head of Department. Tiering of exams DAY PUPILS The new GCSEs are only split into foundation tier and higher tier if one single exam paper does not give all students the opportunity to show their knowledge and abilities. Consequently, exams are tiered in Biology, Chemistry, French, There are a few things which have relevance only to day pupils: German, Maths, Physics and Spanish. 1. Do not forget to sign out in person before you go home each day. 2. We would like our day pupils to stay on after school to socialise, take part in House activities and prep—all we ask is that you let us know each day if you are staying for the evening routines. 3. Please do not leave your belongings/home clothes around the House. 4. If you are going home with someone other than your parents you must let us know.

New grading structure

Current grading structure

9 A* 8 7 A 6 B 5 4 C 3 D 2 E F 1 G U U

9 is awarded to those pupils achieving what would currently be a top A*: perhaps at around 96%+

GOOD PASS (DfE) 5 and above = top of C and above Schools are no longer AWARDING assessed on A*-C 4 and above = bottom of C and above statistics, but on ‘9-4’ statistics. Under the updated structure, the ‘good pass’ for Maths and English is a 5, which is on the border between a C and a B under the old system.