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The Year 9 Options Process at Garden International School

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Year 9 students at Garden International School (GIS KL) are currently facing their first big decision point in their education: choosing their IGCSE subjects for the next academic year. To help guide them through this process, we have implemented a few key steps to ensure that each student makes informed and confident choices.

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All Year 9s choose 3 subjects, with 2 more in reserve, in case their first choices do not fit into the timetable. To aid in this decision-making process, we offer Taster sessions for all IGCSE subjects over two weeks to give students a glimpse into what each subject entails and to help them determine which ones they would be most interested in and successful in...and those they might be better off not choosing! Furthermore, a specific Options Parent Discussion evening guides parents through to process from start to finish and an Options-focused Parent Teacher Conference (PTC) allows parents and students to ask questions directly to subject teachers about their suitability.

Options Timeline



We encourage students to base their choices on both their passions and potential. For example, if they love computers, they should consider Computer Science or IGCSE ICT. On the other hand, if they are currently excelling in history, they may want to consider choosing history as an option.

To ensure that all students are well-prepared for their next steps in education, students follow a minimum complement of 8.5 IGCSEs, which provides more than the minimum requirement for access to any institution. The average successful Oxbridge applicant applies with 8 or 9 GCSEs (UniGuide UK) However, some students will sit more exams, such as those who do early-entry languages (in Year 9) or if they are on the Fast-Track maths course. All students will have a core curriculum that includes English, maths and coordinated science, and some students who opt for Separate Science will study biology, physics and chemistry separately, receiving 2 lessons a week of each. However, this does represent one of their Options choices.

All students will also have 1 lesson of Social and Emotional Learning and 1 lesson of physical education each week, to ensure we continue to nurture our learners socially, emotionally and physically. The Options selection process is now live via our website shared with our learners, and students have already begun to sign in and choose their subjects. They choose their three Options in order of preference, adding 2 reserves. The deadline is the 6th of February, and there is time available in tutor groups to make the choices. Parents and students are encouraged to watch the videos of each subject on the Options site shared with our families and should discuss which subjects are most interesting, considering those where they are likely to enjoy the lessons and therefore, succeed most as the best choices.

The upcoming Options-focused Parent/Teacher Conference (PTC) is designed to allow parents and students to ask questions directly to the teachers about their subjects, having watched the videos, to help make the final decisions.  Students then receive 121 conversations with a school leader about their Options to discuss how they came to make their decisions to ensure those selected are indeed chosen for the right reasons, and to ensure they will be happy and successful over the next two years.

Finally, we understand that sometimes students may need to make changes to their selections, so we have a 4-week window at the start of their Year 10 to make any necessary adjustments. However, once the Options blocks are set up, it may not be possible to change to any subject as classes may be full, or in a different block, hence providing such a thorough process in the first place.

In summary, we see IGCSEs as "tickets" to the next level of education. They are highly desirable globally, providing excellent access to IB schools, A-Levels courses and the world of work, should a student choose not to go on to further study. At GIS, students need to achieve a minimum of 6B grades or better to gain entry to our sixth form and study A-Levels. Our IGCSE programme is in essence, preparation for the demands of our world-class sixth form, which is itself specially designed to provide the best opportunities to access any universities the world over, and helps to prepare our learners for the world beyond education. 

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Location: Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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