GCSE option video transcript

Captions are for the video shown on our GCSE support for SEND school age children page.

Caption: CXK inspiring people to thrive. Year 9 GCSE option choices. cxk.org

A member of staff is walking through a field explaining GCSE options.

"Hello there, my name is Chris I'm your careers advisor with CXK. I thought I'd take you for a little bit of a walk through the Kent countryside whilst talking to you. So today we're going to be looking at year 9 GCSE choices. Now some schools of course make their GCSE choices in around about year 8, but a lot of schools make their GCSE choices in year 9. Now you've got to make some choices about what you want to take, so first of all just a few basics as we've looked at in previous videos on the CXK Youtube channel.

The age at which you should know what you want to do, well there isn't one okay. The majority of all of us young people and us when we were uh younger, we have no idea what we want to do for most of us until we're closer to around about 30. This is absolutely normal, so if you're there in year 9 and are going 'oh what am I supposed to be doing with my life? What choices? What career should I be doing?' actually it's really really normal to not know okay. You're on the start of a journey, hence this metaphorical walk here.

So, you're entering what we call the explorative phase and that is the phase of your life where you start to explore what it is that you could do, and what you could do and you did. You'll find you'll do those different things to help you test out these ideas in terms of what you could do. It starts from around about the age of 13, 12 to 13 roughly and you start to try out lots of different things. One of those ways that you try things out is choosing your GCSE options, and having a go at set of subjects to see if any of them interest you or things related to them interest you in your future. Sometimes of course you choose your subjects just because you enjoy them, that's also absolutely fine. So you start off that journey okay, and you'll be trying out lots of different things to try out whether you like these things.

What do you have to be careful of though then if you don't have to know what you want to do right? Now of course a few of you may have some ideas about what you want to do when you're older, and that too is also fine. Your ideas might change but your ideas might not change that's also fine. What to be aware of with choosing subjects okay? So a couple of basic bits just to be careful of, for the majority of your subjects what you choose now won't have a detrimental effect if you get it wrong okay, that's the most important bit the words. The bits where you have to be careful of are things like modern foreign languages, because if you don't choose them now and then later on down the line after year 11 when you get into sixth form or college, you decide you want to do something with modern foreign languages and you haven't chosen them now it's really hard to pick that up again later.

With things like your art subjects, however if you don't do art now as well and then down the line you decide you want to be an architect or something like that and you haven't taken art, then you can catch up with it later, so you could go to college to catch up with your art later but you'll find that you'll have to start lower down or resit your studies if you haven't chosen art and that might affect what you can do alongside that as well depending on the college or sixth form you're looking at so you have to be careful with that.

Same with the other art subjects as well so things like drama, things like music, if you decide not to take them now you can pick them up later but it will affect how you can pick the most you might have to reset the equivalent of doing your GCSEs again, through doing lower level courses at college first before you can go or go onwards.

For everything else, other bits to be careful of, history and geography the humanities subjects, if you don't pick those or you haven't picked those and you decide you want to do those at a sixth form later, which is generally where you go and study them for a bit later. If you haven't chosen them now for your for year 9 GCSE choices, if you've got those as a choice then around about some yeah it depends where you are in the county, but some sixth forms would still let you want to go and study them but they're not as many as they used to be. But a lot of sixth forms would have preferred you to have already studied those for GCSEs, so there are ways around it but the opportunities are limited if you haven't chosen them. So if you think you might want to do something with your history or geography, make sure you pick it now okay. Just be mindful of that.

For things like the sciences you have to take those, so that's kind of out there but if you have the option to do triple science, if that's one of the choices that you've got along the lines then, yep pick it up if you want to go into something to do with science or engineering later because that can be helpful. For things like your maths and English of course you have to take those, they're the underpinning foundations for all the careers that are out there, so be mindful of that.

If you're looking at your tech subjects so things like food tech or you're looking at engineering, if you don't take them now you can still carry on with them at college, you know so if you decided not to take it now but then later when you want to go and pick it up you can pick those up at college or through apprenticeships later after year 11. But if you do take them now it gives you a good opportunity to try them out to see whether they're for you, so that's why some students take them.

Now of course if you get stuck with your options choices do seek out help and support, so first of all if you want to find out what a subject is like talk to the teachers who are teaching it, they'll be able to tell you what's involved with the curriculum. Find out whether it's coursework with the exam space, what's the actual subject going to be like. Don't make any assumptions about the subjects that'll be one of my top tips, because the subjects will be different when you study them to a higher level, so find out how they're actually going to be taught and what's actually involved in those subjects. Don't assume - that's a real biggie, so some important guidance there with that one.

Also think about how you're choosing your subjects, don't necessarily choose a subject because you like or don't like a certain teacher, so you might avoid subjects because you don't like the teacher or you might choose the subject because you like the teacher you can't guarantee that that teacher will be teaching you next year, so be mindful of that as well. Also likewise be mindful if you're choosing a subject because your friend's choosing it, imagine if you end up having to do a subject with you, you pick up a subject because you're doing it because your best mate's doing it, but actually you really really hate that subject, how happy are you going to be and how useful is that really going to be for your future? So just have a bit of a think about it and see what's right for you there.

Okay so I hope this little video helps. Hope it gives you a few top tips on your journey as you're starting to try things out. Do check out the CXK website, because on there as loads of useful blogs, which can help you with your choosing your year 9 choices. But also check out our YouTube channel because on there you'll find further vlogs, a bit like this that will help you with some other careers information.

Anyhow I wish you all the best stay safe and stay well all the best"

Caption: CXK. Inspiring people to thrive. cxk.org