Twitter

08/12/23

Happy Hannukah to the Jewish community. May this festival bring you blessings, peace, and light. pic.twitter.com/HySs2392ed

08/12/23

Today marked the end of our interhouse PE competitions the winners for each year groups are as follows:Year 7 - Newton Year 8 - Wallace Year 9 - Whitlock Year 10 - Tovey Overall winners - Wallace & Strike 🏆 Excellent effort from all house groups 🥳 pic.twitter.com/Aua9TwTWDm

08/12/23

Year 10 and 11 showcased their musical talent during the Harris Academy Ockendon Live Lounge event. Well done to all involved. pic.twitter.com/k7tB9qN3wR

04/12/23

English Literature Oxford university taster day, hosted at Harris Chobham, with 8 of our year 10/11 students! Students came away with even higher aspirations than before, after enjoying various lectures & seminars on different genres of literature. A thoroughly enjoyable day! pic.twitter.com/Bjt47OW3aw

04/12/23

Interhouse competitions have started this week in PE with year 8 starting the week off competing in dodgeball and benchball. Excellent start to the competition. Which house will take the win on Friday? 🥇🥈🥉 pic.twitter.com/FRrD80zAOu

02/12/23

Y11 walking talking their way through English Language Paper 2 with Impress the examiner. Students working hard on a Saturday, with English teachers to support. pic.twitter.com/SOXre5q9SD

29/11/23

As part of raising awareness around men's mental health, here are some conversation starters to support people to start conversations about their mental health. pic.twitter.com/b97Y3MXi9F

29/11/23

This week students had an assembly based around men's mental health. It was great to hear stories from staff from describing their challenges & how they approach self care with mental health. Giving advice to our students & exploring the stigmas around asking for help pic.twitter.com/LFVlh3H8B2

28/11/23

As celebrate birth of Guru Nanak Dev ji, founder of the faith, we can all identify with his core teachings of truth, love, gender equality, working hard for an honest living, meditating upon the One and sharing with others.Best wishes all for a blissful . pic.twitter.com/ED9nEwG0lz

25/11/23

We are delighted to offer 5 fully-funded places on the January cohort of our Sustain and Grow group coaching programme to parent-teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds.https://t.co/gAtXLJEYRZBook your place soon as these tickets will go fast!Thanks to ! pic.twitter.com/ijbAi0y3k3

23/11/23

Year 7 football girls in their new kit tonight. Winning both their Borough games. Excellent start to the season ⚽️ 🔥 pic.twitter.com/kPpWZoaNu7

22/11/23

Year 11 students engaging in the Harris experience independent learning day. pic.twitter.com/1RIxwUfUKs

17/11/23

Our year 7 boys football team in their new kit last night ⚽️🔥 pic.twitter.com/bqJTHPh5kR

12/11/23

Happy Diwali & Bandi Chhor Diwas to all celebrating. An important time to reflect on our internal light and darkness, as well as the events taking place in our world today 🪔🪔🪔 pic.twitter.com/j6PQh0Tjv9

10/11/23

colleagues can enjoy fully-funded 1:1 coaching with the . Choose from our Accreditation, Parental Leave, Return to Work or Transition coaching to support you as you start and grow your family. Find out more and sign up at https://t.co/pBZxdoXZwJ pic.twitter.com/GiwiuAMoO1

10/11/23

This morning our year 10 sports leaders had hot chocolate Friday with Ms Rainey to receive their certificates and celebrate their success over the last year on the course. Well done to all those who qualified 🎉. pic.twitter.com/dgxqb2w2dO

04/10/23

U13 girls have arrived for their Essex cup match at The Billericay School ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/ZqVg7WrhGx

03/10/23

🚨PE CLUBS / FIXTURE ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨 - Wednesday - U13 Essex Cup girls football v Billericay (Away) Thursday - Girls Football club (moved from Wednesday due to the above fixture) Friday - Rugby - all years (moved from Wednesday)

25/09/23

Excellent turn out for all years netball tonight! Over 50 students at the club. Amazing start to our netball season 🔥 pic.twitter.com/fte57ArKQ0

25/09/23

🚨 P.E CLUB ANNOUNCEMENT this week 🚨 - Monday - All years girls netballWednesday - All years boys rugby 🏉 All years girls football ⚽️ Thursday - Years 7 boys football ⚽️ If you have any questions please see a member of the P.E department.

Harris Academies
All Academies in our Federation aim to transform the lives of the students they serve by bringing about rapid improvement in examination results, personal development and aspiration.

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Willesden

Year 9 Options

For those students in Yr 9, they are entering a vital phase of their education when they need to be making choices about what to study for the next two years. The choices they make will be amongst the most important decisions in their school career and will have an impact on the rest of their life. Subjects they choose to study may well lead to an A Level, university degree, career or lifelong passion.

There are some subjects that students must continue to study but there is not enough time to continue with all the subjects from Key Stage 3 to Key Stage 4.  Therefore, they will have to make some decisions about what they continue studying.

When making these decisions they need to find a balance between which subjects they enjoy, which will allow them to achieve highly in, and which will make them best suited to progress towards both further study and career aspirations.

It’s important that students do not make the mistake of choosing a subject because their friends are choosing it or just because they like a specific teacher. They should use the results of their Unifrog careers questionnaires and the Options booklet to make an informed decision that is best for them so that they can be the best they can be.

What is the process for picking options?

Students begin this process by showing perfect effort in all of their lessons, which gives them an idea of which subjects they may enjoy and will excel at. Their report data and feedback from teachers at parents evening also helps with this. However, there are some specific things that students need to do to ensure they pick the correct options.

STEP 1: Unifrog

Complete the Unifrog questionnaires. This generates an independent profile report, which highlights different areas of interest to them, such as caring for others, working in a scientific or mathematical environment, and jobs which require physical activity. All year 9 students are able to access their results via Unifrog. 

STEP 2: Attend the Live Assembly

Students have a live assembly in the Spring 1 term that will explain the options process and provide them with advice and guidance. They must attend this assembly as it will confirm the specific dates and times for the next steps.

STEP 3: Attend a taster lesson

If students are interested in studying a brand-new subject such as Business, Sociology or Health and Social Care, they have the opportunity to sign up to a taster lesson to see what it is like before making a decision. 

STEP 4: Report and Parents Evening

It is very important that students study their Unifrog report and their academic achievement report to compare their preferences, attainment and attitude to learning in different subjects. This will give them a good indication of their suitability to take the subject at GCSE level.

Students and parents/carers should attend parents evening to discuss their report with subject teachers and ask them any questions regarding taking the subject at Key Stage 4.

Students may want to ask them questions such as: Am I suited to study this subject at GCSE? How is studying this course at GCSE different to studying it at KS3? What would I need to do to get a grade 7+ or Distinction in this course?

STEP 5: Choose the courses you want to study

It is then time to choose the courses they want to study:

TIPS WHEN CHOOSING THE COURSES

  • Talk to their subject teachers
  • Talk to their tutor
  • Discuss choices with parents/carers at home
  • Talk to older students about their experiences
  • Talk to their Achievement Leader or Mr Senior
  • Think about the careers guidance and advice they have received

AND REMEMBER:

  • Always choose courses that they enjoy and feel they can do well in.
  • Never choose a course because their friends are doing it. This is their choice about their education for the next two years.
  • Do not select or reject a course because of a particular teacher.  It will not be known who will be teaching that subject next year. 

STEP 6: Choose Preferred Courses

We will do our best to ensure that students are given their preferred courses, but this cannot always be guaranteed. We also may not be able to offer all the options if there are not enough students who choose that option.

It is therefore essential that students select four subjects in order of preference on the option form.  Remember that one choice must be History or Geography.

STEP 7: Complete the options digital form

Parents/carers will be emailed a link to a Year 9 Options electronic form. This is how students inform the school of which options they would like to take for GCSE, and other subjects that they will be more than willing to take if they do not get their first choice.

Parents/carers and students should discuss what choices are best before completing the form together.

STEP 8: Options Meeting

Once students have selected their options, they will also have the opportunity to discuss their choices through an interview with a senior member of staff. These interviews take place during the Spring 2 term.