Welcome from the Co-Headteachers

Dear Student,

This part of the school website is designed to support you in making key decisions for your curriculum choices for GCSE and Vocational courses. Here at North Chadderton School, we are very proud of the support we offer our learners at every point during their time with us, from our Transition Days at the end of Year 6 right through to results days in August at the end of Year 11 and on to Post 16 destinations. The Pathways process, which marks the end of Key Stage 3, and the start of Key Stage 4 is one of the most crucial points in that journey. 

The school has prepared you over time for Key Stage 4 and you have spent Year 9 laying the foundations for GCSE success so that every moment of learning time is maximised. We ensure that you are as well-equipped as possible, and we know that North Chadderton students go on to achieve success in their GCSEs.

Our Key Stage 4 offer comprises a wide range of GCSE and Vocational courses which, together with core PE, and our Personal Development Programme, forms an educational offer which enables students to prepare for their later lives, learn transferrable skills and develop further into well rounded, knowledgeable, and skilled individuals. 

Our recommendation is to take a broad and traditional range of subjects through to GCSE with the option to specialise at post 16 with academic and vocational choices in the best setting for you. You will see from these pages and by attending our Pathways information Evening that there is an excellent range of choices available.

We recommend that, wherever possible, all our students study the English Baccalaureate. This a group of GCSE subjects that are highly regarded by universities for their courses of study, and employers. This "EBacc" suite of qualifications includes academic subjects highly valued by the Russell Group of elite universities, and it includes taking a language and a humanities subject, as well as the core subjects of English Literature and English Language, Mathematics and the sciences. In addition to these, you can take other subjects from the range available.

The next two years will be challenging, and there will be great demands placed upon your time, so when considering subjects, we encourage you to research them thoroughly, to speak to the teachers who are specialists in delivering them, to consult our range of information materials which the information on these pages form part of, and to attend our Pathways to Success Evening. You should choose subjects you will enjoy devoting time and energy to and have the greatest chance of success as well as keeping in mind the opportunities for further study and the career pathways which each one potentially leads to. 

We plan our curriculum around the subjects you wish to choose and so we ask for an indication of intention during Year 9 so that every student’s needs are met as fully as possible. We aim for small classes at GCSE and so we can build further upon the personalised support you already receive at North Chadderton. We know you well and you know us. There are strong relationships between school and home, which have been built up over your time at this school. Please make sure that you talk with your teachers, about making the right choices based upon your strengths and your future plans.

We will support you all throughout the options process to ensure you make the right choices based on your strengths and future plans. 

We would like to wish everyone all the very best over the next two years.

N Westhead                        N Angus

Miss N Westhead          Mr N Angus

Co-Headteachers