Key Stage 4 comprises Years 10 and 11, the time when most students are aged from fourteen to sixteen. Unlike many educational systems, the English one has a set of external examinations at the end of Year 11. They are General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, or GCSEs as they are usually known. In reality they hark back to a time when many students left education at the age of sixteen. Within the English system, however, they still have a serious role to play as a selection tool for admission to some schools’ Sixth Forms, and they are used by many high-ranking British universities as one of the criteria by which they discriminate between students. For example, it is unlikely that anyone going through the English system and seeking admission to Oxbridge or places like Imperial or LSE would have much chance of gaining an offer of a place without having at least 7 or 8 of their GCSE grades at A*.
GCSEs are graded from A*-G, with grades A*-C being regarded as “pass” grades for the purposes of university entrance.
Our GCSE curriculum is made up of a “core” which everyone studies, based on mathematics, English, science and a modern foreign language. Depending on the actual combination of subjects they are examined in within this “core”, together with their three “optional” subjects, most students will take nine or ten subjects to GCSE.
The Core Curriculum for GCSE at BISR
Mathematics and English
There are no choices about whether to take maths or English. Everyone has to do so. We anticipate that everyone will take English and English Literature to GCSE level, although it may transpire that there are some students for whom English Literature will not be a sensible option. This group will be identified in the light of experience during Year 10 by their teachers and the senior staff.
Science
We believe that everyone should continue to take all three sciences to GCSE level. There is a choice about how this can be done.
EITHER you can opt to take three sciences through the co-ordinated science course. This counts as two GCSE passes. It is a perfectly adequate preparation for A level courses. The latter are based on the assumption that students taking A level biology, chemistry and physics will have studied co-ordinated science to the age of 16, ie GCSE. The overwhelming majority of A level science students, whether in state or independent schools, will have taken co-ordinated science as their GCSE qualification. If you take this course, you will be taught biology, chemistry and physics as separate subjects. It is the way in which the subject is examined that gives it its “co-ordinated science” label.
OR you can alternatively opt to take your science courses as three separate examinable subjects from the start of Year 10. You will be allocated exactly the same time for this as if you were taking the co-ordinated science course.
The School will be the ultimate arbiter of who takes science as three separate science GCSE examinations. This is because the three separate science courses contain rather more material than the co-ordinated science course. You therefore have to be more dedicated and, arguably, slightly more able to cope with the demands of the separate science courses as GCSE subjects. Contrary to much misconception, you are at no disadvantage at A level or in terms of university entrance – anywhere – if you take co-ordinated science rather than three separate sciences. This is the fundamental reason that we have decided to offer the Co-ordinated and three separate science courses as an alternative based on the same amount of curricular time. It is in everyone’s interests to maintain a degree of breadth in their education up to the age of sixteen, rather than skewing things by spending a disproportionate amount of time on one subject area.
Modern Foreign Language
It ought to be clear in an international school environment that studying another language to GCSE level besides your own is a prerequisite of a rounded academic education. (Because we are a “British”, English-medium school, we make the pragmatic assumption that everyone’s “first” language is English.) There are choices to be made here. They will be dependent upon your prior linguistic experience. In other words, you could not ordinarily start a language at this level without having studied it previously. The choices here are between:
Arabic for native speakers
Arabic for non-native speakers
French
Spanish
Optional Subjects
At the moment we classify optional subjects in two groups. The first group will contain those subjects that have a strong practical element. For now we will call them Option Group Asubjects. We believe that a rounded education should involve the study of at least one of these subjects. They are:
Art and Design
Design Technology
Music
PE
IT
[It may sometimes be possible to take two subjects from this group.]
Option Group B subjects are the remainder of the subjects we offer at GCSE Level. The subjects are:
Business Studies
Geography
History
[Students may sometimes be allowed to take just one of these subjects.]
At this stage we ask you to select two of these three subjects. Again, in the interests of clarifying certain misconceptions that often abound amongst students and parents, you will not be disqualifying yourself, or even hindering yourself from a career in the business world, if you decide not to take business studies at this stage of your academic career. In the British university world certainly, there is no formal requirement for you to have studied any business or economics-related course before embarking on such a degree. Much more important is that you have a reasonable level of mathematical skill and the ability to write clearly and directly.
Besides the subjects you will be examined in for GCSE, everyone follows a Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE) course, a wide-ranging course that covers topics as diverse as study skills and choosing your A level options, health-related topics and current affairs issues. All students participate in PE as part of their programme.
Years 10 and 11 are particularly important years in a child’s education. Her/his programme of study will, for the first time, be subject to examination by external agencies. The results he/she gains will have an impact on his/her future, at least as far as university admission is concerned. There is also, interestingly, some evidence that suggests that overall performance at GCSE is a better indicator than A level of likely performance at degree level. For these reasons Years 10 and 11 can be characterised as a time of “reality dawning”.
