Year 10 parents meeting and subject choices information 2025.pdf

Dear Parent/Carer

At KS4 pupils study a selection of option choices in addition to compulsory subjects. Whilst our intent is to secure a broad and balanced curriculum, we also work diligently to ensure pupils are supported to choose subjects appropriate to their individual needs and interests.

Pupils will be provided with an options selection sheet that the school feels would best suit their interests, abilities and which will allow them to maximise their chances of success.

On the options selections form, your child will be asked to choose their optional subjects based on their preferences including 2 reserves subjects in case your main choices are not available. They will rank order these subjects (including the reserves), so it is important to choose carefully for both the choices and reserves.

Once these sheets are completed that will essentially be their choices made, we will only come back to the pupil if they can not get either their main choices or their reserves.

Pupils need to make sure they are happy to study all choices (including the reserves) as changes can not be made once classes have been finalised.

It is important that you and your son/daughter have as much information as possible to make an informed decision about courses for Key Stage 4. Your son/daughter will be afforded the following in the coming weeks:

• Teachers have been speaking to pupils regarding the subjects they teach or are involved with at Key Stage 4.
• The subject area of the school website has been revised detailing the content of subjects offered. Please note this is fluid as we base our curriculum decisions for each year group accordingly but remains a great reference point
• An interactive Subject Choices 2025 presentation detailing the content of subjects on offer and the course structure and a Year 10 Options booklet 2025 booklet providing further information on available subjects can be found here
• A frequently asked questions support document (click here to access)
• The options selections sheets will be given to pupils and pupils will be provided with an overview of the options process before the end of March.

When the course choices are appropriate and where there are spaces available we, as a school, will always endeavour to place students in their first choice courses. However, in some cases this may not always be possible, but students will be supported throughout the process to achieve the best fit possible for their ambitions and ability.

Final choices are at the discretion of the school, based on what can reasonably be offered considering the school timetable and other constraints.

Year 10 parents meeting – Wednesday 19^th March 2025 Online Appointment Booking

I would like to invite you to attend our Year 10 Parents’ meeting on Wednesday 19^th March 2025 11.15am – 1.00pm.  This is a very important meeting and provides you with an opportunity to discuss, with your child’s subject teachers, how they are progressing in their subjects and to ask any questions you have regarding subject choices.

Similar to last year we will be continuing with our online parents meetings. This allows you to choose your own video appointment time with your child’s subject teacher and you will receive an email confirming your appointment. If there are any technical difficulties on the day we will contact you by phone at a later date/time.

Appointments can be made from today

Please visit https://cityofarmaghhighschool.schoolcloud.co.uk/ to book your appointments.

If an interpreter is required, a separate sheet will be given to your child for them to return.

Please note some of the subject names are appearing incorrectly when booking your appointments – Essential Skills should be ESOL

A short guide on how to add appointments is included with this letter. At the bottom of the guide you will also find a link to a Parent Guide for Video Appointments.

Login with the following information:

Student’s First Name

Student’s Surname

Registration Class: 10E, 10O or 10C

If you do not have access to the internet, please leave your details with the school office.

Please prioritise those subjects where you would be concerned about your child’s progress and/or those subjects you would like to find out more about for year 11. The recent year 10 report maybe of use to help identify who to speak to.

If a teacher takes your child for more than one subject, please only book 1 appointment with that teacher and they will cover both subjects in the one appointment (duplicate bookings will be removed).

See below a list of subjects and teachers who can provide more information on year 11 subjects.

Art & Design	T Creighton
Business	L Haire
Careers	C Reid
Child Development	E Girvan
English	K Black, L Gribben, R Stinson
ESOL	N Veale, L Cassidy, J Coulter
French	A Murdoch
Food and Nutrition	E Girvan
Geography	J McKee
History	J McKeown, N Veale
ICT (BTEC and OCN)	L Haire
Mathematics	K Shanks, J Evans, C Sloane
Motor Vehicle and Road User Studies	R Stewart
Music	E Freeburn
Personal Success and Well-being	E Freeburn
Physical Education	L Abraham, R Stewart
Princes Trust	A Murdoch, L Gribben, R Stinson, L Cassidy
RE (GCSE & OCN)	G Veale
Science (Double Award, Single Award and OCN)	A Smiton, K Uddin
Technology	T Hutchinson

Yours sincerely

K Mulholland

Principal

Parents’ Guide for Booking Appointments

Browse to https://cityofarmaghhighschool.schoolcloud.co.uk/

 

	Step 1: Login Fill out the details on the page then click the Log In button. A confirmation of your appointments will be sent to the email address you provide.
	Step 2: Select Parents' Evening Click on the date you wish to book. Unable to make all of the dates listed? Click I'm unable to attend.
	Step 3: Select Booking Mode Choose Automatic if you'd like the system to suggest the shortest possible appointment schedule based on the times you're available to attend. To pick the times to book with each teacher, choose Manual. Then press Next. We recommend choosing the automatic booking mode when browsing on a mobile device.
	Step 4: Select Availability Drag the sliders at the top of the screen to indicate the earliest and latest you can attend.
	Step 5: Choose Teachers Select the teachers you’d like to book appointments with. A green tick indicates they’re selected. To de-select, click on their name.
	Step 6: Book Appointments (Automatic) If you chose the automatic booking mode, you'll see provisional appointments which are held for 2 minutes. To keep them, choose Accept at the bottom left. If it wasn’t possible to book every selected teacher during the times you are able to attend, you can either adjust the teachers you wish to meet with and try again, or switch to manual booking mode.
	Step 7: Book Appointments Click any of the green cells to make an appointment. Blue cells signify where you already have an appointment. Grey cells are unavailable. To change an appointment, delete the original by hovering over the blue box and clicking Delete. Then choose an alternate time. You can optionally leave a message for the teacher to say what you’d like to discuss, or raise anything beforehand. Once you’re finished booking all appointments, at the top of the page in the alert box, press click here to finish the booking process.
	Step 8: Finished All your bookings now appear on the My Bookings page. An email confirmation has been sent and you can also print appointments by pressing Print. Click Subscribe to Calendar to add these and any future bookings to your calendar. To change your appointments, click on Amend Bookings.

Please find below a link to a video for parents that explains how to attend appointments over video call:

https://support.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/article/801-video-parents-how-toattendappointments-over-video-call