For your child Year 11 is a time for big choices, at 16, your child can legally leave school.
Although it's sometimes necessary to make last-minute decisions, the best time to start thinking about choices at 16 is a year ahead, during the summer holiday between Year 10 and Year 11. By then, with a year of GCSE (or GNVQ) studies already done, you should have a fair idea of what your child is good at and what sort of study they like. If there are plans for college in a year's time, you need to bear in mind that some courses fill up by the end of December.
What's on offer?
- Go into the sixth form centre
- Study a vocational programme
- Start an Apprenticeship
- Get a job, but train by day release at college
Working out what will be best for your child and discussing the options is not easy. Basically, your child has two main choices:
- Going out to work
- Continuing with full-time learning