Year 9 Options 2026

The Year 9 Options Process is an exciting time. In the first three years at Larkmead School, students have studied a wide range of subjects, developing knowledge, skills, confidence and other attributes. They will take all of this into the next phase of their education as they continue with core subjects and apply to specialise in a smaller range of courses in greater depth. These courses and GCSE qualifications will be an important stepping stone to their future, and it is important that we all work together to make carefully considered decisions.

When it comes to choosing courses for Key Stage 4, students should look for:

The subjects they are good at or think they will be good at
The subjects that they will enjoy
The subjects that may help them to follow a particular career path or ambition

The timeline for the options process is given below.

Wednesday 14^th January: Options process begins

To begin the options process this options booklet and an introductory assembly will be shared with all Year 9 students. In addition, options subjects that currently teach Year 9 will devote some lesson time to giving an explanation and/or demonstration of their subject at GCSE level.

Thursday 22^nd January: Year 9 Options Evening (6:00pm – 7:30pm)

This very popular event will include the opportunity to attend an informative talk about the options process. In addition, staff will be available on subject stands for every options subject, to offer advice and answer questions and enable your child to start producing a shortlist of the subjects they may wish to study in KS4.

Week beginning 9^th February: New Subject Carousel

Some option subjects are not currently taught in Year 9. To allow all students the chance to experience these subjects and make an informed choice for their options preferences, we will run a carousel of experience lessons during this week.

Thursday 5^th March: Year 9 PTCE

Year 9’s Parent Teacher Consultation Evening represents a further chance to discuss option preferences with your child’s current subject teacher. A letter will be sent out nearer the time with full details and appointments will be booked in the normal way. This PTCE will be held online.

Thursday 5^th March: Options preferences can be submitted

Options preferences cannot be submitted until after all information events. There will then be a week in which options preference forms can be submitted online through Applicaa – full details on how to do this are available at the end of the Options Booklet (linked below). Please feel free to contact your child’s tutor, individual subject teachers or Director of Learning if you have any further questions during this time.

Thursday 12^th March: Deadline for all options preferences to be submitted

The choices system is not done on a first come first served basis. All preferences submitted online before this deadline will be considered equally. Options preferences and changes cannot be submitted online after this deadline. If you wish to submit or change preferences after this deadline, please contact your child's Director of Learning via the school office but be aware that amendments may not be possible as the allocations process will have already been started.

Options Booklet

The Options Booklet is a full explanation of the options process, listing all choices available and containing information on every subject that can be studied in the KS4 Curriculum. A copy will be given to every Year 9 student at the start of the Options Process or a pdf version can be accessed via the link below.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR 2025 OPTIONS BOOKLET

10 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF ABOUT EACH SUBJECT

Options Preferences (via Applicaa)

Students make their Options Preferences through an application called Applicaa. Instructions for using Applicaa (larkmead.applicaa.com/Year9) are given below.

All students will receive a welcome email, sent to their school email account
This will be titled “Welcome to the Larkmead School Options Process”
This email will give students a unique password to their Applicaa account
Click where it says “Click Here” to be taken to the login screen (or use the link below)
Login to Applicaa using the details provided

You must tick to Accept both Larkmead School’s and Applicaa’s Privacy Policies
Then click on the “GCSE Options” button

Further instructions are given at the back of the Options Booklet (linked above).

OPTIONS PREFERENCES Application (APPLICAA)

Subject Videos

During the 2021 lockdown, our Options Process had to go online and every subject teacher made a short video giving more information about studying their subject at GCSE. These are included here in case they are still found useful but please be aware that some courses may not be running and some information may be out of date. In particular, the KS3 course was only two years at the time of making these videos whereas it has now been extended to three years and option preferences are now made in Year 9.

If you have any further questions about a particular subject, please read the relevant pages of the Options Booklet (above) and speak to the teacher indicated via the school office.

GCSE Option Subjects

Larkmead - Options 2021 - Art & Design: