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Case study 27: Amy's story

Context
This is a hypothetical case study, which shows how one student, Amy, might have made her choices for the 14 to 19 phase of her education.

Amy is a student at a mixed comprehensive school. She has been identified as having good all-round ability and has a particular interest in, and aptitude for, languages. At key stage 3, she was in top sets for English and mathematics.

The school's curriculum
The school has designed its curriculum so that the top sets complete the key stage 3 programme of study early and take the end-of-key-stage-3 tests at the end of year 8. They start their GCSE courses in year 9 and complete them at the end of year 10. All pupils take their key stage 3 science test at the end of year 9 as the school's policy is not to accelerate pupils through the science key stage 3 programme of study.

How Amy chose her 14 to 19 programme
An adviser helped Amy to choose her 14 to 19 programme by encouraging her to focus on her skills and on what she most enjoyed. Amy was clear that she wanted to progress to higher education and she was keen to study foreign languages, perhaps with English. The GCSEs she decided to take in year 9 were English Literature, Applied Science, Design and Technology (resistant materials), Art and Design, and ICT (short course).

At the end of year 10, Amy completed her ICT GCSE short course and she achieved high grades in GCSE English and Mathematics. She had the option of taking AS Mathematics or AS English Language but could not do both at this school due to time constraints. (The time needed for both courses is equivalent to the two GCSE blocks.) Some of her peers opted for beginning an AS in Mathematics. However, Amy's interest in English was confirmed, so at the end of year 11 she started a course leading to AS in English Language.

In Amy's school there is a menu of short courses and experiences to choose from during key stage 4 (for example ICT, RE, career planning, citizenship, active citizenship, young enterprise, native language, private study). For year 11 Amy elected to take a GCSE short course in RE. At the end of year 11 Amy attained GCSEs in her remaining subjects.

Post-16 education
In year 12 Amy was still keen to pursue her interest in foreign languages as well as English, so she decided to take AS English Literature, French, German and a three-unit VCE in ICT. She started building a portfolio of evidence towards the wider key skills unit Improving own learning and performance. Amy's tutor, who will steer her through her application for higher education, helped her to make her choices based on what she thought she might study at university.

As her post-16 education continued, Amy's interest in English grew and she decided that she would apply to read English at a university where competition is likely to be fierce. In conjunction with her tutor's advice, Amy decided to take an Advanced Extension Award (AEA) in English to increase her chances of getting a place. Amy felt that having AS English Language would be an advantage to her in tackling the AEA and in her higher education application.

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