Delivering Year 9 on Line Options to Students

Careers Wales Online

DELIVERING YEAR 9 ON LINE OPTIONS TO STUDENTS

Guidance and suggested session structure Introduction These notes are intended to support delivery of the actual year 9 on line options lesson to students. They include practical suggestions which can be adapted to suit a range of class sizes and abilities – and the needs of the school itself. It is assumed that, prior to actually completing their options on line, students have been well prepared to make effective KS4 choices or complete a Free Choice Survey. There are a range of activities on line to support this process. If you would like support or training to further develop your schools year 9 options programme to include these activities please contact the Curriculum Development Team at your local Careers Wales Company. It is also assumed that adequate access to IT and IT support has been arranged for the session itself. The screen with which students will be presented, and via which they will make their choices, will be set up and configured by your school’s curriculum managers. Any staff delivering the on line options choice session will need to be thoroughly familiar with the range and scope of options offered to students – see checklist towards end of document.

Logging on students A document containing guidance for staff required to log students on to careerswales.com is available on line. It is titled – Logging on – first time users and can be downloaded and printed. Year 9 student details for your school have been uploaded into the site. Your system administrator will have access to a list of student names and temporary, randomly generated passwords. Students are required to reset this password when they use the system for the first time to a password of their own choosing. From this point on, students use their chosen password for access.

The student on line options process What will the students see? The following screens are available only to students who are logged in to the system – see checklist.

Free choice survey – an example

This menu takes students back to This learning content activities and explains information any rules linked to the menu

This banner This is the informs students of ‘free choice deadline dates survey’ on line Students simply tick and save their choices

Save and reset buttons

KS4 option menu – an example. Please check your own carefully – it will be

different!

This content explains any rules linked to the menu This menu takes students back into learning activities and This is the information ‘options form’ on line. This banner Students informs students of simply tick deadline dates and save their choices Student choices are confirmed here prior to save Students can record comments about choices and process here Save and reset buttons

Preparation Checklist for delivery staff A great deal of the preparation/information required to deliver year 9 options choice on line is common to both the IT and paper based processes. One of the key differences in delivering options on line is that rules such as ‘cannot choose French and RE’ cannot be broken. This means that a clear understanding of the reasoning behind the structure of the options offer is needed in order to deal with any student queries. GENERAL  What does the options menu/free choice survey contain – subjects, rules and structure?  Do you understand the reasoning behind the menu structure/s?  Is there more than one options menu? If so which students/groups will have access to each version?  Who is responsible for developing the options menu?  Who is the ‘professional’ in the school who is managing the on line process?  What happens after students have made choices e.g. Is this the ‘final’ offer? Is this a free choice survey that will be followed up with an actual options menu?  Who deals with any students who, even after adequate preparation, are still unable to make choices?  How will any absent students access the IT process?

SPECIFIC TO IT DELIVERY  How and when will students receive their user names and passwords?  If these are to be issued during this session – how are these to be issued?  Do you understand the student log in process – and can you explain it to students?  What happens in the event of IT failure during the session?  Is there any extra support available on the day for students who might find accessing the database difficult due to leaning difficulties?

You will also need –  Prior access to a version of Free Choice Survey/KS4 options menu that students will be using.  Extra activities for students who complete the process quickly.

Suggested structure for IT session (During which students will make their on line choices – either via free choice survey or via an options menu.) Step 1  Introduce students to the structure of the year 9 option form on line. Covering some of the following will help reduce queries during the session. Some of these issues may have already been covered during the school options preparation programme. o How the options work – number of choices, blocks o Why there needs to be some restriction on courses offered o How double credits work o Why some subjects are compulsory o Why some students may see different options to others. Step 2  Check students are ready to make their choices. The site includes an on line checklist called ‘Are You Ready?’ This checklist can be used to make a final check that students have completed adequate research/preparation. Step 3  Log to site o Website address – www.careerswales.com o Select language o Select year 9 Step 4a - New users.  See also note ‘Logging on first time users’  Issue user names and temporary passwords. Ask students to log on using their temporary password.  Explain that they will be prompted to change this password.  Stress that their chosen password should include capitals, lower case letters and numbers and must be at least 6 figures in length.  Tell students that they must remember this password for future reference. Step 4b – Users with own password  Students log in with their own password.  If students have forgotten their password it needs to be reset via your school’s system administrator.

Step 5  Students access either free choice survey or their options menu as follows - In my school>My options or In my school> Free choices Step 6  Ask students to make choices and explain that they must double check before they save. Step 7  Students can add any comments relating to their choices (options menu only) and save. Step 8  Explain to students what will happen next.