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[DAJ Belshaw]

I currently teach in an 11-16 school with a predominantly middle-class intake which skews the average CAT score to around 105-110. There are a fair few real bright sparks who will easily get an A*. In future the History department would like to stretch them to do AS level in Year 11. On the other hand, we also have some disaffected boys who, whilst not overly disruptive, struggle to achieve what they do in other subjects and would be better on another course.

We do SHP Medicine/American West. I'm sure we're not the only ones in this position, so here's what we've been considering so far:

• Setting students in Year 10 so that the top set can take AS level History in Year 11 (problems regarding option groups)
• Starting GCSE History after Christmas in Year 9 (problem - potential work overloading with SATs and Humanities GCSE)
• Introducing Edexcel's short course GCSE for those disaffected in Year 10 to take in Year 11 (could also be used in Year 10 for those going on to take AS in Year 11)
• Creaming off the top for normal GCSE teaching and leaving the rest mixed-ability
• Less seriously - grouping classes by learning style or gender

Have you encountered a similar situation? What did you do? How do you get round the timetable/options column problems?

Doug