Guides
The secondary years, one page each.
What happens in each year, what to watch for, and the dates that matter. Every date carries the source we checked and when.
Key Stage 3 · Years 8 to 10
- Year 8: the first year of post-primaryPost-primary school here starts at Year 8 and runs to Year 14. What Key Stage 3 covers, what the first reports are worth, and the habit this year is cheapest for.
- Year 9: habits, and where the narrowing startsThe middle year of Key Stage 3. Nothing is examined, no forms are signed, and it is still the year that quietly decides what the Year 10 choice will look like.
- Year 10: the end of Key Stage 3 and the GCSE choiceSubjects for Years 11 and 12 are chosen in Year 10. What schools must offer, why the list is wider than the booklet, and how to choose without guessing.
GCSE · Years 11 and 12
- Year 11: the first GCSE year, and the grade called C*CCEA grades run A* to G with a C* between B and C. What that is worth, how a tier can cap a grade before the exam, and why some Year 11 marks are already final.
- Year 12: GCSE exams, results and what comes nextThe summer 2027 GCSE dates, why the exam season really begins in March, results day on 19 August, and the choices that open at the end of compulsory schooling.
AS, A2 and UCAS · Years 13 and 14
- Year 13: the AS year, and why it is already the A LevelAS is sat at the end of Year 13 and carries 40 per cent of the final A Level grade. The summer 2027 dates, what a standalone AS is worth, and why this is not a settling-in year.
- Year 14: A2, resits and the application at the same timeThe A2 units carry the other 60 per cent, last year's AS marks are already banked, and the university application runs across the same autumn. How the three fit together.
Across the years
- Choosing GCSEs in Northern IrelandWhat has to be offered at Key Stage 4, why the list is wider than the school's booklet, the three questions to ask before looking at grades, and which choices genuinely matter later.
- Choosing A Levels under AS and A2The choice here is not which three subjects. It is which four to carry through Year 13 and which three to keep, because the AS marks are already 40 per cent of the grade.
- Applying to university from Northern IrelandUCAS dates for 2027 entry, what an achieved AS grade does to an application, the separate route into the Republic of Ireland, and the fee gap between staying and going.