At the end of grade eight, families choose one of three streams for grades nine and ten.
Science: physics, chemistry and biology as separate subjects, with additional mathematics. This stream requires laboratory work, and the two laboratories and the technician are the reason this school can offer it when the feeder schools cannot.
Commerce: business studies, accounting and economics.
General: geography, a second language option, and the practical subjects carried further.
All three take Dhivehi, English, mathematics and Islam.
How the choice is made. A written note home in the second term of grade eight explaining what each stream leads to and what it closes off. Two meetings, one on a weekday evening and one on a Saturday morning. Then a conversation with the form teacher for any family that wants one, and we offer it to every family whose student is borderline rather than waiting to be asked.
The school's position, stated plainly because families ask us to choose for them. A student who is strong in mathematics and dislikes it will not enjoy two years of physics, and a stream chosen on marks alone is the commonest reason a student changes in the middle of grade nine, which is difficult and which we allow twice a year. Ask the student what they want to do at four in the afternoon, and take that seriously.