<p>Senior school covers Grades 10, 11 and 12, and unlike the old system it is not one track for everybody. Learners follow a pathway, and the pathway shapes what they study for three years and what they can go on to afterwards.</p>
<h2>The pathways</h2> <p>Senior school is organised into three broad pathways:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Arts and Sports Science</strong> — for learners whose strengths are performing or visual arts, or sport</li> <li><strong>Social Sciences</strong> — humanities, languages, business and related fields</li> <li><strong>Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)</strong> — the sciences, mathematics, technical and engineering fields</li> </ul> <p>Within each pathway there are tracks, and within tracks, subject combinations. The detail is set nationally and is worth confirming with the school for the year your child enters.</p>
<h2>When the choice happens</h2> <p>The choice is made at the end of junior school, on the strength of how the learner has done across Grades 7 to 9 together with their own interest. It is not a single exam result.</p>
<h2>How to help without deciding for them</h2> <p><strong>Watch what they choose when nobody is watching.</strong> What a child does with free time is better evidence than what they say when asked.</p> <p><strong>Separate the child's interest from your own.</strong> A great many capable young people are pushed into STEM because a parent believes it is the only serious option. A learner who is genuinely strong in social sciences will do better, and go further, in social sciences.</p> <p><strong>Ask the teachers.</strong> Subject teachers across three years have seen your child work. They usually know.</p> <p><strong>Do not treat it as final.</strong> A pathway shapes options, it does not close a life down.</p>
<h2>Questions worth asking the school</h2> <ul> <li>Which pathways and subject combinations do you offer?</li> <li>How do you advise families on the choice, and when does that start?</li> <li>What happens if a learner needs to change pathway?</li> </ul>
<p><em>Pathway structures and subject combinations are set by the Ministry of Education and have been revised. Confirm current arrangements with the school.</em></p>