Does it make sense to take no electives in 9th grade? Use that time for study. This is the 9th grade selection.
biology honors
english honors
social studies honors
math honors
world language honors
0 electives
1 club
1 athletics participation level
Does your student like art, music, theater, tech, shop? My kids love having a class that’s creative and hands-on. Also, electives tend to be more social and a good opportunity to make friends.
I guess it also depends on how challenging honors is at your school, and whether your student would actually use a study hall period to study.
That was basically my daughters schedule.AP HUGE and regular Spanish. She also had band. It worked out.
Same answer for every grade. HS freshman year classes are geared to their age- no taking it slow to become adjusted. The top students will be taking a full schedule all of the time and can easily handle it, regardless of how many honors/AP/IB classes in the mix. Does no elective mean getting a study hall? If so I highly recommend taking a “fun” class unless your child needs the extra time. Very often study hall time is wasted. What about physical education/health requirements?
Your child will be determining how hard s/he wants to work by choices made. My son’s school district basically implied middle school students should have a study hall- inappropriate for my kid. You know your kid and how easy/hard it is for them to get school work done. You are setting the tone for the next four years with the freshman experience. Some want challenges, others don’t.
The sports and club participation should be determined by student interest (and time available). Perhaps your kid is an athlete of some sort (running was wonderful for son). Perhaps music. Academic clubs of various kinds. Kids are not limited to choosing just one I hope, and should be allowed to drop things they discover they don’t really like.
Are you in the US, at a public high school? If so, sometimes the counselors suggest 6 periods for incoming freshmen more because it saves the school money (not having to staff those extra classes) than because it’s really the best option for the kids. Unless your kid is really busy with sports or other extracurriculars, I’d suggest taking a fun class like music, art, or drama.
I have a daughter in 8th grade. She just brought home info yesterday. She will be taking the same 5 honors classes. She is also required to take a semester of gym. She could take gym or health (3 gym 1 health is required to graduate) but plans to take a semester of an engineering class. For her 7th class she is thinking of either Chorus or Computers. I don’t even think study hall is an option.
She already knows she will be on the high school figure skating team. She is going to be on the gymnastics team as scorekeeper. In the spring she plans to do the track team. By doing two sports (skating doesn’t count) she will get exempt from a year of gym.
Clubs she will see about once school starts and she has a better feel for what is really offered.
She will figure out if she is continuing dance and girl scouts.
How many periods does your school have? Are you allowed to take study halls? Since your child is taking all honors it sounds like a relatively smart child so I would think he/she can handle more.
Adding - I have an incoming 9th grader as well (3rd kid). He’ll be taking
AS English (honors, sort of. Our district doesn’t really do honors for most classes).
Contemporary World Studies/Health (1 semester of each - standard for this hs)
Geometry
Biology
French 1
PE
Choir
This is a pretty standard schedule for the more academic kids, although the most talented math kids will be in Algebra 2 or PreCalc, and some kids will be in a higher language level. My older 2 kids didn’t have any trouble keeping up in 9th grade and really enjoyed having the choir outlet.
No music or arts elective?
NYS requires an arts class - my older son did an architecture class freshman year to fulfill that elective. And he also took the Comp Sci AP - so he must have had seven classes. Younger son did double orchestra for his elective.
But it depends on the kid. If this is a kid who will eventually be looking at highly selective colleges, a study hall does not make sense, and it’s unlikely to be used wisely anyway.
If you are asking should the kid take study hall as a freshman, I would say not. Make sure to fulfil any grad reqs as early as possible for stuff like PE, fin literacy, comp tech. art and whatever dunderhead classes your district mandates.
If it is study hall VS elective, choose an elective. Something fun. My kids school only allows study hall to kids with more than 3 APs or the IBD. Pick an extra academic class if that is preferred. I am assuming you are on only 6 periods. 1/ 6th of a week for study hall as a big waste IMO. The schedule is just not rigorous enough to justify it.
When you consider the cores colleges expect are lab sci, English, SS, math and foreign language, I don’t see what OP could drop. He’ll have to come back and tell us if there are more periods in his schedule, requirements for gym or other courses.