Key Stage 3

We following the QCA KS3 curriculum which can be found at the DCSF website .
At the end of the KS3 curriculum pupils sit the KS3 statutory test in Science. Level 5-6 in this examination represents government expectations for the average 14 year-old.

Year 7

The pupils are taught Science in their own mixed ability class and have 6 lessons per cycle.
The topics that we study in Year 7 are as follows:-

Assessment
The pupils are given a test at the end of each topic to monitor their progress. They also have an exam every term which covers the last 3-4 topics that they have studied.

Year 8

Pupils are again taught in their own mixed ability class and have 6 lessons per cycle.

The topics that we study in Year 8 are as follows:-
8A Food and Digestion
8B Respiration
8D Ecological Relationships
8F Compounds and mixtures
8G Rocks and Weathering
8H The rock cycle
8I Heating and Cooling
8J Magnets and electromagnets
8L Sound and hearing

Assessment
The pupils are given a test at the end of each topic to monitor their progress. They also have an exam every term which covers the last 3-4 topics that they have studied.

Year 9

Pupils have 6 Science lessons per cycle split between 2 teachers. Pupils are taught in mixed ability classes for the first half of the year and then are set according to ability for the remainder of the year. This arrangement enables pupils to study material appropriate to the tier of paper that they will be sitting in the KS3 statutory S tests in the May (either Tier 3-5 or Tier 4-7).

KS3 is completed by March; the KS4 course is then started.

The topics studied in Year 9 are as follows:-
8C Microbes and Disease
9A Inheritance and selection
9B Fit and Healthy
9C Plants and photosynthesis
9D Plants for food
9E Reactions of metals and metal compounds
9F Patterns of reactivity
9G Environmental chemistry
9H Using chemistry
9I Energy and Electricity
9J Gravity and space
9K Speeding up
9L Pressure and moments
9M Investigating Scientific questions

Assessment
The pupils are given a test at the end of each topic to monitor their progress. They also have an exam in the first 2 terms which covers the last 3-4 topics that they have studied. In May the pupils sit the externally marked KS3 statutory tests (Tier 3-5 or Tier 4-7). These consist of two 1 hour papers.