CURRICULUM INFORMATION
In September, your child will be given their new timetable for the academic year. Your child may find there is a significant step up in challenge for many of their subjects and making a positive start in terms of completion of homework will be vital for their success. In most subjects, students are placed in mixed ability groups where students have been set (in particular in Maths, English and Science) Heads of Department have used test data, Year 9 exam data and knowledge of your child in order to place the students in the most appropriate group. Heads of Department have put a lot of thought and care into these groupings and your child may find that, because we allocate more classes at Key Stage 4, their class size is a little smaller in Year 10 compared to Year 9, which allows for more individual support. Please be reassured that over the next two years Heads of Departments will be carefully monitoring and tracking all students to ensure that each child is in the best group possible for them to achieve their full potential. Some subjects have different tiers of entry for the GCSE examination and the tier your child will be entered is not decided until Year 11 after the mock examinations.
In Science, your child will be following either the Triple Science or Trilogy Science course depending on which route their teachers feel is best for them. The main differences are that Triple Science has more curriculum time allocated and students will achieve three GCSE grades (in Biology, Chemistry and Physics) whereas students will be awarded with two GCSE Science Grades if they take the Trilogy route. Regardless of the route, all students will study Biology, Chemistry and Physics and will be able to access material up to the very highest grades and will be able to take A Level Sciences as long as they have met the specific entrance requirements.
All students who have chosen to study IT in Year 9 will sit the qualification (OCR National Certificate in Information Technologies) and complete coursework during the course of Year 10. All students who have chosen to study Citizenship in Year 9 will sit the GCSE qualification during the summer of Year 10, dates to be confirmed. Students will be issued with a revision guide through the LRC and there will be revision sessions taking place close to the exam period for all students (including Triple Science students). Students who follow Triple Science will not have any timetabled lessons in Year 10 in either Citizenship or IT but students will be offered additional support sessions during the Autumn/Spring Terms. Year 10 students who study The Cambridge National Health and Social Care course will sit their examination in the Spring term, dates to be confirmed.