KS3 Curriculum

At Key Stage 3 we provide a curriculum over three years which follows the National Curriculum. The curriculum is designed not only to develop students’ knowledge and understanding in a range of subjects but also to enable them to develop the skills required to become independent learners throughout the rest of their time in school and beyond.

Students study English, Maths, Science, French, Art, Music, Drama, Dance, PE, Computer Science, D&T (Resistant Materials and Textiles), Food Preparation and Nutrition, History, Geography, RE and PSHE including careers and citizenship. From Year 8, many of our students also follow either Spanish or German in addition to French.

The Key Stage 3 timetable is based on a two week cycle and comprises a twenty five period week with five taught periods a day. Whilst most lessons will be at the same time each week, some lessons vary between week 1 and week 2.

YEAR 7

  • Modern Foreign Languages – All students study French in year 7 alongside their full curriculum of English, maths, Science, Art, Music, Drama, PE, Computer Science, D&T (Resistant Materials, Textiles and Food), History, Geography, RE, PSHE, RSE, careers and citizenship.

YEAR 8

  • Modern Foreign Languages – All students continue to study French. More able linguists will also study German or Spanish in addition to those subjects studied at Year 7.

YEAR 9

  • Within the Arts programme, Year 9 have the opportunity to follow a photography course.
  • In Maths and Science, following the completion of the national curriculum, aspects of GCSE courses are taught in Year 9.
  • History and Geography GCSE courses start at the end of the summer term, once students have chosen their GCSE subjects.
  • The KS4 Computer Science course starts at the end of Year 9 in order to ensure that specialists can teach areas which develop and apply students’ analytic, problem-solving, design, and computational thinking skills

CATERING FOR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

  • At KS3 students are taught in mixed prior attainment groups in the Arts, Humanities, Computer Science and PE.

MATHS

At KS3 students are in ability groups. All students, regardless of their current attainment in maths, have the support required to ensure they make appropriate progress.

ENGLISH

In Year 7 within each half year group there are two mixed ability groups and one smaller group which enables a greater level of intervention. Year 8 and 9 students are set by ability.

SCIENCE

Year 7 students are set based on their prior attainment at KS2 in Science, Maths and English. Students are reset according to their annual assessments and teacher assessment.

MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Students are set from Year 7 based on information from primary schools; these sets are adjusted as necessary as linguistic ability develops.