Years 7 and 8

 

We help our year 7 and 8 students to reach the highest school set possible in maths, English and science. Those already in top sets will progress by learning topics intended for higher age groups in order to prepare for their next academic term or year. 

 

English 

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Comprehension at this level involves understanding a variety of texts, including extracts from novels, poems and newspaper articles, then answering relevant questions using 'Point Evidence Explanation' format or similar.

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Students learn: how to analyse poetry and identify where and why poetic devices are employed; how to structure an essay comparing two poems, and discuss areas to address in their essays (structure, content and stance of the poet, language, rhyme).

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Students will write stories, letters, persuasive pieces and diary entries to develop their writing beyond KS2 level.

 

Maths

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Students work through past SATS papers at levels 4-6, 5-7 and 6-8 to identify areas of weakness and practise challenging worded questions. Topics at these levels include: percentages, algebra, probability, angles, fractions, perimeter, area and volume. 

We ensure year 7 and 8 students are comfortable with: collecting like terms, substitution, expanding brackets, factorising and rearranging formulae . This is good preparation for more complex algebra based questions at GCSE level. 

 

KS3 Science

Students will cover topics from all sciences (biology, chemistry and physics). The focus here is to grasp concepts which will be built on in year 9 and GCSE. Topics include: atoms and elements, the solar system, photosynthesis, cells, chemical reactions and magnets. Students are also introduced to 'How Science Works' key terms and ideas: how to design and write a method for an experiment to test their hypothesis, how to  present results using tables and graphs and how to reach a valid conclusion based on results. 

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Year 9 

 

Depending on their secondary school, students may sit a SATS science exam in year 9 to determine whether they will take double or triple GCSE science. 

 

In year 9, lessons become more focussed on GCSEs. We aim to cover the science content early, so that much of year 11 is dedicated to completing past papers and revising the hardest topics with use of exam style questions.