Year Seven

Autumn

Being Scientists:
How do we stay safe and get valid results from practical investigations?
A Living Body (Biology)
What are cells and how are they organised to make living things?
Cellular basis of life; cell structure; respiration and human body systems involved in respiration. All living matter is made up of cells, and cells are the building blocks of all living matter. Studying cells helps us understand how organisms’ function. Cellular components work together to carry out life functions. Cellular processes enable organisms to meet their basic needs.

Elements, mixtures and compounds (Chemistry)
What are atoms?
How they affect the properties of a substance?
Particles – States of matter; atomic structure and separating mixtures.
Revisit states of matter & their properties; understand energy of particles; plot data & interpret graphs; introduction to the basic structure of an atom & ion and patterns in the periodic table.

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Spring

Speed and Forces (Physics):
Speed and acceleration; calculating speed; distance time graphs; balance forces and representing forces.
What are forces and how are they related to speed?
Understanding the application of forces in our everyday lives; examine the impacts of forces on economy and in particular transport.

Habitats and Organisation (Biology):
Food chains and webs; adaptations; impact of humans and habitats.
How do we measure or represent how living things interact with each other?
All living things have a habitat. Habitats and Organisation gives you an understanding of how organisms interact, effect & depend on each other. You will build on prior knowledge of plants & animals to describe food webs, pyramids of numbers & biomass and explain more complex interactions of the carbon cycle. This unit gives you the opportunity to discuss how humans impact the environment both positively & negatively. You will learn how organisms are adapted to their environment & how this helps them compete for certain resources.

Summer

Common chemical reactions (Chemistry):
Chemical reactions and rearranging atoms; word equations; evidence of chemical reactions; acids and alkalis.
What are chemical reactions and how can they be measured or affected?
Learn the characteristics of chemical reactions; consider examples of chemical changes; use models to reinforce the rearrangement of atoms during reactions; practice representing atoms & molecules as formulas & write word equations for many reactions; study reactions in the context of acids & alkalis; consider the relevance of acids and alkalis to our everyday lives; consider the applications of neutralisation reactions; learn about the pH scale & compare the uses of different indicators; consider combustion as an example of a chemical change; study the effects of the products of combustion on the atmosphere & the wider community of plants & animals.

Electricity (Physics):
Electricity – Charge; current electricity; static electricity; AC:DC and circuit diagrams.
What is electricity and how do we use it?
Understand that Electricity is the movement of Charge & Electrons which can move in metals & provide us with Electricity.

Year Eight

Autumn

How The Body Works (Biology):
Defence against infection; effects of exercise and non-communicable diseases.
How do our bodies stay healthy?
Consider diseases we can catch & how they are caused by pathogens; explore what pathogens are & how they differ from human cells; investigate how our body can defend itself against pathogen attack; look into how we use & develop medicines to help; explore diseases that you cannot catch; look at the importance of diet & exercise in maintaining a healthy body.

Physical & Chemical changes (Chemistry):
Physical changes; chemical changes; reactivity and displacement.
What common physical and chemical changes do we observe around us?
Investigate diffusion & consider its importance in our bodies; look into what happens when we heat or cool different states of matter, interpreting heating & cooling curves in terms of what is happening to their particles; revisit key ideas around chemical reactions, before looking in more detail at mixtures & the main methods we use for separating them.

Spring

Energy (Physics):
What is energy? How is it stored and transferred? Energy stores; energy pathways; units of energy and energy resources.
Introduction to one of the fundamental ideas of physics: energy; investigate the difference between the terms ‘efficient’ & ‘effective’ and how they are often confused; evaluate different methods we may use to generate the electrical current required to power our modern lives.

Evolution and inheritance (Biology):
Sexual and asexual reproduction; variation and evolution.
How is information passed from one generation to the next and why are we all different?
Compare the two different types of reproduction involving one(asexual) or two (sexual) parents; consider reproduction in humans & the reproductive process. You will learn about the main organs & cycles involved in humans giving birth; look at how differences between individuals has been responsible for the evolution of the variety of species we see on Earth today; look at how scientists try to classify the millions of different species of living thing.

Summer

Chemistry on Earth (Chemistry):
Metal ores; combustion; carbon cycle and the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere.
How do chemical reactions affect our environment?
The topic looks at common chemistry found in living things before looking in more detail at fuels we use to generate electrical current.
You will consider how some elements are more reactive than others, how the Periodic Table can show this & how we might use this knowledge in our lives. The topic gives you the chance to see how & why the atmosphere of the Earth has changed over billions of years. It looks at how recent actions by humans might be changing our atmosphere even more.

Magnetism and Waves (Physics):
Magnets; magnetic fields; electromagnets; types of wave and what happens when waves hit things.
How do different waves behave?
How are magnets & electromagnets?
Introduce the phenomena of magnetism & magnetic fields; see how, using electrical current, we can make non-magnetic materials act like magnets & where this may be useful; look at what all waves have in common, the two types & how we label them; look at what happens when waves hit a boundary; use your new knowledge to consider some common waves that we experience in our everyday lives.

Year Nine

Autumn

Cell Biology (Biology):
Explore how structural differences between types of cells enables them to perform specific functions within the organism. These differences in cells are controlled by genes in the nucleus. Explore how for an organism to grow, cells must divide by mitosis producing two new identical cells; an introduction to the development of stem cell technology.

Atomic Structure and The Periodic Table (Chemistry):
You will learn about the construction and importance of the periodic table and how this provides chemists with a structured organisation of the known chemical elements from which they can make sense of their physical and chemical properties.

Spring

Energy (Physics):
Energy is a fundamental concept in Physics. Conceptually energy is quantified in different manifestations (“stores”) and a key issue is the “Conservation of Energy”, whereby energy can only be ever transferred or transformed. You will be able to understand and recognise different stores of energy, enumerate amounts of energy and consider the efficiency of energy transforms and transfers.

Organisation (Biology):
Learn about the human digestive system which provides the body with nutrients and the respiratory system that provides it with oxygen and removes carbon dioxide. In each case they provide dissolved materials that need to be moved quickly around the body in the blood by the circulatory system. You will also learn how the plant’s transport system is dependent on environmental conditions to ensure that leaf cells are provided with the water and carbon dioxide that they need for photosynthesis.

Summer

Structure & Bonding (Chemistry):
You will learn why chemists use theories of structure and bonding to explain the physical and chemical properties of materials. Analysis of structures shows that atoms can be arranged in a variety of ways, some of which are molecular while others are giant structures. Theories of bonding explain how atoms are held together in these structures.

Particle Model (Physics):
The particle model is widely used to predict the behaviour of solids, liquids and gases and this has many applications in everyday life. It helps us to explain a wide range of observations and engineers use these principles when designing vessels to withstand high pressures and temperatures, such as submarines and spacecraft.

Year Eleven

Autumn

Inheritance & Evolution (Biology):
Discover how the number of chromosomes are halved during meiosis & combine with new genes from the sexual partner to produce offspring. We learn about Gene mutations & how they affect the functioning of the animal/plant.

Ecology (Biology): Understand the Sun is a source of energy that passes through ecosystems; explore how materials are recycled by the living world, released through respiration of animals/plants/decomposing microorganisms and taken up by plants in photosynthesis. We explore how humans threaten biodiversity and the natural systems that support it. We will consider actions to take to ensure our future health, prosperity and well-being.

Organic Chemistry (Chemistry):
Chemistry of carbon compounds forms a separate branch of chemistry. Chemists are able to take organic molecules and modify them in many ways to make new and useful materials such as polymers, pharmaceuticals, perfumes. Learn about Chemical Analysis Qualitative tests based on reactions that produce a gas with distinctive properties.
Chemistry of the Atmosphere: Explore the causes of atmospheric changes. Learn which gases are released from combustion of fossil fuels & how they affect us and our Carbon Footprint.

Using Resources (Chemistry):
Learn about Earth’s natural resources, how they are used to manufacture many useful products, how water is treated to make it drinkable and the three Rs, Re-use, Recycle & Reduce use.

Spring

Forces (Physics):
Explore forces and their interactions, gravity, work done and energy transfer, forces and elasticity, Hooke’s law, moments, atmospheric pressure, terminal velocity, acceleration, stopping distance, momentum and, of course, Newton’s Laws of motion.

Waves (Physics):
Understand wave behaviour is common in both natural and man-made systems; waves carry energy from one place to another and can also carry information. Develop an understanding of mechanical waves.

Electromagnetism (Physics):
Learn how electromagnetic effects are used in a wide variety of devices.

Space Physics (Physics):
Questions about where we are, and where we came from, have been asked for thousands of years. In the past century, astronomers and astrophysicists have made remarkable progress in understanding the scale and structure of the universe, its evolution and ours. New questions have emerged recently. Explore ‘Dark matter’, which bends light and holds galaxies together.

Summer

Summer Exams / Revision