Year 7 & 8

In Year 7 all students have fewer teachers and study fewer subjects than in most schools: English, Mathematics, Science, a Modern Foreign Language (French and/or Spanish), Physical Education and the Excellent Futures Curriculum (EFC). Please note that fewer subjects does not mean less learning. The table below shows the number of periods allocated to each of the subjects. Each period is 50 minutes in duration.

Year 7 Subjects
EN
MA
SCI
MFL
PE
Excellent Futures Curriculum
Periods per week
4
4
4
2
3
12

In Year 8 the students study English, Maths, Science, Modern Foreign Languages (French), PE, Design and Technology, Art and the Excellent Futures Curriculum. The table below shows the number of periods allocated to each of the subjects. Each period is 50 minutes in duration.

Year 8 Subjects
EN
MA
SCI
MFL
PE
 Art DT
Excellent Futures Curriculum
Periods per week
4
4
4
2
3
 1 1
10

Please note that Citizenship and Personal, Social and Health Education are taught across all subjects, including the Excellent Futures Curriculum, and this is supplemented with occasional curriculum shutdown days. It is also included within the Tutor Activities programme that is a feature of all Year Groups. Please see the Tutoring page on this web site for further details.

The development of our unique Excellent Futures Curriculum provides the opportunity for greater depth of learning, greater meaning and greater motivation. The EFC is a learning programme taught by mainly one Teacher, who also acts as the Tutor, in mixed ability groups of 23 students. However, where appropriate we utilise parents, other teachers and external experts to lead ‘Masterclasses’, where we think it will maximise the learning of the students. For the EFC, students learn in a purpose built learning community with its own studio, breakout space and outdoor learning space, including an allotment and small animal area.
 
EFC equates to approximately half a students timetable and focuses on 10 core skills, each of which have 5 sub-skills:
 
  • Being a Team Member (TM 1-5)
  • Problem Solving (PS 1-5)
  • Managing Time (MT 1-5)
  • Showing Initiative (SI 1-5)
  • Being Creative (BC 1-5)
  • Gathering and Managing Resources (GR 1-5)
  • Presenting Information (PI 1-5)
  • Understanding and Using Skills for Writing (WR 1-5)
  • Business and ICT (IT 1-5)
  • Social and Emotional Intelligence (SE 1-5)
The students learn these 10 core skills through 12 Themes, each one being half a term in duration. Each Theme emphasises the key knowledge within one or two lead subject areas but this knowledge, although seen as an essential component of the learning, very much compliments the learning of the skills. Each theme has a significant Launch Day and Outcome that the students work towards. In several cases parents and the community are invited to the Outcome Day at the end of each theme in order to celebrate the learning of the students.
 
The allocation of students into the EFC is based on information from the Junior Schools. For all other subjects students are grouped according to ability after the receipt of the MidYis scores ( Further information on MidYIS ), an online assessment taken in early September. Transfers between teaching groups are kept to a minimum but are necessary at certain times following assessment periods. Please note that movement between Tutor Groups is very rare.
 
In lessons students will learn in a wide variety of ways. However, our teachers are guided by the principles in the diagram on the next page. These are of course in keeping with our status as an Applied Learning Specialist School and as a Lead School for Human Scale Education.
 
Students ‘Graduate’ in a formal ceremony at the end of year 8. Please see the Assessment page of this web site for further details.

Year-7-8