In year 9 students have 30 lessons a week, these are allotted as follows:

Number of lessons per subject

Below is a general overview of the topics students are taught throughout the year in each subject.

For a more in depth outline of each subject please click on the link for the subject page.

If you would like to speak to us about any aspect of our curriculum, please get in touch.

Art

  • Hundertwasser
  • Hockney Landscape painting

Computing

In Year 9, the topics are more relatable to Computer Science in preparation for their option choices, the students will study “Cybercrime”, “Digital Circuits”, “Getting down and online”, “Programming” and then a topic will be specifically related to Business Studies for the students to gain an insight into what Business Studies is before they make their GCSE options.

Visit our computing page for more information

Dance

Autumn term

  • Rosie Kay
  • Emancipation of expressionism

Spring term

  • Nutcracker ballet
  • Teacher led movement

Summer term

  • Performance assessments
  • Intro to GCSE
  • Skills and techniques assessment

Design and technology

Food

  • Further development of core skills
  • Planning and cooking dishes for a child

DT

  • Woodwork – Snap and grab
  • Pencil stand
  • Metals practical – Aluminium key tag

Textiles/Graphics

  • TBC

Drama

Autumn term

  • Physical theatre
  • DNA

Spring term

  • Surrealism
  • 9/11 themed performance works

Summer term

  • Intro to GCSE

English language and literature

Autumn term

Orangeboy (novel)

  • Explore the function and distinct voices of characters. Narrative structure. Descriptive detail in crafting characters, settings and key events.
  • Differentiate between inference and deduction.
  • Extend knowledge of writers’ craft: plot, characterisation, descriptive detail, how to create suspense and the impact on the reader.
  • Analyse writers’ intentions
  • Foreshadowing, suspense, tension
  • Motif

Spring term

The Ostrich Boys (modern play)

  • Develop understanding of modern drama. Revisit and extend knowledge of modern drama conventions: stage directions, characterisation, different narrative voices, form, structure, language, tension, flashbacks, foreshadowing.
  • Explore the function of different characters
  • Explore the relationships between characters
  • Explore the barriers between characters
  • Explore the symbolism of props and motifs

Summer term

The Woman in Black

  • Introducing a novella.
  • Layered narrative structure
  • Gothic conventions
  • Exploring the fear of the unknown and the reliability of the narrator.
  • Exploring the function of the narrator
  • Exploring the barriers of fear and isolation
  • Exploring the function of setting
  • Motif

GCSE Poetry Anthology

  • Revision and development of poetry analysis skills
  • Introducing a poetry anthology
  • Introduction to GCSE texts and literature AOs
  • Focus on language, structure, terminology and effect on reader
  • Selecting evidence precisely to illustrate understanding of writers’ methods and intentions

Geography

Autumn term

  • Rivers
  • River basin & watershed
  • Types of erosion & transportation
  • Landform features creation
  • Development
  • Development definition
  • Reasons for poor development
  • The development gap

Spring term

  • Tectonic hazards
  • Plate tectonics
  • Distribution of tectonic hazards
  • Plate boundaries
  • Weather Hazards
  • Global Atmospheric Circulation
  • Tropical storm creation
  • Primary and secondary effects of tropical storms
  • Somerset floods case study

Summer term

  • Climate change
  • Effects of climate change on people.
  • Mitigation – alternative energy, carbon capture, planting trees and international agreements.
  • Adaptation – managing water supply, change in agricultural methods and reducing the risk from rising sea levels.

History

Autumn term

  • Black, British and Belonging
  • The Middle Passage
  • Slave auctions
  • Slave worked economies
  • Punishment on a plantation
  • Revolt and resistance
  • The Civil Rights Movement in the USA, 1950s to 1970s
  • The American Civil War
  • The Emancipation Proclamation
  • Civil rights abuses and prejudice
  • The Klan and white supremacy

Spring term

  • Early Twentieth Century Britain – The Liberal Government and women’s Suffrage movement
  • Reasons for reform in Britain
  • Liberal welfare reforms program
  • Impact of the Liberal reform program
  • Women’s suffrage movement
  • Arguments for and against women’s suffrage
  • The First World War
  • Impact of trench warfare
  • Weapons of warfare
  • Shot at Dawn
  • Battle of the Somme

Summer term

  • The Holocaust
  • Nazi treatment of German Jews
  • The Final Solution
  • Children of the Holocaust
  • Anne Frank
  • A Nation of Contrasts: The USA 1910-1929: Immigration
  • A Nation of Contrasts: The USA 1910-1929: Racial and Religious Tolerance

Mathematics

Foundation

Autumn term

  • Place value, rounding, estimating
  • Directed number
  • HCF/LCM
  • Algebraic manipulation
  • Angles
  • Sequences
  • Fractions

Spring term

  • Solving equations
  • 2D shape
  • Percentages
  • Index laws

Summer term

  • Ratio & proportion
  • Analysing data
  • 3d shape
  • Coordinates and linear graphs
  • Representing data
  • Probability

Higher

Autumn term

  • HCF/LCM
  • Index laws
  • Standard form
  • Congruence and similarity
  • Manipulating quadratics
  • Fractions and reciprocals
  • Solving equations and rearranging formula

Spring term

  • Analysing data
  • 2D shapes
  • Ratio and proportion
  • Angles
  • Percentages

Summer term

  • Sequences
  • Pythagoras
  • Trigonometry
  • Real life graphs
  • Representing data
  • Transformations
  • Scale drawings & bearings

Modern foreign languages

French

  • Technology
  • Teenage issues
  • Diet and health
  • Parties and festivals
  • Transport and holidays

Spanish

  • Entertainment – social media/tv/films
  • Fashion and shopping
  • My world
  • The Hispanic world

Visit our modern foreign languages page for more information

Music

Autumn term

  • Music for stage and screen
  • Somewhere Over The Rainbow
  • Jingle Bells

Spring term

  • Ukelele
  • Performance and appraising
  • Tchaikovsky

Summer term

  • Musical variations
  • Composition variation assessment
  • Introduction to GCSE

Physical education

  • Enhance tactical approach to sport
  • Components of fitness
  • Theoretical application of sporting knowledge
  • New skills, practices and activities
  • Further enrichment opportunities
  • Participation or performance
  • Enhance practical ability in a broad range of activities

Religious studies

Autumn term

  • Life After Death
  • Cultural celebrations – Day of the Dead
  • Sky Burials
  • Near Death Experiences
  • Heroes of Faith
  • Death in the Sand
  • Life and times of Gandhi
  • Heroes of Faith: Judaism
  • Nicky Cruz
  • Dr Martin Luther King
  • Muhammad Yusuf – Islam
  • William Booth and the Salvation Army

Spring term

  • Ethics and Religion
  • Morality of animal testing
  • IVF The right to a child?
  • War and Justice
  • Child soldiers
  • Aspects of Buddhism
  • The story of Siddhartha
  • The four noble truths
  • The Three marks of existence (Universal truths)
  • The Noble eightfold path
  • The five precepts

Summer term

  • Introduction to GCSE

Science

Autumn term

  • Cell Biology
  • Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
  • Atomic Structure (Physics)
  • Consolidation

Spring term

  • Infection and Response
  • Particle Theory
  • The Atmosphere
  • Electromagnetism
  • Consolidation

Summer term

  • Bioenergetics
  • Ecology Part 2
  • Sustainable Development
  • Revision for End of Year Exams