ENGLISH

The English curriculum at Key Stage 3 is designed to develop in our students the ability to express themselves confidently, to think logically and imaginatively, and to attain a deep understanding of literature. The course is designed to promote high levels of competence in students' command of the three skills areas of reading, writing and speaking and listening.

Texts and teaching styles are tailored to introduce a more GCSE level approach in order to prepare students for the high demands of Key Stage 4 English.

The following topics are studied throughout Year 9.

First World War poetry in context

Media: Film Studies

Shakespeare: ‘Macbeth’

Non-fiction and media

Spoken language study

The choice of text will be determined by the teacher depending on the needs and aptitudes of each set.

In addition, students are encouraged to pursue their private reading to help boost their reading age and skills.

MATHEMATICS

The following topics are studied throughout Year 9.

Term 1

Algebra-Equations, Expressions, Formulae

Mathematics for Scientists

Handling Data

Term 2 

Number-Fractions, Decimals & Percentages

Shape, Space and Measure-Properties of 2D & 3 D shapes

Term 3 

Shape, Space and Measure-Properties of 2D & 3 D shapes

Algebra- Sequences, Functions and Graphs

SCIENCE
  

The following topics are studied throughout Year 9. To reduce pressure on resources the topic order has to vary from set to set. Science is taught in sets in year 9.

Biology

Inheritance and Selection

Fit and Healthy

Plants for Food

Plants and Photosynthesis

Chemistry

Reactions of Metals

Patterns of Reactivity

Environmental Chemistry

Using Chemistry

Physics

Energy and Electricity

Gravity and Space

Speeding Up

Pressure and Moments

ARABIC

Students will consolidate their knowledge of the Arabic alphabet and improve their pronunciation. They will cover a range of vocabulary and topics from the Ministry of Education curriculum for Arabic as a second language to enable them to communicate in real situations. Students who are native speakers will follow the Ministry of Education curriculum that will be adapted to meet the individual student’s needs.

Topics covered in Year 9 include:

Hobbies and sports

Place and directions

At the hotel

The weather

Food and drink

At the restaurant

Describing people

FRENCH

The language skills in the areas of listening, reading, speaking and writing, increase in complexity in Year 9 and students have the opportunity to widen and deepen their understanding of the grammatical structures underpinning the French language. Students revise the present, perfect and near future tenses, and through differentiated activities go on to tackle more challenging grammatical concepts. Students work at different levels and different paces and there are plenty of opportunities for extension work. Students are encouraged to check their own work critically and to choose reading materials. They are expected to work independently using dictionaries and verb tables.

 Topics covered in Year 9 include: 

TV, films & books

What the future holds

A healthy lifestyle

Illnesses

Describing other people in detail

A region in France

Travel to and staying in France

PE

GEOGRAPHY

The following topics are studied throughout Year 9 as students study ‘One World’

Term 1

Mapping and measuring world development patterns

Aid and the Millennium Development goals

Tackling development

Term 2

Hazards and plate tectonic theory

Processes, management and responses to earthquakes

Processes, management and responses to volcanoes

Term 3

Energy production and fossil fuels

Global warming – what impact am I making on the world?

Renewable energy – what can I do the make a difference?

Each term the students will complete a ‘hot homework’ task allowing them to independently research a topic geographical issue.

Hot Homework tasks

Term 1

Ecuador ... should it be exploited?

Term 2

Coral reefs.... should we care?

Term 3

Antarctica ... should it be exploited?

MUSIC

TERM  1a 

"Fur Elise" Keyboard Performance

TERM  1b

“The Blues” – Listening Project

TERM  2a

“Beetles” Ensemble Performance Project

Arabic Project

TERM  2b

Musicals of the 20^th Century – Listening Assessment
 

TERM  3a

Word Music Composition

TERM  3b

Garage Band - Advert Composition

DRAMA

In Year 9 students expand on their explorative work and extend their range of strategies in preparation for GCSE options. They further their use of drama as a tool for investigation and as a process based form of learning rather than a product. They will work on skills such as:

forum theatre

devising

role play

image theatre

thought tracking

text based performance

movement

mime

Spontaneous improvisation, monologues and duologues and large group ensemble work will all be experimented with.

Students will continue to discover that almost anything can prove valuable as stimulus for drama, including literature, photography, journalism, and historical events, everyday objects and of course scripts.

Current Year 9 units include: 

mask work

text in performance

radio plays

playwriting

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

Graphic Products

Students will follow a carefully designed Graphic Products course to prepare them for GCSE should they decide to pursue this area.  The course will be run in an ICT suite and students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills both on the computer and practically.

Examples of work studied in this year are:

Water bottle case studies
Corporate Identity
Blister packaging

Resistant Materials

During Resistant Materials lessons students will be expected to work much more independently with a focus on creativity. During one of the terms students will be expected to work across curriculum disciplines such as History and Mathematics.

It is expected that products made during this year will be of good quality demonstrating the skills built up and learnt across the key stage.    

Some of the projects covered in this important year are:

Structures
Mechanisms
A creative design and make assignment.

ART

Theme: Objects

Topics

Take one object and tell a story

Still life

Recycle

Media

Drawing; printmaking; painting; collage; textiles; photography; sculpture

HISTORY

The following topics are studied throughout Year 9.

The Causes of World War One

The Key Battles of The Great War; 1914-18

The Consequences of World War One

The Causes of World War Two; 1939-45

Germany in the inter-war period

Appeasement

The main events of World War Two (Europe and the Pacific)

The Normandy Landings

The Impact of the end of World War Two

The Causes of the Cold War; 1945-1989 (If time)

The main events of the Cold War

The Impact of the Cold War.

ICT
The ICT department at JESS aims to provide students with ICT skills that are transferable across all disciplines combined with an understanding of ICT and Computing as a subject.

In Year 9, students will: 

Re-visit, to a deeper level, file storage principles studied in Year 8.  They will discuss the conventions of behaviour relating to respect for others' work and the use of passwords. 

Adhere to copyright and plagiarism laws and correctly source all data used in their work, including both primary and secondary sources.

Plan and manage an ICT project from start to end, using appropriate software to help. 

Build an e-portfolio using web software to present all work completed throughout the year. 

Understand the principles of the system development life cycle. Pupils will develop the ability to analyse, design, plan, build, test, evaluate and document ICT systems. 

Consider the sense of audience and purpose in all work produced. 

Use a wide range of ICT and problem solving skills to design solutions for a business scenario. Students will develop their expertise in the use of application software for solving business problems including spreadsheets, databases, word-processing, presentation, desktop publishing, web design, vector and bitmap-based graphics software and e-mail. 

Evaluate their use of technology and reflect on its use in solving business problems.