WHY A BRITISH CURRICULUM?
Students Come First
English - British Curriculum - Year 7, 8 & 9
(Ages 11-14)
The overarching aim for English in the national curriculum is to promote high standards of language and literacy by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word, and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment.
The national curriculum for English aims to ensure that all pupils:
- read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
- appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
- write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
- use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
- are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Reading
Pupils should be taught to:
- develop an appreciation and love of reading, and read increasingly challenging material independently through:
• reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, including in particular whole books, short stories, poems and plays with a wide coverage of genres, historical periods, forms and authors.
The range will include high-quality works from:
• English literature, both pre-1914 and contemporary, including prose, poetry and drama
• Shakespeare (two plays)
• seminal world literature
- choosing and reading books independently for challenge, interest and enjoyment.
- re-reading books encountered earlier to increase familiarity with them and provide a basis for making comparisons.
Understand increasingly challenging texts through:
- learning new vocabulary, relating it explicitly to known vocabulary and understanding it with the help of context and dictionaries
- making inferences and referring to evidence in the text
- knowing the purpose, audience for and context of the writing and drawing on this knowledge to support comprehension
- checking their understanding to make sure that what they have read makes sense.
Read critically through:
- knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning
- recognising a range of poetic conventions and understanding how these have been used
- studying setting, plot, and characterisation, and the effects of these
- understanding how the work of dramatists is communicated effectively through performance and how alternative staging allows for different interpretations of a play
- making critical comparisons across texts
- studying a range of authors, including at least two authors in depth each year
Writing
Pupils should be taught to:
- write accurately, fluently, effectively and at length for pleasure and information through:
- writing for a wide range of purposes and audiences, including:
• well-structured formal expository and narrative essays
• stories, scripts, poetry and other imaginative writing
• notes and polished scripts for talks and presentations
• a range of other narrative and non-narrative texts, including arguments, and personal and formal letters.
- summarising and organising material, and supporting ideas and arguments with any necessary factual detail
- applying their growing knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and text structure to their writing and selecting the appropriate form
- drawing on knowledge of literary and rhetorical devices from their reading and listening to enhance the impact of their writing
Plan, draft, edit and proof-read through:
- considering how their writing reflects the audiences and purposes for which it was intended
- amending the vocabulary, grammar and structure of their writing to improve its coherence and overall effectiveness
- paying attention to accurate grammar, punctuation and spelling; applying the spelling patterns and rules set out in English Appendix 1 to the key stage 1 and 2 programmes of study for English.
Grammar & Vocabulary
Pupils should be taught to:
- consolidate and build on their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary through:
- extending and applying the grammatical knowledge set out in English Appendix 2 to the key stage 1 and 2 programmes of study to analyse more challenging texts
- studying the effectiveness and impact of the grammatical features of the texts they read
- drawing on new vocabulary and grammatical constructions from their reading and listening, and using these consciously in their writing and speech to achieve particular effects
- knowing and understanding the differences between spoken and written language, including differences associated with formal and informal registers, and between Standard English and other varieties of English using Standard English confidently in their own writing and speech
- discussing reading, writing and spoken language with precise and confident use of linguistic and literary terminology.
Spoken English
Pupils should be taught to speak confidently and effectively, including through:
- using Standard English confidently in a range of formal and informal contexts, including classroom discussion
- giving short speeches and presentations, expressing their own ideas and keeping to the point
- participating in formal debates and structured discussions, summarising and/or building on what has been said
- improvising, rehearsing and performing play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact.
Maths - British Curriculum - Year 7, 8 & 9
(Ages 11-14)
The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
- reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
- can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and nonroutine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programme of study for key stage 3 is organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should build on key stage 2 and connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge in science, geography, computing and other subjects.
Decisions about progression should be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content in preparation for key stage 4. Those who are not sufficiently fluent should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
Working Mathematically
Through the mathematics content, pupils should be taught to:
Develop Fluency
- consolidate their numerical and mathematical capability from key stage 2 and extend their understanding of the number system and place value to include decimals, fractions, powers and roots
- select and use appropriate calculation strategies to solve increasingly complex problems
- use algebra to generalise the structure of arithmetic, including to formulate mathematical relationships
- substitute values in expressions, rearrange and simplify expressions, and solve equations
- move freely between different numerical, algebraic, graphical and diagrammatic representations [for example, equivalent fractions, fractions and decimals, and equations and graphs]
- develop algebraic and graphical fluency, including understanding linear and simple quadratic functions
- use language and properties precisely to analyse numbers, algebraic expressions, 2-D and 3-D shapes, probability and statistics.
Reason Mathematically:
- extend their understanding of the number system; make connections between number relationships, and their algebraic and graphical representations
- extend and formalise their knowledge of ratio and proportion in working with measures and geometry, and in formulating proportional relations algebraically
- identify variables and express relations between variables algebraically and graphically
- make and test conjectures about patterns and relationships; look for proofs or counterexamples
- begin to reason deductively in geometry, number and algebra, including using geometrical constructions
- interpret when the structure of a numerical problem requires additive, multiplicative or proportional reasoning
- explore what can and cannot be inferred in statistical and probabilistic settings, and begin to express their arguments formally.
Solve Problems
- develop their mathematical knowledge, in part through solving problems and evaluating the outcomes, including multi-step problems
- develop their use of formal mathematical knowledge to interpret and solve problems, including in financial mathematics
- begin to model situations mathematically and express the results using a range of formal mathematical representations
- select appropriate concepts, methods and techniques to apply to unfamiliar and nonroutine problems.
Subject Content
Number
Pupils should be taught to:
- understand and use place value for decimals, measures and integers of any size
- order positive and negative integers, decimals and fractions; use the number line as a model for ordering of the real numbers; use the symbols =, ≠, , ≤, ≥
- use the concepts and vocabulary of prime numbers, factors (or divisors), multiples, common factors, common multiples, highest common factor, lowest common multiple, prime factorisation, including using product notation and the unique factorisation property
- use the four operations, including formal written methods, applied to integers, decimals, proper and improper fractions, and mixed numbers, all both positive and negative
- use conventional notation for the priority of operations, including brackets, powers, roots and reciprocals
- recognise and use relationships between operations including inverse operations
- use integer powers and associated real roots (square, cube and higher), recognise powers of 2, 3, 4, 5 and distinguish between exact representations of roots and their decimal approximations
- interpret and compare numbers in standard form A x 10n 1≤A<10, where n is a positive or negative integer or zero
- work interchangeably with terminating decimals and their corresponding fractions (such as 3.5 and 2 7 or 0.375 and 8 3 )
- define percentage as ‘number of parts per hundred’, interpret percentages and percentage changes as a fraction or a decimal, interpret these multiplicatively, express one quantity as a percentage of another, compare two quantities using percentages, and work with percentages greater than 100%
- interpret fractions and percentages as operators
- use standard units of mass, length, time, money and other measures, including with decimal quantities
- round numbers and measures to an appropriate degree of accuracy [for example, to a number of decimal places or significant figures]
- use approximation through rounding to estimate answers and calculate possible resulting errors expressed using inequality notation a<x<b.
- use a calculator and other technologies to calculate results accurately and then interpret them appropriately
- appreciate the infinite nature of the sets of integers, real and rational numbers.
Albegra
Pupils should be taught to:
- use and interpret algebraic notation, including:
- ab in place of a × b
- 3y in place of y + y + y and 3 × y
- a2 in place of a × a, a3 in place of a × a × a; a2 b in place of a × a × b
- b a in place of a ÷ b
- coefficients written as fractions rather than as decimals
- brackets
- substitute numerical values into formulae and expressions, including scientific formulae
- understand and use the concepts and vocabulary of expressions, equations, inequalities, terms and factors
- simplify and manipulate algebraic expressions to maintain equivalence by:
- collecting like terms
- multiplying a single term over a bracket
- taking out common factors
- expanding products of two or more binomials
- understand and use standard mathematical formulae; rearrange formulae to change the subject
- model situations or procedures by translating them into algebraic expressions or formulae and by using graphs
- use algebraic methods to solve linear equations in one variable (including all forms that require rearrangement)
- work with coordinates in all four quadrants
- recognise, sketch and produce graphs of linear and quadratic functions of one variable with appropriate scaling, using equations in x and y and the Cartesian plane
- interpret mathematical relationships both algebraically and graphically M
- reduce a given linear equation in two variables to the standard form y = mx + c; calculate and interpret gradients and intercepts of graphs of such linear equations numerically, graphically and algebraically
- use linear and quadratic graphs to estimate values of y for given values of x and vice versa and to find approximate solutions of simultaneous linear equations
- find approximate solutions to contextual problems from given graphs of a variety of functions, including piece-wise linear, exponential and reciprocal graphs
- generate terms of a sequence from either a term-to-term or a position-to-term rule
- recognise arithmetic sequences and find the nth term
- recognise geometric sequences and appreciate other sequences that arise.
Ratios, Proportion and Rates of Change
- change freely between related standard units [for example time, length, area, volume/capacity, mass]
- use scale factors, scale diagrams and maps
- express one quantity as a fraction of another, where the fraction is less than 1 and greater than 1
- use ratio notation, including reduction to simplest form
- divide a given quantity into two parts in a given part:part or part:whole ratio; express the division of a quantity into two parts as a ratio
- understand that a multiplicative relationship between two quantities can be expressed as a ratio or a fraction
- relate the language of ratios and the associated calculations to the arithmetic of fractions and to linear functions
- solve problems involving percentage change, including: percentage increase, decrease and original value problems and simple interest in financial mathematics
- solve problems involving direct and inverse proportion, including graphical and algebraic representations
- use compound units such as speed, unit pricing and density to solve problems.
Geometry & Measures
Pupils should be taught to:
- derive and apply formulae to calculate and solve problems involving: perimeter and area of triangles, parallelograms, trapezia, volume of cuboids (including cubes) and other prisms (including cylinders)
- calculate and solve problems involving: perimeters of 2-D shapes (including circles), areas of circles and composite shapes
- draw and measure line segments and angles in geometric figures, including interpreting scale drawings
- derive and use the standard ruler and compass constructions (perpendicular bisector of a line segment, constructing a perpendicular to a given line from/at a given point, bisecting a given angle); recognise and use the perpendicular distance from a point to a line as the shortest distance to the line
- describe, sketch and draw using conventional terms and notations: points, lines, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, right angles, regular polygons, and other polygons that are reflectively and rotationally symmetric
- use the standard conventions for labelling the sides and angles of triangle ABC, and know and use the criteria for congruence of triangles
- derive and illustrate properties of triangles, quadrilaterals, circles, and other plane figures [for example, equal lengths and angles] using appropriate language and technologies
- identify properties of, and describe the results of, translations, rotations and reflections applied to given figures
- identify and construct congruent triangles, and construct similar shapes by enlargement, with and without coordinate grids
- apply the properties of angles at a point, angles at a point on a straight line, vertically opposite angles
- understand and use the relationship between parallel lines and alternate and corresponding angles
- derive and use the sum of angles in a triangle and use it to deduce the angle sum in any polygon, and to derive properties of regular polygons
- apply angle facts, triangle congruence, similarity and properties of quadrilaterals to derive results about angles and sides, including Pythagoras’ Theorem, and use known results to obtain simple proofs
- use Pythagoras’ Theorem and trigonometric ratios in similar triangles to solve problems involving right-angled triangles
- use the properties of faces, surfaces, edges and vertices of cubes, cuboids, prisms, cylinders, pyramids, cones and spheres to solve problems in 3-D
- interpret mathematical relationships both algebraically and geometrically.
Probability
Pupils should be taught to:
- record, describe and analyse the frequency of outcomes of simple probability experiments involving randomness, fairness, equally and unequally likely outcomes, using appropriate language and the 0-1 probability scale
- understand that the probabilities of all possible outcomes sum to 1
- enumerate sets and unions/intersections of sets systematically, using tables, grids and Venn diagrams
- generate theoretical sample spaces for single and combined events with equally likely, mutually exclusive outcomes and use these to calculate theoretical probabilities.
Statistics
Pupils should be taught to:
- describe, interpret and compare observed distributions of a single variable through: appropriate graphical representation involving discrete, continuous and grouped data; and appropriate measures of central tendency (mean, mode, median) and spread (range, consideration of outliers)
- construct and interpret appropriate tables, charts, and diagrams, including frequency tables, bar charts, pie charts, and pictograms for categorical data, and vertical line (or bar) charts for ungrouped and grouped numerical data
- describe simple mathematical relationships between two variables (bivariate data) in observational and experimental contexts and illustrate using scatter graphs.