Upper School

Download the 2019 to 2020 Upper School Prospectus here

The curriculum: Class 8/Year 9 to Class 10/Year 11

The Upper School curriculum aims to meet the adolescent’s new capacities for critical thinking and independent judgment, as well as their interest in life’s big questions: What is justice? What do we mean by truth? What will give my life meaning? How can I make a difference in the world?  Pupils study a wide range of exam and non-exam subjects. All students study all areas of the curriculum to maintain breadth and balance of their education. The level and approach is personalised and differentiated in order to meet the needs and engage the interest of all pupils.

All lessons are taught by specialist teachers and the Class Teacher is replaced by a Class guardian, who has a pastoral role, and may or may not teach the class. The Main Lesson system continues and includes all the pupils in the year group and cover a range of topics delivered in an integrated multidisciplinary approach. The sciences are taught experientially and follow a “phenomenological approach,” which means that the teacher sets up an experiment and calls upon the pupils to observe carefully, ponder, and discuss what is happening. Approaching the subject matter in this manner develops scientific thinking as an organic skill as well as competency within the student. Starting in Class 8 and continuing through the Upper school, each year the curriculum brings a new topic in the fields of physics, chemistry, and biology. However, because the number of exam offered has expanded, the range of Main Lessons subjects has been reduced and have been dovetailed to accommodate the exam subjects.

Class 8/Year 9

Main Lessons include:

• science: human anatomy, chemistry, mechanics;
• humanities: geography, including meteorology; history – western culture from the 17th Century to the present, examining in particular revolutionary periods, including the English Reformation and Civil War and the revolutions in America, France and Russia. Biographies of inventors, industrialists and social reformers;
• English: Individualised study of literature. A major Shakespeare drama production;
• maths: arithmetic, including simple and compound interest, power and roots, algebra, linear and curved graphs, equations, integers;
• geometry: the five Platonic solids, Euler’s Law, Laws of Enlargement;
• computing: pupils are introduced to the working principles of contemporary technological devices through first understanding of their historic roots and their social, economic and cultural contexts. Computer studies are introduced after pupils have been given the opportunity to grasp binary systems.

In addition there are regular subject lessons in RE, music, art, crafts, games, maths and English

Class 9/Year 10

Main Lessons include:

• science: physics: electricity and communications; organic chemistry; human biology: lungs and heart/blood circulation; the senses (with focus on the skin); recreational drugs and their physiological effects;
• humanities: geography/geology/geomorphology: the physical earth – plate tectonics, rock types and different landscapes; minerals as a resource; detailed map reading; orienteering; extensive field studies. History, including history of art from ancient civilisations to the Renaissance; 20th and 21st century history: forms of government, major political and social changes; challenges to democracy;
• English: drama and history of drama from Greek tragedy to the present, literature and drama, including their historical development and different genres;
• maths: two and three dimensional geometry.

In addition there are regular subject lessons in Spanish, RE, music, art, crafts, games, maths and English

Courses in the following GCSEs (and vocational equivalents) are offered.

• English language
• English Lit
• Maths
• Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Biology)
• History
• Spanish
• Art
• Music
• Craft
• Drama

Class 10/Year 11

Main Lessons include:

• maths: trigonometry and surveying (including a project on school grounds);
• science:  physics (dynamics and gravitation); chemistry of metals; biology: human physiology, anatomy, embryology and sexuality;
• humanities: history – anthropology; culture and the evolution of civilisation; geography: climatology and oceanography; the world’s biomes and modern ecological challenges; globalization; geo-politics; sustainable development;

In addition there are regular subject lessons in Spanish, RE, music, art, crafts, games, maths and English

The GCSE (and vocational equivalent) courses continue from Class 9.