Year 9

The Year 9 curriculum for 2024-25 will be as follows, delivered across a two week timetable in three 100 minute lessons per day:

English 5 lessons	Maths 5 lessons	Science 5 lessons
PE 2 lessons	Modern foreign languages Students can opt for three Spanish lessons, three French lessons or a combination of the two
History 1 lesson	Geography 1 lesson	Religious Studies 1 lesson
Computing 2 lessons	Technology 2 lessons covering food, textiles and resistant materials
Art 1 lesson	Music 1 lesson	Drama 1 lesson

The Year 9 curriculum was praised by Ofsted for being broad, ambitious and demanding. It is designed to ensure that all students gain the necessary knowledge, character and skills to be successful in life. 

More detail about what students will learn in each subject can be found below.

What will all students learn in Year 9?

 

English

Unit 1: Novel (Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies)

Unit 2: Justice and Morality (sources about the death penalty including pre-20th century non-fiction)

Unit 3: Poetry (women in poetry, feminist critical theory)

Unit 4: Shakespeare (Much Ado about Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet or Richard II)

Unit 5: Play (An Inspector Calls)

 

Maths

Autumn term: Number; algebra

Spring term: Interpreting and representing data; fractions, ratio and percentages; graphs, tables and charts; angles and trigonometry; equations, inequalities and sequences

Summer term: Graphs; perimeter, area and volume; averages and ratios; transformations and constructions

 

Science

Unit 1: Energy stores and how to calculate energy efficiency

Unit 2: What are renewable and non-renewable sources of energy?

Unit 3: Animal, plant and bacterial organisms and their structures

Unit 4: How do chemicals join together in a reaction?

Unit 5: How do the heart and lungs work together?

Unit 6: How does the digestive system work to break down our food?

Unit 7: How can you calculate the density of materials and investigate their molecular structure?

Unit 8: How do we work out the amount of a chemical in a reaction?

 

PE

• Netball
• Volleyball
• Fitness suite
• Gymnastics 
• Handball
• Basketball
• Tag rugby or rugby
• Football 
• Table tennis
• Badminton
• Dodgeball 
• Athletics 
• Summer games 
• Team-building

 

MFL

 

Modern Foreign Languages

Triple French: updates coming September 2024

Triple Spanish: updates coming September 2024

Two French, one Spanish: updates coming September 2024

Two Spanish, one French: updates coming September 2024

 

History

In all units, students will learn how to make chronological and thematic links, assess change and continuity, evaluate significance, and analyse and evaluate primary and secondary evidence, including different interpretations

Unit 1: Native Americans

Unit 2: The Great War and Remembrance

Unit 3: Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

Unit 4: The Home Front in WW2

Unit 5: Empire, migration and Britain today

 

Geography

In all units, students will learn map skills (including OS maps and compass directions) numerical skills including data analysis, how to analyse graphs and how to use case studies and carry out investigations.

Unit 1: Development

Unit 2: Amble Fieldwork Enquiry

Unit 3: Dark Tourism

Unit 4: Rainforests

Unit 5: Hazards

Unit 6: Geographical Issues

 

Religious Studies

Across these units, students will learn the key beliefs and practices of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Hinduism as well as considering their responses to philosophical and ethical dilemmas.

Unit 1: How should criminals be treated?

Unit 2: Is death the end?

Unit 3: What has religion got to do with medical ethics?

Unit 4: What has religion got to do with gender and sexuality?

Unit 5: Can religion make the world equal?

 

Computing

Unit 1: Business activity: enterprise and entrepreneurship

Unit 2: Algorithms and Python programming

Unit 3: Networks

Unit 4: Human resources

Unit 5: Developing a marketing campaign

Unit 6: Web development

 

Technology

Fashion and Textiles 

• Identity: personalised craftsmanship based on students’ own personal identity (hobbies, interests, personalities and talents) designed and created using a range of decorative hand embroidery techniques and stencil making and printing. Research and inspiration taken from textiles artist Melanie Kyles
• Circular economy: the impact of plastic in the fashion industry with a focus on re-using plastic products in an effective way to create a textiles product. A range of plastic waste/products used to design a logo in the style of textiles artist Jessica Grady.
• Sustainability and environmental justice: research, design, upcycling and designing

Food and Nutrition

• Macro and micronutrients: lentil soup; pizza pinwheel; salmon and broccoli quiche. Nutritional profiling and its impact on future health. Factors affecting food choice. Further development of evaluative skills.
• Dietary needs at different life stages: meal planning; religious and cultural beliefs including vegetarianism. Food labelling including allergens. British and international foods. This term develops both practical skills and confidence within the kitchen. Lessons develop food science knowledge and the function of key ingredients within every dish. 
• Food provenance: sustainability; fair trade; food miles; carbon footprint; sustainable farming methods including organic, free range, and genetically modified foods.

3D Design

• Sustainability and eco-design (practical: eco-treehouse). Modern and smart materials (theory)
• Timber box design (practical: wooden storage box using technical wood joints). Timber (theory)
• Architectural container (practical: 3D card modified architectural model using Gerrit Rietveld as inspiration)

 

Art

Unit 1: Clay tiles. Students will start with creating three different GCSE-style artist research and response pages. They will then use developing skills to create a clay tile design inspired by their responses. Students will finally produce a 3D clay tile focused on steampunk, still life and under the sea.

Unit 2: Expressive portraiture. Students will learn how to take creative risks and explore experimental media application. Artists Dorian Popa, Clara Lieu and Russ Mills will inform students’ work through acrylic palette knife and dry brush painting alongside continuous line and watercolours.

Unit 3: Digital portraiture development. Students will complete a mixed media teacher/self portrait using artist studies as inspiration. Students will combine past skills and techniques to produce a digital piece using industry standard software, Adobe Fresco.

Unit 4: Street art. This snappy project informed by student voice allows students to study the history of street art whilst using known street artists such as Banksy and Blek Le Rat to create inspired collages and stencils focusing on current social, environmental and economical issues.

Unit 5: Architecture. Students will study artists Ian Fennelly and Ian Murphy to create a range of architecture-inspired experiments using a range of media such as fine liner, watercolour, inks and pastels. Students will then have the opportunity to reflect upon the project, plan and produce a creative, considered A3 final piece inspired by the North East.

 

Music 

Over the course of the year, students will develop to a higher level and apply skills in musical theory through listening to music, performing and composing. 

• Apply and express creatively their knowledge of the elements of music through appraising music
• Composing with more awareness of the criteria for different genres of music using keyboards and computer software
• Perform with more technical ability pieces using keyboards, drum kit, ukuleles and their own instruments, in an ensemble and as a solo 
• Unit 1: Popular music 
• Unit 2: Trailblazers and celebration
• Unit 3: Careers – Sound engineer (Foley artist and composing using music technology), music critic, musician/performer  
• Unit 4: Music for stage, screen and media 
• Unit 5: Fusions in music

 

Drama

• Musical theatre: costume and prop design
• Pantomime performing
• Researching careers within drama and performing arts
• Developing character creation skills
• Embodying a characterisation and using a range of character development techniques
• Working as a director and an actor to devise and film a play
• Becoming confident in a range of acting skills
• Delivering lines from a script to embody a role
• Performance: Blood Brothers
• Styles and genres of acting: naturalistic, Brechtian, and Theatre In Education
• Making Shakespeare modern