Moving from primary to secondary school is an exciting and significant event in the life of your child.
It is an important milestone which, for many parents and teachers, marks a change in expectations regarding crucial life-skills such as independent working and self-organisation.
When a child starts at secondary school, they are expected to cope with a whole variety of new experiences and changes, many of which demand skills and abilities that they have not had to use before. The problem is that these skills do not spontaneously develop in children in over the summer holidays – like reading and writing, they have to be taught and children need help in developing them.
The top two worries that year 6 students express are social concerns. Although common, most students report that they are no longer worried about these after just one or two weeks at school! If your child expresses these worries it is useful to tell them this, and to emphasise that everyone else will also be feeling anxious. As there will be many more children in year 7 than most year 6 groups, everyone has a good choice of friends, and even children who move up with several children from their class tend to make new friends at secondary school.
The remaining worries are nearly all to do with the new organisational demands. Luckily these are the areas where we can help the most!
How to help your child with homework
Presentation
Encourage your son/daughter to take pride in their work and present their books and work as neatly as possible. When looking at their books, work or homework please encourage them to do the following:
- Write with a pen.
- Set out work neatly using paragraphs, titles, headings etc. where appropriate.
- Underline headings using a ruler and pen.
- Use capital letters and full stops where needed.
- Check punctuation carefully.
- Make their writing as legible as possible.
- Leave the correct spaces between words and not to space the letters in a word too far apart.
Using the internet for homework
The Internet is a fantastic resource for students to use when completing homework. Please ensure they do not copy and paste huge chunks of writing from the Internet. To understand the work properly they need to be able to put the work into their own words. (It will also be very obvious to their teacher that the work is not their own!)
Some searches can produce hundreds of results pages linking to websites that are not relevant to your search. To avoid this happening, be careful when choosing your search words. The more exact your words are, the better your search results will be.
Follow the tips below to improve your search results, click on the search term to see an the example.
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase of several words together
Eliminating non-essential words from your search
Avoid using words that are not relevant on your searches. Including words like ‘how, and, in, to or as’ in a search will give a list of irrelevant search results. Only use the names of people, places or things that you want to find.
Searching with more than one key word
Use the +sign to search for webpages with more than one key word. Adding a plus to your search will ensure that all your results include the key words. For example, if you wanted to find out about recycling paper in Cardiff, you can improve your search by typing:
Mathematics
Students are expected to have a pen, pencil, ruler, rubber, protractor, compasses and scientific calculator for every lesson.
Mathematics homework will be set each week either as one long piece of work that will take approximately 40 minutes a week to complete or as two shorter pieces that will take about 20 minutes each.
If students wish to do more work they are very welcome to log on to maths watch (You will be given a user name and password by your maths teacher to access this site). This site has homework tasks that can be completed online for most topics. The site will also be very useful for revision purposes.
acute angle angle addition adjacent alternate amount area average axis/ axes calculate congruent corresponding co-ordinate decimal degree denominator digit | equation equivalent even formula graph horizontal isosceles negative numerator obtuse angle parallel parallelogram perimeter percentage perpendicular positive probability | primary quadrilateral questionnaire ratio recurring reflex reflect/ reflection regular/ irregular rhombus rotate/ rotation similar square root symmetry symmetrical vertex/ vertices vertical. |
area capacity centimetre circumference diameter estimate gram | height kilogram kilometre length litre measure metre | millimetre perimeter radius tonne volume weight width |
English
In Years 7, 8 and 9 there will be a reading and/or a written homework set each week, both taking approximately thirty minutes to complete. For the reading homework they are required to read their reading book either alone or to someone else at home. The written homework will often reinforce classwork.
Accelerated Reader
All students in Year 7-9 follow the Accelerated Reader programme. This scheme is designed to encourage students to read more often and help improve their reading ages, inference skills and use of vocabulary.
Students take a STAR test half termly. This tells us what range of books they should be reading. The books at the lower end of their range will be an easy read, within their comfort zone and those at the top will be more challenging.
Students gain points for each book they read and successfully quiz on. Students can change books and take quizzes in the Learning Resource Centre every break and lunchtime. If they achieve 85% or more they receive an award. There are a number of awards to work towards and the expectation is that all students will achieve the awards during KS3.
As a parent we ask you to ensure that your child reads at home for twenty minutes a day.
Below is a selection of books which are suitable for KS3 students. Included in the YR 7 and YR 8 lists are some books which may be more challenging – these are the Upper Year (UY) books. If you would like your son/daughter to have access to these books please ensure that you sign and return the permission slip. We encourage our students to read within their Accelerated Reader book levels in order to develop their inferencing skills, grow their word banks, enjoy reading the books as they will understand them, and also successfully complete the book quiz when they have finished reading the book. However, we also understand that there are students who already have a wide knowledge of different genres and who will need to have access to higher level books. New Accelerated Reader books are regularly added to the AR system.
Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz. BL 5.1 UY Points 7.0
Lion Boy – Zouzou Corder – Non AR
Cold Tom – Sally Prue. BL 4.4 MY Points 4.0
Troy – Adele Gèras. BL 4.9 UY Points 13.0
The Thief Lord – Cornelia Funke. BL 4.8 MY Points 13.0
The Moon Riders – Theresa Tomlinson – Non AR
Castaways of the Flying Dutchman – Brian Jacques. BL 5.2 MY Points 15.0
Alpha Force Series – Chris Ryan. – Non AR
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett. BL 6.3 UY Points 13.0
Carrie’s War – Nina Bawden. BL 5.3 MY Points 6.0
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens. BL 6.7 MY Points 5.0
Alice ’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll. BL 7.4 MY Points 5.0
The Lost World – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. BL 7.8 UY Points 13.0
The Railway Children – Elizabeth Nesbit. BL 5.5 UY Points 9.0
The Hobbit – J R R Tolkien. BL 6.6 UY Points 16.0
The Water Babies – Charles Kingsley. – Non AR
Black Beauty – Anna Sewell. BL 7.7 MY Points 11.0
Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfield. BL 5.7 MY Points 9.0
The Wizard of Oz – Frank Baum. BL 7.0 MY Points 7.0
Pollyanna – Eleanor H. Porter. BL 5.2 MY Points 8.0
Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery. BL 7.3 UY Points 17.0
The Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder. BL 4.9 MY Points 8.0
Peter Pan – J. M. Barrie. BL 7.7 MY Points 8.0
The Princess Diaries – Meg Cabot. BL 5.7 UY Points 9.0
Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman. BL 4.0 UY Points 14.0
Refugee Boy – Benjamin Zephaniah. BL 5.6 UY Points 10.0
Madame Doubtfire – Anne Fine. – Non AR
Plague 99 – Jean Ure. BL 5.2 UY Points 7.0
Granny the Pag – Nina Bawden. BL 5.3 MY Points 7.0
Step by Wicked Step – Anne Fine. BL 4.2 MY Points 4.0
Just Don’t Make a Scene Mum! – Rosie Rushton. BL 5.7 UY Points 6.0
Mates, Dates & Sole Survivors – Cathy Hopkins. BL 4.2 UY Points 5.0
Saffy’s Angel – Hilary McKay. BL 4.5 MY Points 6.0
Lola Rose – Jacqueline Wilson. BL 4.0 UY Points 9.0
Vicky Angel – Jacqueline Wilson. BL 4.0 MY Points 5.0
The Story of Tracy Beaker – Jacqueline Wilson. BL 4.4 MY Points 4.0
Feeling Sorry for Celia – Jaclyn Moriarty. BL 5.7 UY Points 9.0
Moon Riders – Teresa Tomlinson. Non AR
Northern Lights – Philip Pullman. BL 6.2 UY Points 19.0
Stormchasers – Stewart & Riddell. Non AR
Redwall – Brian Jacques. BL 5.6 MY Points 16.0
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien. BL 6.6 UY Points 16.0
The Earthsea Quartet – Ursula Le Guin. Non AR
Inkheart – Cornelia Funke. BL 5.4 MY Points 23.0
Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer. BL 5.0 MY Points 9.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events – Lemony Snicket. Non AR
The Spiderwick Chronicles – Tony Di Terlizzi & Holly Black. Non AR
Cry of the Icemark – Stuart Hill. Non AR
The Blade of Fire – Stuart Hill. BL 6.3 MY Points 1.0
The Wind of Fire Trilogy – William Nicholson. Non AR
Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling. BL 6.0 – 7.2 MY & UY Points vary
Narnia – C.S. Lewis. BL 5.4 – 5.9 MY Points vary
Watership Down – Richard Adams. BL 6.2 UY Points 25.0
The Named – Marianne Curley. BL 5.3 MY Points 13.0
The Edge Chronicles – Stewart & Riddell. Non AR
Diary of Anne Frank. BL 6.5 UY Points 14.0
A Child Called ‘It’ – David Pelzer. BL 5.8 UY Points 5.0
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Judith Kerr. Non AR
Chinese Cinderella – Adeline Yen Mah. BL 5.7 UY Points 8.0
All Creatures Great and Small – James Herriot. BL 6.8 UY Points 26.0
Plague 99 – Jean Ure. BL 5.2 UY Points 7.0
The Wheel of Surya – Jamila Gavin. BL 5.9 MY Points 14.0
Kiss the Dust – Elizabeth Laird. BL 5.1 UY Points 10.0
The Ruby in the Smoke – Philip Pullman (first of the Sally Lockhart trilogy set in Victorian London). BL 5.3 UY points 9.0
Roman Mysteries Series – Caroline Lawrence Sweet. BL 4.8-5.1 MY Points vary
Sweet Clarinet – James Riordan. BL 6.4 MY Points 6.0
The Silver Sword – Ian Serraillier. BL 5.5 MY Points 6.0
Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech. BL 4.9 MY Points 9.0
Vicky Angel – Jacqueline Wilson. BL 4.0 MY Points 5.0
Chandra – Mary Hendry. BL 5.1 UY Points 5.0
Ruby Holler – Sharon Creech. BL 4.3 MY Points 6.0
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon. BL 5.4 UY Points 10.0
Millions – Frank Cottrell Boyce. BL 4.0 MY Points 6.0
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole – Sue Townsend. BL 5.1 UY Points 7.0
Ally’s World (Series) – Karen McCombie. Non AR
Utterly Me,Clarice Bean – Lauren Child. BL 5.5 MY Points 3.0
The Edge Chronicles – Stewart & Riddell. Non AR
My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell Roald Dahl. BL 7.8 UY Points 17.0
The Garbage King – Elizabeth Laird. BL 4.9 MY Points 12.0
The Other Side of Truth – Beverley Naidoo. BL 5.3 UY Points 9.0
Chinese Cinderella – Adeline Yen Mah. BL 5.7 UY Points 8.0
Refugee Boy – Benjamin Zephaniah. BL 5.6 UY Points 10.0
Journey to the River Sea – Eva Ibbotson. BL 5.6 MY Points 12.0
Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine. BL 4.6 MY Points 8.0
Freaky Friday – Mary Rodgers. BL 4.4 Points 4.0
A Series of Unfortunate Events – Lemony Snicket. Non AR
The Story of Tracy Beaker – Jacqueline Wilson. BL 4.4 MY Points 4.0
Woof! – Allan Ahlberg. BL 4.7 MY Points 4.0
Five Children and It – E. Nesbit. BL 5.7 MY Points 8.0
The Borrowers – Mary Norton. BL 5.3 MY Points 5.0
Matilda – Roald Dahl. BL 5.0 MY Points 6.0
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl. BL 4.8 MY Points 5.0
Millions – Frank Cottrell Boyce. BL 4.0 MY Points 6.0
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis. BL 5.7 MY Points 6.0
Harry Potter (Books 1 -4) – J. K. Rowling. BL 6.0-8.0 MY & UY Points vary
The Snowgoose – Paul Gallico. Non AR
Jennie – Paul Gallico. Non AR
Dumb Creatures – Jeanne Willis. BL 3.6 MY Points 2.0
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips – Michael Morpurgo. BL 4.8 MY Points 4.0
How to support your child’s reading
- Encourage any reading; it is all good, whether it is newspapers, magazines, sports pages, TV Times, the internet or books.
- Allow your child to choose some of their own reading material with you either from libraries or shops. They are much more likely to read something they have chosen themselves.
- If you are going to listen to your child read, make sure that you have set some time aside without any distractions (as far as possible).
- When reading a book with your child, encourage them to read the blurb on the back of the book and discuss what they think the book is about before starting to read it.
- Share reading of the material with your child; maybe each reading alternate paragraphs. This improves comprehension as it increases the flow of reading and also helps to stop the child becoming disheartened at difficult passages.
- Ask your child questions about the material they are reading to check their understanding. Try to make the questions open-ended and not with just a yes or no answer.
- You could also check your child’s understanding by asking them to retell the passage or part of the story that they have recently read.
- Read little and often. As a rule of thumb, don’t read for any longer than 20 minutes unless your child would like to.
Science
There are many ways to support your son or daughter’s learning in Science
- Science is topical, so encouraging your child to watch the news and read newspapers will help inform them of the issues facing the world. Science is full of opinions, so debating controversial topics is a way of training the Scientist within!
- Visit the library- Encourage your child to read fiction and non-fiction with a Scientific theme e.g. Horrible Science books.
- Encourage your child to come and ask us questions. We may not always know the answer but it will be fun discovering together.
A Acid Adolescence Alkali Amphibian Apparatus Asteroid Atmosphere Attraction B Balance Basin Beaker Bunsen burner | D Density Diffusion Distillation Dormant E Eclipse Element Energy transfer Equation Equipment Expansion Evaporating F Feature Fetus /foetus Filtration Food web Friction Fuel G Gas pressure Gauze H Habitat Hazard Hereditary Hibernation Hydrochloric acid Hydrogen
| I Indicator Inherited Insoluble Insulation Interdependence Invertebrate L Light intensity Limb Line graph Line of best fit Litmus M Magnetic Magnitude Mammal Mass Menstruation Methane Method Migration Multi-cellular N Neutral Nucleus Newton O Orbit Organisms Ovary Oviduct Ovulation Oxide | P Particle Pestle Petri-dish PH range Pipette Placenta Planet Prediction Proximity Puberty R Reactant Reaction Reliability Reptile Repulsion Results Risk S Safety Satellite Saturated Solution Separate Solute Solution Solvent Spatula Species Sperm Suspension
| T Taxonomic group Testis Theory Thermometer Tissues Trace Tripod U Uterus V Variation Vertebrate Vibration W Word equation Z Zinc
|
ICT
The topics are covered in a series of projects which are listed below:
Graphics Project:
Part 1 – Working with line vector images
Part 2 – Working with Bitmap Images
Understanding Graphics and terminology
Animation Project
This is the platform we use to understand coding and create animation. Each project is undertaken in their ICT class time.
The students will all have a school email account which is completely controlled by the school for security reasons. Through this the students access the Microsoft Office 365 Cloud which gives each student free access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint at home, or anywhere on a computer. The students will be expected to undertake ICT homework and save it in the Cloud.
Physical Education
At Key Stage 3 students are given two hours of PE every week. Students have a wide breadth of study including; Rugby, Football, Basketball, Netball, Swimming, Trampolining, Gymnastics, Badminton, Health Related Exercise, Athletics, Cricket, Rounders and Dance. During these lessons students are developing their understanding within the sport, acquiring skills and then learning how to apply the correct skills, evaluating their own and others’ performances and understanding fitness and health benefits within the sport.
We have an extensive extra-curricular timetable and staff are extremely committed and give up their time to provide many opportunities for our students. There is at least one club, often two, on every lunch time where students can just turn up and join in. Every night Monday – Thursday there is a club after school. The clubs timetable will change each term to match what the students are doing in their lessons. We compete in many fixtures against other schools in a wide range of sports and compete well for a school of our size. We also run a full intra-school house sports competition to allow as many students as possible to compete in competitive sport.
Geography
It is easy to help to develop your son/daughter’s passion for Geography. If you have a computer at home Google Earth is an excellent programme to use.
There are a number of websites which are fun and promote learning:
Mapzone – run by Ordnance Survey with lots of fun activities and games.
BBC Bitesize – good for background information.
A good quality Atlas is also a valuable book to support home learning.
‘Horrible Geography’ books are also available from the school library and are an excellent fun way to learn.
RE and PSHCE
The primary purpose of RE and PSHE lessons are to allow our students to be able to learn and explore a range of religious and worldviews in a safe environment, where they feel confident in expressing their own beliefs and ideas. You can support your child’s learning in RE by asking them their opinions about their views on God, the purpose of religious buildings, the purpose of religion in the world and what they are learning about in their RE lessons at school. In PSHE students should be encouraged to discuss how to save money and how to budget. Furthermore asking them their opinions about why their are legal restrictions on cigarettes, drugs and alcohol? How to have a healthy relationship (including friendships and family) including how to recognise unhealthy relationships.
BBC Bitesize can be used to supplement the support you are giving to your child
Drama
Drama has an important role to play in the personal development of our students. The skills and qualities developed by students in drama, such as teamwork, creativity, leadership and risk-taking are assets in all subjects and all areas of life. Drama stimulates the imagination and allows students to explore issues and experiences in a safe and supportive environment.
It is vital to create an atmosphere of security, trust and concentration. Drama promotes self-esteem and provides all students with a sense of achievement regardless of academic ability. It’s about social skills, communication skills and having fun – we learn by doing!
To participate in a range of drama activities and to evaluate their own and others’ contributions, students should be taught to:
- use a variety of dramatic conventions to explore ideas, issues, texts and meanings;
- use different ways to convey action, character, atmosphere and tension in scripting and performing plays, e.g. through dialogue, movement, pace;
- appreciate how the structure and organization of scenes and plays contribute to dramatic effect;
- evaluate critically the intentions and performance of dramas in which they have participated or have watched.
Key skills: Communication and working with others.