Pupil Curriculum Booklet and Guide to Year 8

2019/20

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Contents: Introduction 3

Mathematics 4

History 5

Geography 6

Drama 7

Sport 8

ADT 9

RE 10

Science 11

Music 12

Computing 12

French 13

English 14

Clubs 15

PSHEE 16

Digital Literacy 16

Final Tips 16

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Year 8, the final chapter! Anything that you want to do can be done: from trying out a new sport or subject to succeeding in your exams and school entries. In the end though, it all comes down to how you behave, both as a learner and as a member of the school community. Most importantly, the success of the school also depends on how other year groups perceive you.

1. Never forget that you are role models.

Younger year groups always look up to you as the leaders of the school. Show them that you are! Follow what teachers say and then you will set a good example for future years.

2. Treat teachers with respect.

Teachers are here to help; nobody wants to leave a bad impression during their last year in school. During any exam that you sit, that you haven’t prepared for enough, you will always ask yourself “Why didn’t I listen to Alexis or Chris or Paul?” You will regret those minutes wasted in lessons not being focused.

3. You are at the top of the school

As a Year 8, you will be at the top of school, meaning that you will be able to exercise authority in School Council and use your experience to help others. With this comes certain privileges like being able to wear your own coloured shirt.

4. Join clubs

You must make sure you make time for things you love. Choose a couple fo clubs/hobbies that really appeal to you and stick to it. It really does help to train your brain in different ways, and the clubs last year (especially Lego Club), were excellent.

5. Keep on the good side of the teachers

The one thing that teachers will pick up on the most is people who are not wearing uniform correctly, or behaving in a way they know they shouldn’t; top buttons undone or not having your shirts tucked in is not a good look, having that chat during a lesson that could wait until later is not going to help anyone. This is such a simple thing to solve.

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MATHS

(Teacher: Trausti or Richard) – Now, you will be doing a lot of work on CE (Common Entrance) papers for working up to your exams.

In Maths in Year 8, you follow one of three courses, aimed the types of schools you have applied for. There is the Common Entrance group, the MTS group and the scholarship group. Each group works hard to cover all the necessary topics to make sure your examinations and tests are as good as they can be.

Near the end of their year, we are given the opportunity to explore how Mathematics is used in different jobs: Finance and Banking, Business, Architecture, Medicine, Science, Engineering, Economics, Social Sciences and IT security. We are told that you are even going to get to go to places like the Bank of England and Bletchley Park to find out more!

There are lots of resources that helped us during Year 8, with Maths; here are some of our favourites:

DrFrostMaths.com MyMaths.co.uk Kerboodle.com Mangahigh.com Mathsworkout.co.uk

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And even more!

Nrich.maths.org Mathsonline.org Brainpop.com Coolmath.com – lots of games, problems

and puzzles Thatquiz.org bbc.co.uk/bitesize

HISTORYHistory (Teacher: Kyla) – Moving into Year 8, you will have many more opportunities to show off what you know in this subject, such as in the Townsend Warner Historical Competition and the Ampleforth Essay-Writing Competition. There will also be the Historical Fiction writing competition and club. You will also be going on a trip depending on what evidence question is going to come up in your exam.

In History, during Year 8 you are going to study these topics:

Christmas Term Spring Term Summer Term

Elizabeth I

Start the Stuarts

James I, Charles I and the Commonwealth

The Stuarts

Charles II and The English Civil War…

1666 - The Great Fire of London and the Plague

Tudors and Stuarts Revision

CE Exam

Post-CE Project

In Year 8, we continue the Common Entrance Course and study ‘the Making of the United Kingdom’: 1485-1750. We begin by completing the Tudors, picking up from where the course left off last year. We then move on to James I and then the Stuarts, which was our favourite topic. We even had a courtroom debate performed during an assembly, if you remember!

We also studied the social structures of Tudor/Stuart England and looked at different classes and the lives that they led. We also studied the impact of economic changes and crises for example the issue of poverty in Elizabethan England and the new Poor Law.

Our favourite memory from Year 8 History was the trip to the City Centre and the Museum of London where we looked at real excavated artifacts from the Great Fire and got to tour around some amazing sights. The model in the City centre was a real highlight, where you could see the whole of central London in model form and look at the street structures left over from historical times!

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GEOGRAPHY

Geography (Teacher: Law) – Most of Year 8 will be assigned to working on and completing your coursework, based on your trip to Surrey. Our biggest piece of advice to make sure that you submit the best piece of work you can and give yourself a head start for the CE exam is to MEET THE DEADLINES! Try to get work done a little bit at a time, but early. Don’t wait until the last minute and actually it’s not difficult to get really high marks in this. The final deadline for the coursework will probably be in February.

We also look at Transport and Industry and focus in on HS2, the new controversial high-speed rail service and we also study OS maps in much more detail; these are easy marks in the exam if you really focus on the lessons and learn map features carefully.

We have used some of these websites so far and found they helped support what we were learning, have a look at one each week to build up your knowledge:

http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/vue_main.htm OS website activities (www.mapzone.co.uk)http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/

http://www.metlink.org/pdf/teachers/simple_weather_instruments.pdf http://www.weatherforschools.me.uk/html/clouds.html BBC clip of Google office in Zurich www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7290322.stmGoogle Earthhttp://www.saveenergy.co.uk http://www.wastewatch.org.uk http://www.lifebytes.gov.uk/index_flash.html

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It might be a good start to actually learn where everywhere is! You could be asked about any continent in the exam!

DRAMAHands down, our favourite Year in Drama was Year 8!

Drama (Teacher: Niyazi) – In Drama, you will be working on one play per group. There will also be one week dedicated to making a film after CE. Film week was a real highlight for us, it was amazing being trusted with creating our own film and Niyazi really helped us to achieve this. Our biggest tip would be to join M:Tech; it really helped us combine musical technology with Drama by allowing us to make a musical score in a professional way. It is pretty scary presenting your work in front of parents and then at the GAW, but it was so much fun and we were all really proud of what we achieved.

Niyazi allows us to explore our own interpretations of characters in the plays we do and so the plays that we did this year were probably the best we have done.

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SPORTSports in Year 8 are very similar to what you do in year 7. In the opening term, everyone plays football, then in the second term you play either play Rugby or Hockey and in the final term and your last term at St Anthony’s, you play either Cricket or Tennis and on some days, athletics.

A difference in this year is that you need to act as role models to the year below you, because this will be their first year in the U13 teams and there are some differences. Continuing with being a role model in this year, you could be a captain or a defining player in the team. This year is your time to shine in sport as you are top of the school and it is your last year to show how good you are at sports and leading sports.

For us a big difference was doing PE every other term, because we have not done PE since Year 3. Remember on Thursday to bring your Games kit in, because you are doing Basketball in the playground. After half term, you are doing swimming practice for the Duathlon in the Spring term; the difference between the Year 7 one and the Year 8 one is that the Year 8 one is longer on both the swimming and the running leg. After the first term, in the first half of the second term, you do strength and conditioning, for example: you will do the bleep test, sprinting and also press ups. After that, you do swimming and a bit of water polo. In the final term you do International sports; this was very fun, as you do Handball, Kabaddi and Danish long ball. And, for your final half term, you have water polo.

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ADTDuring Year 8 in ADT, you are taught by Oli and continue with some fascinating areas of Design and Art creation, learnt about last year.

For us, the most interesting part of ADT in Year 8 is the continuation of our VEX robotics work, where we design, construct and programme robots. We kept an engineering notebook to record our progress and then presented our work to other students and visitors. We then got to test our expertise and the quality of our designing skills when we competed against other school’s robots!

Later in the year, we also got to design comic strips based on social dilemmas and then we have absolute freedom to complete an Art project of our choice using the materials that we want. This is difficult, as you have to plan and design the process and ideas from scratch, but with complete freedom to try anything, it is really exciting to see what comes out at the end!

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RELIGIOUS EDUCATIONIn R.E., you will be taught by Paul Keyte. It is hard, but such interesting work, as you start to explore real in depth, Theology and Philosophy. For example, we do ‘Just War Theory’ and look at nuclear weapons in the context of morality.

Throughout the year, we also prepared for the Common Entrance exam and studied various aspects such as:

The life and death of Jesus;

Discipleship;

Passion and Resurrection;

The Sacraments;

Worship in the Church;

and Catholic Life.

There were also websites that we used, as you absolutely have to keep your general knowledge and debating skills active:

http://video.iactiv8.com/ A wide range of videos and podcasts produced by Catholics for young people;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/;

http://www.tere.org/index.php?id=104 This Roman Catholic websites contains, amongst much other useful material, some revision games.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/floorplans/level-2/room-66 The National Gallery is well worth visiting, and the website also includes some interesting information about important religious works of art.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM The Catechism of the Catholic Church, included on the Vatican website.

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SCIENCE

There is obviously a lot of preparation for Common Entrance and other exams in Science this year. We would also strongly recommend joining a Science based club and attending Scholarship Science on a Wednesday morning. There is a lot to get through, but it really extended our love of Science.

We developed our knowledge, skills and understanding in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, went over practice papers, and revised topics from previous years.

The topics for Year 8 are:

Food and Nutrition; Plants and Their Reproduction; Breathing and Respiration; Unicellular Organisms; Combustion; The Periodic Table; Metals and Their Uses; Fluids; Light; Earth and Space; Forces and Motion.

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MUSICMusic (Teacher: Jonathan) – Mostly you’ll be working on theory and composition, but there will also be a chance for you to perform your own radio segment in a trip to Chelsea and Westminster radio station. This was such a great opportunity and we loved actually being in a real recording studio, thank you to Jonathan for introducing us to this! There will also be termly concerts, which will be a chance to show off your musical talents!

In Year 8, we focused on a number of specific topics, including:

Musical contrasts and song structure; Composing tools; Ternary and Binary form; Rondo form; Arranging; Bass ostinato and melody; Drones; Percussion; Completing the structure; Radio Project.

COMPUTING

Computing in Year 8 was really memorable, as it focused on STEM projects, where we programmed and built Robots for the VEX IQ International competition. This was such a fantastic way for us to develop both our coding and collaboration skills. Operating effectively as a team under pressure was hard, but we got there in the end and we know you will enjoy this as much as we did!

We feel that the most important aspect of computing is making sure we are digitally literate and understand how to use a variety of equipment, websites etc (not just int his subject), to make sure we are ready for Senior School and also for future work.

This year we studied:

E-Safety; VEX IQ Robotics Programming;

o https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexiq Bebras Competition;

o http://www.bebras.uk/ Designing & Programming 3D printing objects; Dismantling and rebuilding a computer.

FRENCH

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French really stretched us in Year 8, preparing us for the demands of Common Entrance and other exams. Tina guided us through and paid particular attention to developing our speaking skills; the scariest part!

There are a lot more past papers to practise in Listening, Reading and Writing, and then we completed our preparation for the oral topics for the final French Speaking Exam. We had one hour per week of oral lessons dedicated to French speaking and also learnt about French culture which we particularly enjoyed.

We had mock examinations which included several mock oral tests. Our top tip is to give this your full attention and prepare properly, because it really helped build our confidence.

Some of us, applying to specific schools, had separate help.

We learnt also, using VocabExpress to support vocabulary learning and topic work.

Specifically, this is what you will be learning:

Christmas Term SpringTerm Summer TermCE Oral Topics(Family, Free time, Home, School)

Revision of 3 tenses

Topic & Role-Play practice

Writing skills

Listening & Reading Comprehension practice

Pronouns

The Negative

CE past papers

Revision

We also found these particular websites helpful:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/subjects

http://www.languagesonline.org.uk

https://www.quia.com/shared/french

http://www.verb2verbe.com

https://www.vocabexpress.com

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English (Teacher: Chris)

At the start of Year 8, you will be taught, in great depth, the way in which you answer different types of comprehension questions, specifically ‘How does the writer’s style questions. Chris will often refer to ‘Linguistic Gymnastics’, but don’t worry- it’s not as painful as you might think! Trust me, it sounds (somewhat) dull, but it actually turns out being really fun! Who’d have thought that learning about the inner-workings of the English Language could be so interesting? (That’s a rhetorical question, for the record!)

Following this, you will begin to explore the key aspects of creative writing. If you are keen on enhancing your comprehension and creative writing skills, to ensure you end up in your desired school, then take part in the English Scholarship group available to you. It’s at the end of a long, arduous day, but it’s worth the effort.

If you’re lucky you will get to participate in Poetry Week! You are given the task of memorising your favoured poem and throughout the week, you will be asked by passing members of staff to recite it. Do not forget it or else…(just kidding- they will be kind and understanding). Don’t be afraid to take a risk; I’m afraid a Haiku won’t cut it.

Overall your experience of English in Year 8 will be worthwhile, and when you pass your Common Entrance (hopefully) with an A or above in English, you will feel like those extra sessions really paid off.

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PSHEE

During PSHEE in Year 8, we explore a variety of societal and practical problems including Identity and relationships. We have always loved PSHEE, because it gives us the opportunity to talk about and discuss issues that we all face. One of the highlights for us was attending the Sutton Life Centre where we experienced their ‘Street Experience’.

This is like a small town with real shop fronts where we are faced with dilemmas and difficult choices to do with growing up, like peer pressure, gangs and bullying.

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DIGITAL LITERACY

Not just ICT! Our access to the digital world is really important in Year 8. By now, we have learnt about how to be safe online and about how to select relevant sources from the internet, but now we are asked to use that information to communicate more effectively in the digital world. We also have to literally interact with robotics and coding, and communicate even more effectively to make that technology work for us. It is important for you to realise that most subjects teach us digital literacy in one way or another and hopefully you will be able to navigate the online world sensibly and successfully. You will definitely need it for your future careers!

FINAL TIPS:

Don’t waste Year 8…… there is an amazing amount of fun to be had, so many clubs and hobbies to choose from and trips and plays and competitions. Be the best you can be: make sure the younger boys look up to you with a sense of pride for school. It is so important that you prepare yourself well for your move to Senior School.

And most importantly, stay in touch when you leave!

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