Year 7 and 8

Your child will join a House which will also be the basis of their form group. They will stay with this group throughout their time in the Senior School and their form tutor will typically move up the School with your child, enabling them to really get to know your son or daughter.

Alongside a core of English, Mathematics and Science, your child will also have lessons in Art, Design & Technology, Drama, French, Games, Geography, History, Information Technology, Latin, Music, Philosophy, Religion & Ethics, PE, and Spanish. Class sizes are small, typically no more than 24, and subjects such as Art, DT, IT and Music are taught in smaller groups to allow greater support in these practical subjects.

In Year 8 your child will follow the same curriculum as in Year 7, but with Science taught separately as Biology, Chemistry and Physics. They will also be able to choose to continue with French and Spanish, or replace one of them with either German or Russian. Mathematics continues to be the only subject where students are set.

In both Years 7 and 8 your child will have a fortnightly Wellbeing lesson, taken by their form tutor. Wellbeing covers issues related to personal and social development, such as friendships, health and growing up.

An afternoon a week is also given over to Enrichment. Your child will take part in six different activities on a rota basis. This will include Dance, Food and Nutrition, Textiles and swimming, plus our Learning, Friendship and Adventure (LFA) programme at Failand and library sessions in Year 7. In Year 8, LFA and library are replaced by canoeing, first aid and climbing.