S1 and S2
CURRICULUM
S1 and S2
The change from a largely one-teacher approach in primary to a system based on a weekly timetable offering a wide range of subjects with different teachers and change of classrooms is a major feature of the transfer from P7 to S1. As a result schools give a high priority to areas of pastoral and curricular liaison between primary and secondary.
The primary school years and the first two of secondary are now seen as a 5-14 continuum in terms of what and how children learn. There is a great deal of contact between primary and secondary to ensure a smooth transition from one system to another. Our subject departments, especially English and mathematics, liaise regularly with their colleagues in primary when planning their S1 and S2 courses. This area of curriculum liaison between the two systems is one which is involving more and more departments particularly in the areas of Environmental Studies and the Expressive Arts and which is effecting a smoother transition from one system to the other.
In First and Second year pupils are allocated to register classes of roughly equal size (max. 30 per class). Information from the partner Primary schools is used to achieve gender, ability and geographical balance within each class. These mixed-ability classes are further sub-divided into practical classes (max. 20 per class).
Pupils are taught either by register class for certain subjects such as history, geography and modern languages or by practical class for other subjects such as science, art, music, computing, home economics and craft, design and technology. English and mathematics classes in S1/2 are taught in average class sizes of 20.
The standard approach in S1 and S2 is that of mixed-ability teaching, deploying such techniques as direct teaching, group-work and resource-based learning. Setting according to ability takes place in S1 and S2 in mathematics and in French in S2. Regular assessments are used to diagnose how each pupil is progressing and whether pupils can advance to more demanding work or whether further supportive work is required. The ultimate objective is to allow pupils to progress at a very good pace and to achieve a certain prescribed core of content and skills. Our current S1/S2 curriculum is as follows:
S1Periods per week |
S2Periods per week |
|||
| English |
4
|
4
|
||
| French |
3
|
2
|
||
| German or Latin |
1
|
|||
| Mathematics |
4
|
4
|
||
| Geography |
1.33
|
1
|
||
| History |
1.33
|
1
|
||
| Modern Studies |
1.33
|
1
|
||
| Science |
3
|
3
|
||
| CDT |
1
|
1
|
||
| Home Economics |
1
|
1
|
||
| Art & Design |
1
|
1
|
||
| Music |
1
|
1
|
||
| P.E. |
2
|
2
|
||
| R.M.E. |
1
|
2
|
||
| P.S.E. |
1
|
1
|
||
| I.T. |
1
|
0
|
||
| Business, Enterprise, Finance |
0
|
1
|
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?