Middle School Curriculum

Students in the Middle School are taught by specialist subject teachers for all subjects. The students in Grade 6 spend a majority of their day in the Grade 6 pod area. As students move into Grades 7 and 8 they increasingly move between rooms and teachers, adopting more of a High School model. The following section outlines the general core subject requirements for each grade with detailed information for each subject. Each grade follows a 40-period week, with subject time allocated listed below.:

Grade 6 curriculum
Grade 6 students are taught as a tutor group set except for Mathematics and languages lessons. To read the details of the Grade 6 curriculum, click here.

• 10 periods of English and Humanities
• 5 periods of a Language Other Than English (LOTE)*
• 5 periods of Mathematics
• 5 periods of Science
• 2 periods each of Art, Drama, Music, Home Economics and Electronic Technology
• 1 period of Life Skills
• 4 periods of Physical Education

Grade 7 curriculum
Grade 7 students are taught as a tutor group set except for Mathematics, languages and Physical Education. To read the details of the Grade 7 curriculum, click here.

• 5 periods of English or English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
• 5 periods of a Language Other Than English (LOTE)*
• 5 periods of Mathematics
• 3 periods of Geography
• 3 periods of History
• 5 periods of Science
• 2 periods each of Art, Drama, Music and Electronic Technology
• 2 periods of Food and Nutrition for half the year
• 2 periods of Life Skills for half the year
• 4 periods of Physical Education

Grade 8 curriculum
Grade 8 students are not taught within their tutor group class sets. In Grade 8, students are taught in teaching sets except for Mathematics, languages and Physical Education. To read the details of the Grade 8 curriculum, click here.

• 5 periods of English or English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
• 5 periods of a Language Other Than English (LOTE)*
• 5 periods of Mathematics
• 3 periods of Geography
• 3 periods of History
• 5 periods of Science
• 2 periods each of the following five subjects: Art, Drama, Music, Information Technology and Design and Technology**
• 4 periods of Physical Education

* Students whose native language is not English and who need extra support are offered the alternative of Additional English instead of a LOTE course. Students then have five periods of Additional English during this time.
** Subject to sufficient demand, students can elect to take a second non-English language instead of Design and Technology and one period of Humanities.

Homework
Homework is an increasingly important and time-consuming part of the students' life in Middle School. Students are expected to complete their tasks to the best of their ability even if it takes a bit longer than anticipated.

In Grade 6, homework is set after double lessons. The maximum amount of homework per week in Grade 6 is around five hours, though it is rarely that much. A Grade 7 student has about six hours a week and a Grade 8 student about seven hours of homework a week. Students are also expected to read regularly.