This encompasses years 7 to 9 and offers a range of subjects in order to prepare students for the subject choices they make at the end of year 9 and develop their skills for GCSE. Students are placed within one of three broadly equal bands A, B and C. Students within these bands are set by ability into teaching groups, 3 groups in bands A and B and 4 in C, this could vary across subjects. For example: – A student in teaching group A1 for Mathematics could be in A3 for English dependent on their skill set. These groups are reviewed regularly to reflect student’s individual progress. All students study the following subjects:

*Hours per timetable cycle denoted in brackets after each subject. This varies very slightly across the Key

*Stage for subjects: Science (Year 7, 5) ICT (Year 7, 3), Geography (Year 8, 3), Modern Foreign Languages (Year 8, 3), Design Technology (Year 9, 3) and History (Year 9, 3). PHSE and Careers are taught within PDM sessions with two hours allocated to these each timetable cycle.