Secondary
11-16 YEARS OLD
Following on from River House Primary, our Secondary School continues to provide a dynamic, balanced and engaging curriculum allowing all students to access their own educational pathways and thus, maximise their potential. Starting in Class 7, students build on their prior learning and begin to follow the directed path of the Cambridge programmes.
These are specifically tailored to suit the River House values of Live:Love:Learn.
River House Secondary combines an emphasis on an in-depth mastery of academic subjects like Maths, English, Science, Humanities and Modern Languages with the development of the soft skills, academic enquiry and focused learning needed for a happy and successful future in not only their school life but also in their transition to further education and adulthood.
We value the development of both deep-subject knowledge, as well as encouraging students to develop higher-order skills such as: learning from mistakes; positivity; self-awareness; teamwork; research; extended writing; presentation skills; critical thinking and problem-solving. These are eminently transferable skills that last a lifetime and are a key component of accelerating learning, making it both enjoyable and rewarding for our students.
The academic subjects run concurrently with a strong co-curriculum in Sport, Music, Food, Creative and Performing Arts, Humanities and Technology.
Additionally, we promote a more student-led experience in our Personal Project sessions. These give students the chance to choose a topic and an interest that they wish to investigate and pursue outside of their normal classroom practice. It is a real-world enterprise which encourages research, self-reflection, planning and critical thinking within a local, national and global context. Students are free to choose their area of exploration; previous topics have included sustainable living, the digital world, food and nutrition, environmental studies, charity work, musical performances, volunteering, fashion and healthy lifestyles.
Every student is individually mentored throughout their project with regular feedback sessions and is internally assessed at its conclusion.
The River House Secondary experience enables all students to develop the five attributes of the Cambridge Learner Profile: confidence; responsibility; reflection; innovation and engagement. They are joined in this by a truly global community of almost 1 million learners at 10,000 schools in 160 countries.
In Class 11, normally aged 16, our students sit externally assessed, international exams accredited by the Cambridge board of examinations. Most students take 5 IGCSEs in Maths, English Language and Literature, Science and a Modern Foreign Language.
Students know that these Cambridge qualifications are globally recognised and accepted by universities and employers in their home countries and around the world. A Cambridge qualification comes with an impressive reputation and will retain its value for a lifetime of education and employment.
We organise the Cambridge Secondary Mathematics curriculum in six content areas or ‘strands’:
- Number
- Algebra
- Geometry
- Measure
- Handling data
- Problem solving
The first five content areas are underpinned by the sixth: problem solving, which provides a structure for applying mathematical skills. Mental strategies are also a key part of the Number content. This curriculum framework focuses on principles, patterns, systems, functions and relationships so that learners can apply their mathematical knowledge and develop a holistic understanding of the subject.
The Cambridge Lower Secondary Mathematics curriculum framework provides a solid foundation for Cambridge IGCSE.
An essential subject for all learners, Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics encourages the development of mathematical knowledge as a key life skill, and as a strong basis for more advanced study. The syllabus aims to build learners’ confidence by helping them develop competency and fluency with mathematical concepts, methods and skills, as well as a feel for numbers, patterns and relationships. The syllabus also places a strong emphasis on solving problems and presenting and interpreting results. Learners also gain an understanding of how to communicate and reason using mathematical concepts.
We have designed our course to allow students to take either English as a First Language IGCSE or English as a Second Language IGCSE depending on circumstance.
The course enables learners to:
- develop the ability to communicate clearly, accurately and effectively when speaking and writing
- use a wide range of vocabulary, and the correct grammar, spelling and punctuation
- develop a personal style and awareness of the audience being addressed
Learners are also encouraged to read widely, both for their own enjoyment and to further their awareness of the ways in which English can be used. The Cambridge curriculum also develops general analytical and communicative skills such as inference and prediction, the ability to order facts and present opinions effectively.
The study of English offers students the opportunity to respond to a rich array of reading texts during the course. Students use these texts to inform and inspire their own writing, using a range of genres for different purposes and audiences. Students develop skills in speaking, listening, delivering presentations and responding to questions.
Prowess in English encourages appreciative and critical readers, writers, speakers and listeners.
Our aims are to enable students to:
- read a wide range of texts, fluently and with good understanding, while enjoying and appreciating a variety of language
- read critically and use knowledge gained from their reading to inform and improve their own writing
- write accurately and effectively, using Standard English appropriately
- work with information and with ideas in language by developing skills of evaluation, analysis, use and inference
- listen to, understand and use spoken language effectively
- acquire and apply a wide vocabulary alongside knowledge and understanding of grammatical terminology and linguistic conventions
Children are naturally curious and Science supports the development of a child’s curiosity, helping them to investigate problems, learn more about the world around them and understand and use scientific explanations for a wide range of phenomena.
Scientific enquiry is about considering ideas, evaluating evidence, planning investigative work and recording and analysing data. Scientific enquiry objectives underpin Biology, Chemistry and Physics, which are focused on developing confidence and interest in scientific knowledge, including environmental awareness and the history of science.
Students develop research, collaborative and creative skills that will help with many aspects of their future learning and development. The course supports progression to a wide range of science subjects at Cambridge Upper Secondary.
Cambridge IGCSE Combined Sciences gives learners the opportunity to study Biology, Chemistry and Physics; each is covered in a separate syllabus. It is a single award qualification, where learners gain an understanding of the basic principles of each subject through a mix of theoretical and practical studies, while also developing an understanding of the scientific skills essential for further study.
They learn how science is studied and practised and thus become aware that the results of scientific research can have both good and bad effects on individuals, communities and the environment. As well as focusing on the individual sciences, the syllabus helps learners to understand the technological world in which they live and take an informed interest in science and scientific developments.
Biology
- Characteristics of living organisms
- Cells
- Biological molecules
- Enzymes
- Plant nutrition
- Animal nutrition
- Transport
- Gas exchange and respiration
- Coordination and response
- Reproduction
- Organisms and their environment
- Human influences on ecosystems
Chemistry
- The particulate nature of matter
- Experimental techniques
- Atoms, elements and compounds
- Stoichiometry
- Electricity and chemistry
- Energy changes in chemical reactions
- Chemical reactions
- Acids, bases and salts
- The Periodic Table
- Metals
- Air and water
- Organic chemistry
Physics
- Motion
- Work, energy and power
- Thermal physics
- Properties of waves, including light and sound
- Electrical quantities
- Electric circuits
This course is designed for students who are learning Spanish as a foreign language. The aim is to develop an ability to use the language effectively for practical communication. The course is based on the linked language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, and these are built on as learners progress through their studies.
Our Spanish curriculum also aims to offer insights into the culture of countries where Spanish is spoken, thus encouraging positive attitudes towards language learning and towards speakers of other languages.
The subject content is organised in five broad topic areas. These provide contexts for the acquisition of vocabulary and the study of grammar and structures. The study of these topic areas enables students to gain an insight into countries and communities where Spanish is spoken. The five topic areas are:
- Everyday activities
- Personal and social life
- The world around us
- The world of work
- The international world
The syllabus gives students opportunities to develop and apply a wide range of foreign language skills. Students will be expected to read and understand a variety of written and spoken texts on familiar topics as well as demonstrate understanding of the main ideas, opinions and attitudes, select and extract relevant details and deduce the meaning of occasional unknown words from context. They will also have opportunities to write in Spanish on familiar, everyday topics, and to speak the language by taking part in everyday conversations.
Global Perspectives is a stimulating course that stretches across traditional subject boundaries and develops transferable skills. It is both cross-curricular and skills-based and taps into the way 21st century students enjoy learning, including teamwork, presentations, projects and working with other learners around the world. The emphasis is on developing the ability to think critically about a range of global issues where there is always more than one point of view.
Art & Design gives learners a platform to express themselves, sparking imagination, creativity and developing transferable skills. Students explore and push boundaries to become reflective, critical and decisive thinkers. They learn how to articulate personal responses to their experiences.
Students develop creative skills that will help with many aspects of their future learning and development. They will:
- learn to see themselves as artists and become increasingly reflective and independent
- develop the skills needed to express creative ideas and to communicate visually
- understand their place and the place of others in a creative, innovative and interconnected world.
This course supports progression to many other creative subjects in Classe 10 and 11.
The Cambridge IGCSE Art & Design syllabus aims to encourage a personal response by stimulating imagination, sensitivity, conceptual thinking, powers of observation and analytical ability. Learners gain confidence and enthusiasm as they develop technical skills in two and three dimensional form and composition, and are able to identify and solve problems in visual and tactile forms. They also learn how to develop ideas from initial attempts to final solutions. An ideal foundation for further study, Cambridge IGCSE Art & Design also develops a greater awareness of the role played by the visual arts in society and in history, broadening cultural horizons and individual experience.
A key vision at River House Academy is that all Secondary students undertake a personal project. This is a year-long piece of significant work, based around a topic chosen by the student, to develop and manage responsibility for their own learning.
The project is assessed at its natural conclusion through a demonstration and presentation to staff and peers. Students need to think carefully about the topic that they choose; it should be something that they are personally interested in and passionate about. Topics therefore vary widely and can be drawn from almost any area of interest.
Personal Project supports our students to become curious, confident, responsible, innovative, reflective and resilient learners. We believe that this is a desirable set of skills which will serve them well in the workplace and in life generally.
- Food and nutrition
- Gardening
- Physical Education
- Humanities
- Music
- Drama
- Dance
- Creative arts and crafts
- Technology
- Media Studies
- Personal Social Health and Careers Education