Is syllabus of year 7/8/9 of private schools different?

[omismum]

Hi everyone,
Hope you all are having relaxing holidays.
I wanted to ask if,is their any difference between private and GS or Comp school syllabus in year 7/8/9?
Or do they teach a year ahead?
It sound bit silly but I am just curious?

Thanks

[Daogroupie]

State schools have to teach the KS3 syllabus as laid down by the government for Years 7, 8 and 9. In Year 10 students will start work on two year GCSE courses,some of which like English and Maths and Science, they have to do and four or five that they can choose. Private schools can do what they like as they are free from government mandates but most of them also follow the KS3 syllabus as most of them will also be doing GCSE's. Is there any particular reason for your question? DG

[stevew61]

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/lea ... mfactsheet" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum, but do not have to follow the National Curriculum. However, there are a number of statutory and other requirements that are set out in this section.

Many state schools now have more freedom as they are academies.

[Kingfisher]

The answer is yes. And they can differ from school to school. As DAOGroupie says, most use some aspects of the KS3 curriculum, but not always and not all of them. As for being ahead, well, it would depend on the ability level of the group. In some cases two years ahead is more like it - my DD at top indie girls' school is doing GCSE higher tier Maths work in year 8 and writes like an A Level student.

For my subject - English - it is difficult to say; I teach some GCSE skills in year 8, although I use different texts.

Where is your DC?

[omismum]

Thank you DG and kingfisher and steve61,
My dc is in GS.
Well, just being curious abut it.

[sbarnes]

it is normal to benchmark ones own child against those attending indie schools. At the end of the day they will all be competing for university places, if that is their chosen route. What can be different though is the board they follow for GCSE for example. Then there are GCSE's and iGCSE's?

[Guest55]

Higher GCSE work means level 6 plus which our Year 7s do!

There is a lot of rubbish spoken about the differences but having worked in both I would say there is little difference between a GS a a good private school. A comprehensive will have a wider range of ability but top groups will be similar to a GS.

The main difference would be qualified teachers in a GS and probably better teaching from what I've seen.

[BusyQueenBee]

DS is yr 7 at a private school. He has some subjects he would not be doing at his local comp such as latin and the three separate sciences (the comp does single science) and in the case of this particular comp, they even combine geography and history the first year which he of course has as two different subjects. The comp also doesn't stream for many subjects whereas the private is highly selective which means the whole year is a top group and they can go really fast.
This is just a comparison with our local comp of course.
I don't think GS would be any different to the private school re curriculum and level.

[Daogroupie]

So it is not possible for any student at your local comp to do triple science at GCSE? Normally the decision about triple science is made at end of Year Nine not in Year Seven. What happens in the sixth form? Are all three Science A levels offered? DG

[BusyQueenBee]

They can take triple science as of year 9 I think. Sorry, the question referred to KS3 so I focused on that. In terms of GCSEs options, they of course have triple science as one of the options.