Year 9 Assessments: Letter to Parents

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please find below some key information to help you support your child in their impending assessments.

Your child will sit formal assessments in all subjects in their first Assessment Window from Monday 5th October – Friday 23rd October. The results of these assessments, together with the teacher assessed grade, and an outline of how your child can improve, will be reported home the w/c Monday 9th November.

Please find below an overview of revision for each subject. Please encourage your child to complete any revision tasks set by their class teacher on Show My Homework. Your child should also use their Knowledge Organisers to revise; these be found here: https://rainford.org.uk/ks3-knowledge-organisers/

 

Subject Topics to revise
Art /
Design & Technology*
One of the following, based on the current rotation.  Students should revise using the relevant Knowledge Organiser and review the materials, techniques and processes involved in their design and practical work

·       Art – Distorted Portraits & Identity Project.

·       Food – Jam tarts, quiche, Bakewell, swiss roll, vegetable lasagne, calzone.

·       RM – Keepsake box.

·       Graphics – Designer clock.

·       Textiles – Cushion.

Computer Science Students will need to have knowledge of esafety and how to stay safe online, computer systems and how data is input and output from these systems. Students will need to be able to identify the difference between different logic gates and convert between binary and denary.

Students need to know what the CPU is and how memory is used within the computer and also different network topologies.

All content is covered on the 9.1 Knowledge Organiser.

 

Drama Year 9 Drama – Blood Brothers – Practical – staged scene, devised ending and monologue, written evaluation of practical work, key vocabulary

 

English Students will be studying the Power and Conflict and Love and Hate topics.  They should revise using relevant knowledge organisers and complete quizzes that have been set on Google Classroom.  For Power and Conflict, the first assessment will be a reading response where students evaluate a statement through detailed analysis.  For Love and Hate, the students will compare two poems.

 

Geography Dark Tourism – Students will be assessed on the content covered so far in this unit.  Students will need to be able to explain what is Dark Tourism and suggest reasons why people visit dark tourism sites? Students will need need to explain and evaluate the issues related to dark tourism sites studied so far including the positives and negatives of slum tourism in LICs and the issues of nuclear power at Chernobyl.

 

History Assessment will focus on how Jewish communities were persecuted under the Nazis – students need to review how treatment of Jewish communities changed from 1933-1942.  There will also be focus on why Hitler targeted the Jewish community and his personal beliefs around this. There will be a four mark describe and an eight mark explain question.

 

Maths** Assessment will cover content covered up to the end of the 1st half-term.                                                                       Higher tier (9R1, R2, R3, H1, H2 and H3): N1. Integers, N2. Rounding, GM1. Properties of polygons, A1. Use of symbols (some of) – students will need to look at Rainford Connect nearer the time for further details of where to revise up to. Students need to download the detailed topic list on Connect.                                                   Foundation tier (9R4, R5 and H4): N1. Integers, N2. Rounding, A1. Use of symbols, GM1. Angles – students will need to look at Rainford Connect nearer the time for further details of where to revise up to. Students need to download the detailed topic list on Connect.

 

MFL (Spanish) School subjects and opinions, school rules, comparatives and superlatives to describe teachers, future study plans. Plus the following topics from Year 8: past holidays, clothes.

 

Music Year 9 Music – The Blues – Practical – performance of bassline, chords and improvisation of the Blues,  written evaluation of work, key words

 

PE Assessment will be a practical task in the games activity that you are participating in at the time of assessment.

 

RE Crime, punishment and forgiveness  – What are the Aims of punishment. Why do people commit crimes, What are the religious beliefs towards Crime and Punishment including reference to religious quotes.   What do Christian believe about Forgiveness including a religious quote to support this.  Business Ethics including Religious views of Business and religious quotes to support it. Globalsation, Sweat shops, treatment of employees and a detailed description of how businesses could be more Christian.

 

Science Photosynthesis – plant structure and adaptation to enable this process. Respiration – aerobic and anaerobic respiration, the effect of exercise and fermentation. Global warming – process of greenhouse effect and consequences of climate change. Earth’s resources – how the reactivity series is used to extract and make metals pure, recycling in order to conserve finite resources

 

*Please note that the D&T and Art assessment will take place at the end of the rotation, in the final week of the half-term, w/c 19th October.

 **Please note that, as the Maths department start the GCSE course in Year 9, their assessments will take place slightly later on the w/c 9th November to ensure they have covered enough content.

 This is a crucial period in your child’s education and any support you can provide in line with the school’s provision will be highly beneficial. If you have any questions regarding your child’s progress, please do not hesitate in contacting your child’s subject teacher. Information on each department, including staff contact details and a termly overview of topics taught per subject, can be found on our website: https://rainford.org.uk/ks3-curriculum/.

If you have any queries regarding your child’s progress in general, please contact your child’s Learning Leader, Mr. Stow (r.stow @rainford.org.uk) or Pastoral Leader, Mrs Sheedy ([email protected]).

Yours faithfully,

M Winn

Miss M Winn

Assistant Principal Quality Assurance and KS3 Assessment