Year 7 Term 1

Art and Design

Students will be encouraged to think inventively and imaginatively whilst building up an understanding of the visual language used by artists and designers within a design and expressive context. 

• Colour, tone, form, shape, line, pattern, texture, composition and scale
• Folder design, lettering, layout, colour mixing
• The built and natural environment - the sights and sounds of Doha/Qatar
• CISD calendar design - cross-curricular project with ICT department
• Portraiture unit - ceramics, printmaking, paint and mixed media techniques

English

English is a core subject for all students and the four elements of writing, reading, speaking and listening are taught across the entire curriculum. 

Relationships and community - some essential questions. 

• What are the elements that build a strong friendship?
• What impact does family have during different stages of our lives?
• What can we learn from different generations?
• How is conflict an inevitable part of relationships?
• How are people transformed through their relationships with others?
• What is community and what are the individual's responsibilities to the community as well as the community's responsibilities to the individual? 

Novels, plays, poems and short stories will all be visited throughout the course and be a vehicle for learning and the enjoyment of reading for pleasure. 

French

All lessons will include the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. The target language will be used as much as possible to assist student learning of the language and the build up of vocabulary and grammatical skills. 

• Greetings, introducing yourself, the alphabet, numbers, home country/host country, months, talking about your age and birthday, talking about brothers, sisters, and pets.
• Items in your bag and pencil case, school subjects and opinions, timetables, times and lessons, classroom language.
• Talking about hobbies, saying what your favorite hobbies are, saying where you go to do things, talking about youth club activities.

Geography

Unit 1. Making connections:

• Where is our place and what is it like?
• How is our place connected to other places?
• What do we know, think and feel about other places?

Unit 2. The restless earth - earthquakes and volcanoes:

• Where do earthquakes and volcanoes occur and what exactly are volcanoes?
• What happens when a volcano erupts? What is the impact of volcanic eruptions in different places around the world
• What makes the Earth move? What happens in an earthquake?
• How can language be used to evoke emotion? Cross-curricular link with English
• Looking at case studies. What happened in the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan?
• Can Earthquakes be managed? What can be done to minimise the effects of earthquakes?
• Why do people choose to live in active zones and what is the role of aid agencies?

History

History has moved on from learning about battles, dates and dead people. There are still elements of that of course, but the focus is very different. It is much more about looking at and interpreting information from a variety of sources, documents, letters, maps, photographs, posters, cartoons and so on. 

Unit 1. Introductory unit what's it all about?

• Who is the most important person I know about in history?
• What's history got to do with me? 

Unit 2. How did medieval monarchs keep control?

• How did William of Normandy grasp and secure control of England?
• How successful were Anglo-Norman monarchs at extending their boundaries?
• How did monarchs use law and order as instruments of control? Church or state: who was in control?
• What happened when monarchs lost control? Controlling the succession: could women rule? What challenges did medieval monarchs face? What qualities did they need to be successful? 

Unit 3. How hard was life for medieval people in town and country?

• A very important historical source - What does the Domesday Book tell us about life in town and country?
• Was life always hard for medieval peasants? How can we find out? What sources of information and evidence can we use to learn about life at this time?
• Why was the Black Death so terrifying? And why was there a Peasants' Revolt in 1381?

ICT - Information and Communication Technology

• Presentation skills - Desk Top Publishing Poster creation, "This is me" project. PowerPoint, Image editing MP3 editing software Geography and Music Desk Top Publishing Calendars Use of work from Art class
• Digital Communication Email, chat, VOIP (Skype/video conferencing, blogging

Contact with schools in host countries: "what are you doing in class now?"   English 

Mathematics

Topic Heading to be covered

1. Number

• Number calculations
• Fractions, decimals and percents
• Multiplication and division
• Percentage, ratio and proportion

2. Algebra

• Sequences and functions
• Expressions and formulae
• Functions and graphs
• Linear equations
• Equations and graphs 

Concepts to be covered

Place value and ordering, Percentages

negative numbers,  rounding,  proportions

multiplication and division

mental strategies, Factors, multiples and primes, adding and subtracting decimals

Understanding fractions, converting fractions, Powers and operations

Multiplying decimals,

Fraction, decimal and percentage equivalents, percentage change.

sequences and rule,  finding the function

Using the rules of algebra

Simplifying expressions, Angles in shapes

factors, multiples and primes

Calculating angles

Patterns in numbers, Patterns in diagrams

Constructing triangles, Functions and rules

Graphs of functions, Graphs of equations

2D representations of 3D shapes

Using a table of values

Expanding brackets, using formulae,

Solving linear equations,  Generating sequences, Solving problems 

Music

Introduction to the Elements of Music, incorporating Sound and Silence 

Skills 

Introduction to the elements of music, involves composition, listening and making comparisons between different musical excerpts, enquiry, appraising, singing, self  assessment and peer assessment

 Materials 

'Ride of the Valkyries,'  'The Planets,' 'Greensleeves' 

Graphic Scores  

Skills  

Reading and interpreting different kinds of graphic and grid notation, performing on various instruments, listening, appraising, singing, P4C discussions, A4L 

Materials

  'Also Sprach Zarathustra' Richard Strauss

Form,  Structure and Ground Bass  

Skills 

Reading staff notation, keyboard skills (and other instrumental skills), awareness of the rehearsal process, audience skills

Materials 

Pachelbel's 'Canon'

Science

Topic Heading to be covered  

Beginning to be a scientist

• Introduction to safety (ongoing)
• Solving measuring problems
• Measuring standards
• Planning in Science
• Handling Data
• Introduction to safety in Practical work

 Looking at living things

• What is life?
• Variation/Habitats
• Classification and keys

Energy

• Types of energy
• Energy changes
• Energy for your body
• Energy for the world

Building blocks of matter

• State of matter
• Vapour and fluid
• Arrangements of atoms and molecules
• Pressure, Expansion, Density
• Elements and Compounds
• Reactions and energy changes

Concepts to be covered

Length, volume, temperature, mass, time

Standard units : Kilogramme, Metre, Celsius, Second

Planning, observation, discovery and conclusion

Use of tables, pie charts, bar charts/graphs, line graphs.

Characteristics of life : movement, reproduction, sensitivity, growth, respiration, excretion, nutrition

Continuous and discontinuous  variation

Kingdoms: Animals, Plants, Bacteria, Fungi, Protists, Species and Genus.

Stored (potential) energy, chemical, electrical, movement (kinetic), nuclear, heat, light. Conservation of energy

Energy changing devices

Human energy sources

Generating energy : fuels and sources 

Solid, liquid, gas

Atoms and molecules

Compression and flow

Calculating density

Periodic  table of elements

Mixtures and compounds

Exothermic and endothermic reactions