YEAR 7 YEAR 8 YEAR 9 GCSE HORIZON Maths 200 topics Place value & ordering — Year 7 Negative numbers — Year 7 Order of operations — Year 7 Fractions of amounts — Year 7 Reading algebraic notation — Year 7 Simplifying expressions — Year 7 Ratio notation — Year 7 Perimeter & area — Year 7 Averages & range — Year 7 Collecting like terms — Year 8 Inverse operations — Year 7 Fractions ↔ decimals ↔ % — Year 8 One-step equations — Year 8 Solving two-step linear equations — Year 8 Ratio & proportion problems — Year 8 Angles in polygons — Year 8 Linear graphs y = mx + c — Year 9 Probability of single events — Year 8 Simultaneous equations — Year 9 Scatter graphs & correlation — Year 9 Multiplication & division fluency — Year 7 Rounding to powers of ten — Year 7 Adding & subtracting decimals — Year 7 Multiplying & dividing decimals — Year 7 Factors, multiples & primes — Year 7 Prime factorisation — Year 7 HCF & LCM — Year 7 Squares, cubes & roots — Year 7 Equivalent fractions — Year 7 Comparing & ordering fractions — Year 7 Inequality symbols & number lines — Year 7 Estimating before calculating — Year 7 Multiplying & dividing negatives — Year 8 Adding fractions, unlike denominators — Year 8 Multiplying fractions — Year 8 Dividing by a fraction — Year 8 Mixed numbers & improper fractions — Year 8 Percentages of amounts — Year 8 Percentage increase & decrease — Year 8 Index notation — Year 8 Laws of indices — Year 8 Rounding to decimal places — Year 8 Significant figures — Year 8 Calculator fluency — Year 8 Order of operations with indices — Year 8 Standard form: large numbers — Year 9 Standard form: small numbers — Year 9 Calculating in standard form — Year 9 Negative & zero indices — Year 9 Recurring decimals — Year 9 Estimating roots — Year 9 Reverse percentages — Year 9 Repeated percentage change — Year 9 HCF & LCM by prime factors — Year 9 Choosing a calculation method — Year 9 Substituting into expressions — Year 7 Writing expressions from words — Year 7 Coordinates in four quadrants — Year 7 Function machines — Year 7 Term-to-term sequences — Year 7 Expanding a single bracket — Year 7 Term, expression, equation, formula — Year 7 Substituting into formulae — Year 7 Sequences from a position rule — Year 7 Recognising special sequences — Year 7 Factorising into a bracket — Year 8 Expanding and simplifying — Year 8 Equations with brackets — Year 8 Unknowns on both sides — Year 8 nth term of linear sequences — Year 8 Rearranging simple formulae — Year 8 Inequalities on a number line — Year 8 Solving linear inequalities — Year 8 Plotting lines from tables — Year 8 Horizontal & vertical lines — Year 8 Index laws in algebra — Year 8 Gradient as a rate — Year 9 Finding a line's equation — Year 9 Parallel lines on graphs — Year 9 Real-life graphs — Year 9 Geometric sequences — Year 9 Solving equations with graphs — Year 9 Equations with fractions — Year 9 Building equations from problems — Year 9 Graphs of quadratics — Year 9 Substituting negatives & squares — Year 9 Ratios with mixed units — Year 7 Ratio ↔ fraction links — Year 7 Proportion tables — Year 7 The unitary method — Year 7 Metric unit conversions — Year 7 Percentage as a proportion — Year 7 Simple scale drawings — Year 7 Map scales — Year 8 Best-buy comparisons — Year 8 Speed, distance, time — Year 8 Density as a rate — Year 8 Change as a percentage — Year 8 Ratio problems with differences — Year 8 Currency conversion — Year 8 Direct proportion graphs — Year 8 Direct proportion y = kx — Year 9 Inverse proportion — Year 9 Scale factors as multipliers — Year 9 Percentage multipliers — Year 9 Inverse proportion graphs — Year 9 Proportional or not? — Year 9 Combining ratios — Year 9 Measuring & drawing angles — Year 7 Angles at a point & line — Year 7 Angles in a triangle — Year 7 Special triangles — Year 7 Quadrilateral properties — Year 7 Constructing triangles — Year 7 Nets of 3D shapes — Year 7 Naming 3D solids — Year 7 Volume of cuboids — Year 7 Reflection symmetry — Year 7 Rotational symmetry — Year 7 Reflecting shapes — Year 7 Translating shapes — Year 8 Reading measurement scales — Year 7 Angles in parallel lines — Year 8 Area of a parallelogram — Year 8 Area of a trapezium — Year 8 Circumference of a circle — Year 8 Area of a circle — Year 8 Parts of a circle — Year 7 Rotating shapes — Year 8 Enlarging shapes — Year 8 Volume of prisms — Year 8 Surface area of prisms — Year 8 Converting area & volume units — Year 8 Bearings — Year 8 Constructing bisectors — Year 8 Pythagoras: the hypotenuse — Year 9 Pythagoras: shorter sides — Year 9 Congruence criteria — Year 9 Similar shapes — Year 9 Volume of cylinders — Year 9 Surface area of cylinders — Year 9 Compound shapes with circles — Year 9 Fractional enlargements — Year 9 Describing transformations — Year 9 Geometric reasoning chains — Year 9 Plans & elevations — Year 9 The language of chance — Year 7 The probability scale — Year 7 Listing outcomes systematically — Year 7 Fair or biased? — Year 7 Sample space diagrams — Year 8 Probabilities sum to 1 — Year 8 Experimental probability — Year 8 Theory versus experiment — Year 8 Expected frequency — Year 8 Mutually exclusive events — Year 9 Venn diagrams for probability — Year 9 Two-way tables — Year 9 Frequency trees — Year 9 Independent events — Year 9 Choosing a probability model — Year 9 Tally charts & frequency tables — Year 7 Bar charts — Year 7 Pictograms & their keys — Year 7 Reading tables & timetables — Year 7 Line graphs over time — Year 7 The data-handling cycle — Year 7 The mean as fair shares — Year 7 Drawing pie charts — Year 8 Interpreting pie charts — Year 8 Averages from frequency tables — Year 8 Choosing the right average — Year 8 Grouped frequency tables — Year 8 Dual & compound bar charts — Year 8 Outliers & their effect — Year 8 Estimating a grouped mean — Year 9 Line of best fit — Year 9 Correlation is not causation — Year 9 Comparing two distributions — Year 9 Misleading graphs — Year 9 Quadratic expressions — GCSE horizon Trigonometry first steps — GCSE horizon Combined events — GCSE horizon Surds: exact roots — GCSE horizon Error intervals — GCSE horizon Fractional indices — GCSE horizon Recurring decimals to fractions — GCSE horizon Solving quadratics by factorising — GCSE horizon Function notation f(x) — GCSE horizon Rearranging multi-step formulae — GCSE horizon Quadratic sequences — GCSE horizon Compound interest — GCSE horizon Proportion formulae — GCSE horizon Arcs & sectors — GCSE horizon Column vectors — GCSE horizon Trigonometry: finding angles — GCSE horizon Tree diagrams — GCSE horizon Sampling & bias — GCSE horizon Frequency polygons — GCSE horizon Quartiles & interquartile range — GCSE horizon Physics 90 topics Energy stores & transfers — Year 7 Speed = distance ÷ time — Year 7 Forces & balance — Year 7 Light & sound basics — Year 7 Current & simple circuits — Year 8 Pressure & moments — Year 8 Electromagnets — Year 8 Newton’s laws (qualitative) — Year 9 Rearranging F = ma — Year 9 Energy in food — Year 7 Renewable and non-renewable resources — Year 7 Temperature is not energy — Year 7 Power ratings on appliances — Year 8 The kilowatt-hour — Year 8 Conduction: heat through solids — Year 8 Convection: heat by flow — Year 8 Thermal radiation — Year 8 Energy is always conserved — Year 9 Dissipation: energy spreading out — Year 9 Sankey diagrams — Year 9 Work = force × distance — Year 9 Contact and non-contact forces — Year 7 Measuring forces in newtons — Year 7 Drawing force diagrams — Year 7 Friction and drag — Year 7 Stretching springs — Year 7 Resultant force — Year 8 Pressure = force ÷ area — Year 8 Pressure in liquids — Year 8 Atmospheric pressure — Year 8 Floating and upthrust — Year 8 Calculating moments — Year 9 Relative motion — Year 9 Acceleration: speeding up, slowing down — Year 9 The language of motion — Year 9 Vibrations make sound — Year 7 Pitch and frequency — Year 7 Loudness and amplitude — Year 7 Sound needs a medium — Year 7 Hearing and the ear — Year 8 Light travels in straight lines — Year 8 Reflection: angle in, angle out — Year 8 Drawing ray diagrams — Year 8 Refraction: light changes direction — Year 8 How the eye focuses light — Year 8 Splitting white light — Year 9 Seeing colour: filters and surfaces — Year 9 Echoes and the speed of sound — Year 9 Magnets: poles push and pull — Year 7 Plotting magnetic field lines — Year 7 Earth's magnetic field — Year 7 Static electricity: charging by rubbing — Year 7 Forces between charges — Year 7 Circuit symbols and diagrams — Year 8 Current around a series loop — Year 8 Voltage: the electrical push — Year 8 Series vs parallel circuits — Year 8 Resistance: what opposes current — Year 9 Calculating resistance (R = V ÷ I) — Year 9 Making an electromagnet stronger — Year 9 Fault-finding a circuit — Year 9 The particle model of matter — Year 7 Drawing particle diagrams — Year 7 Melting and freezing — Year 7 Evaporating, boiling and condensing — Year 7 Diffusion: particles spreading out — Year 7 Heating and expansion — Year 8 Brownian motion — Year 8 Density: how tightly matter packs — Year 8 Calculating density — Year 9 Gas pressure: particles hitting walls — Year 9 Why ice floats — Year 9 Day, night and Earth's spin — Year 7 Seasons and the tilted Earth — Year 7 The solar system — Year 7 Phases of the Moon — Year 8 Solar and lunar eclipses — Year 8 Mass vs weight — Year 8 Calculating weight (W = m × g) — Year 8 Gravity on other worlds — Year 9 The Sun is a star — Year 9 Galaxies and the universe — Year 9 The light year — Year 9 Work, power & efficiency — GCSE horizon Specific heat capacity — GCSE horizon Terminal velocity — GCSE horizon The wave equation — GCSE horizon How an electric motor spins — GCSE horizon Absolute zero — GCSE horizon Why satellites stay up — GCSE horizon Chemistry 85 topics Particle model & states — Year 7 Atoms, elements & compounds — Year 7 Separating mixtures — Year 7 The periodic table — Year 8 Chemical reactions & equations — Year 8 Acids, alkalis & pH — Year 8 Concentration — Year 9 Melting & freezing — Year 7 Boiling vs evaporating — Year 7 Diffusion — Year 7 Gas pressure — Year 7 Dissolving & solutions — Year 7 Pure substances & mixtures — Year 7 Mass is kept in dissolving — Year 7 Reading heating curves — Year 8 Solubility & saturation — Year 8 Chromatography — Year 8 Brownian motion — the evidence — Year 8 Limits of the particle model — Year 9 Chemical symbols — Year 7 Molecules — Year 7 Compounds vs mixtures — Year 7 Physical vs chemical change — Year 7 A compound's new properties — Year 7 Reading chemical formulae — Year 8 Naming compounds: -ide and -ate — Year 8 Counting atoms in formulae — Year 8 Particle diagrams of substances — Year 8 Polymers: long-chain molecules — Year 8 Writing simple formulae — Year 9 Ceramics & composites — Year 9 How small is an atom? — Year 9 Properties of metals — Year 7 Describing properties precisely — Year 7 Properties of non-metals — Year 7 Groups & periods — Year 8 Group 1: the alkali metals — Year 8 Group 7: the halogens — Year 8 Group 0: the noble gases — Year 8 Predicting with periodic trends — Year 9 Mendeleev's gaps — Year 9 Metals to non-metals across a period — Year 9 Signs of a chemical reaction — Year 7 Combustion — Year 7 Word equations — Year 7 Conservation of mass — Year 8 Thermal decomposition — Year 8 Oxidation — Year 8 Exothermic & endothermic — Year 8 The reactivity series — Year 8 Displacement reactions — Year 8 Balancing symbol equations — Year 9 Catalysts — Year 9 Testing common gases — Year 9 Comparing fuels fairly — Year 9 Rusting & its prevention — Year 9 Everyday acids & alkalis — Year 7 Using indicators — Year 7 Hazard symbols — Year 7 Neutralisation — Year 8 Measuring pH accurately — Year 8 Acids + metals — Year 8 Acids + carbonates — Year 9 Making a salt — Year 9 Naming salts — Year 9 Neutralisation in daily life — Year 9 Structure of the Earth — Year 7 Weathering of rocks — Year 7 The atmosphere's recipe — Year 7 The three rock families — Year 8 The rock cycle — Year 8 The carbon cycle — Year 9 Greenhouse effect & climate — Year 9 Fossil fuels are finite — Year 9 Extracting metals from ores — Year 9 Recycling & finite resources — Year 9 Moles — counting by weighing — GCSE horizon Inside the atom — GCSE horizon Ions — atoms with a charge — GCSE horizon Electrons explain the table — GCSE horizon Rates of reaction — GCSE horizon Strong & weak acids — GCSE horizon Earth's early atmosphere — GCSE horizon Life-cycle assessment — GCSE horizon Making water safe to drink — GCSE horizon Biology 85 topics Cells & microscopy — Year 7 Tissues → organs → systems — Year 7 Digestion & nutrition — Year 8 Respiration & breathing — Year 8 Reproduction — Year 8 Ecosystems & food webs — Year 8 Inheritance & variation — Year 9 Animal cell structure — Year 7 Plant cell extras — Year 7 Specialised cells — Year 7 Diffusion — Year 7 The leaf as an organ — Year 8 Photosynthesis — the word equation — Year 7 Limiting factors for photosynthesis — Year 8 Plant mineral nutrition — Year 8 Magnification & scale — Year 7 Transport in plants — Year 8 The human skeleton — Year 7 Antagonistic muscles — Year 7 Joints as levers — Year 8 Enzymes in digestion — Year 8 Absorption in the gut — Year 8 The gas exchange system — Year 8 Aerobic respiration — Year 8 Anaerobic respiration — Year 9 The circulatory system — Year 8 Blood vessels — Year 9 A balanced diet — Year 7 The breathing mechanism — Year 8 Testing a leaf for starch — Year 8 Blood components — Year 9 Nutrients & their jobs — Year 7 Deficiency diseases — Year 8 Pathogens & disease — Year 9 The body's defences — Year 9 Effects of smoking — Year 8 Effects of alcohol — Year 8 Recreational drugs — Year 9 Unicellular organisms — Year 8 Exercise & fitness — Year 9 Microbes: friend and foe — Year 7 Human reproductive systems — Year 8 Gametes & fertilisation — Year 8 The menstrual cycle — Year 9 Gestation & the placenta — Year 9 Puberty & adolescence — Year 7 Flower structure — Year 7 Pollination — Year 8 Plant fertilisation & seeds — Year 8 Seed dispersal — Year 8 DNA, genes & chromosomes — Year 9 Variation — Year 9 Food chains — Year 7 Energy transfer & pyramids — Year 8 Producers & photosynthesis — Year 8 Predator–prey cycles — Year 9 Competition & interdependence — Year 9 The carbon cycle — Year 9 Decomposers & recycling — Year 8 Bioaccumulation — Year 9 Sampling with quadrats — Year 8 Human impact on ecosystems — Year 9 Habitats & adaptation — Year 7 Natural selection — Year 9 Fossils & the evidence — GCSE horizon Extinction — Year 9 Biodiversity — Year 9 Selective breeding — GCSE horizon Darwin's theory — Year 9 Osmosis — Year 8 Reflexes & the nervous system — Year 9 Heart rate & exercise — Year 8 Life cycles — Year 7 The nitrogen cycle — Year 9 Identification keys — Year 7 Antibiotics & resistance — Year 9 Energy balance & health — Year 8 Continuous & discontinuous variation — Year 9 Conservation — Year 9 Vaccination — Year 9 Root hair cells — Year 8 Natural selection — the evidence — GCSE horizon Introduction to genetic modification — GCSE horizon Classification & the tree of life — GCSE horizon Cell division & growth — GCSE horizon English 100 topics Retrieval & inference — Year 7 Writer’s methods — Year 7 Paragraphs & topic sentences — Year 7 Analytical paragraphs — Year 8 Comparing two texts — Year 9 Rhetoric & persuasion — Year 9 Skimming and scanning — Year 7 Working out words from context — Year 7 Summarising a passage — Year 7 Tracking plot and sequence — Year 7 Fact vs opinion — Year 7 Reading a whole novel — Year 7 Choosing the best evidence — Year 7 Inferring character feelings — Year 7 Inferring the writer’s viewpoint — Year 8 Linking details across a text — Year 8 Identifying purpose and audience — Year 8 Spotting bias in non-fiction — Year 8 Understanding narrative perspective — Year 8 Following an argument — Year 8 Reading pre-1914 language — Year 8 Presentational features in non-fiction — Year 8 Evaluating a writer’s success — Year 9 Synthesising two non-fiction texts — Year 9 Recognising unreliable narrators — Year 9 Detecting irony and sarcasm — Year 9 Reading with historical context — Year 9 Simile and metaphor — Year 7 Personification — Year 7 Alliteration and onomatopoeia — Year 7 Embedding quotations — Year 7 Rhyme and rhythm basics — Year 7 How writers build character — Year 7 Setting and atmosphere — Year 7 Word connotations — Year 8 Sentence length for effect — Year 8 Analysing openings and endings — Year 8 Decoding Shakespeare’s language — Year 8 Stagecraft and stage directions — Year 8 Dramatic irony — Year 8 Poetic form and its effect — Year 9 Building tension and pacing — Year 9 Symbolism and motifs — Year 9 Weighing alternative interpretations — Year 9 Analysing a Shakespeare scene — Year 9 Planning before writing — Year 7 Writing a story opening — Year 7 Describing with the five senses — Year 7 Writing formal and personal letters — Year 7 Show, don’t tell — Year 7 Writing dialogue that works — Year 7 Proof-reading your own work — Year 7 Shaping a story arc — Year 8 Writing to inform and explain — Year 8 Introductions and conclusions — Year 8 Linking paragraphs smoothly — Year 8 Writing in role — Year 8 Redrafting for impact — Year 8 Writing your own poem — Year 8 Building a written argument — Year 9 Answering the counterargument — Year 9 Writing a thesis statement — Year 9 Matching tone to audience — Year 9 Scripting a speech — Year 9 Flashback and foreshadowing — Year 9 Naming the word classes — Year 7 Simple, compound, complex sentences — Year 7 Apostrophes: possession and contraction — Year 7 Punctuating speech — Year 7 Commas that change meaning — Year 8 Roots, prefixes and suffixes — Year 8 Fixing comma splices — Year 8 Colons and semicolons — Year 8 Subject–verb agreement — Year 8 Keeping tenses consistent — Year 8 Standard English and dialect — Year 8 Formal and informal register — Year 9 Active and passive voice — Year 9 Turning verbs into nouns — Year 9 Using terminology precisely — Year 9 Varying sentence openings — Year 9 Giving a short talk — Year 7 Listening and building on ideas — Year 7 Reading aloud with expression — Year 7 Playing your part in discussion — Year 8 Performing a scripted scene — Year 8 Giving a presentation — Year 8 Debating: making your case — Year 9 Rebutting on your feet — Year 9 Speaking in Standard English — Year 9 Unseen poetry — GCSE horizon Unseen extracts at exam pace — GCSE horizon Evaluating a critical statement — GCSE horizon Comparing poems — GCSE horizon Tracing a theme across a text — GCSE horizon Timed writing, calm method — GCSE horizon Viewpoint writing, exam style — GCSE horizon Grammar as a writer’s tool — GCSE horizon Ambitious vocabulary, precisely used — GCSE horizon The GCSE presentation — GCSE horizon History 70 topics Chronology & period sense — Year 7 Interpretations in depth — GCSE horizon Medieval medicine and belief — GCSE horizon Sources & provenance — Year 7 1066 & medieval power — Year 7 Elizabethan England in depth — GCSE horizon Reformation & the Tudors — Year 8 Crime and punishment over time — GCSE horizon The Industrial Revolution — Year 8 Weimar and Nazi Germany — GCSE horizon Source utility, GCSE-style — GCSE horizon Causation essays — Year 9 The succession crisis of 1066 — Year 7 Sustained argument, GCSE-style — GCSE horizon Why William won at Hastings — Year 7 Castles and Norman control — Year 7 The Domesday Book — Year 7 The feudal system — Year 7 Becket and church versus crown — Year 7 King John and Magna Carta — Year 7 Simon de Montfort’s Parliament — Year 7 The Black Death — Year 7 The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 — Year 7 The Wars of the Roses — Year 7 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — Year 7 Dissolution of the monasteries — Year 7 Edward, Mary and religious change — Year 8 Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement — Year 8 The Spanish Armada — Year 8 The Gunpowder Plot — Year 8 Causes of the Civil War — Year 8 The execution of Charles I — Year 8 Cromwell and the Interregnum — Year 8 The Glorious Revolution — Year 8 The Act of Union 1707 — Year 8 Why Britain industrialised first — Year 8 Steam power and factories — Year 8 Life in industrial cities — Year 8 Children at work — Year 8 Railways transform Britain — Year 8 The transatlantic slave trade — Year 8 Abolishing the slave trade — Year 8 Britain’s empire in India — Year 9 Peterloo and the Chartists — Year 9 Widening the vote — Year 9 Causes of the First World War — Year 9 Trench warfare on the Western Front — Year 9 The Treaty of Versailles — Year 9 Votes for women — Year 9 Hitler’s rise to power — Year 9 The Second World War’s turning points — Year 9 The Home Front and the Blitz — Year 9 The Holocaust — Year 9 The welfare state and the NHS — Year 9 The Cold War divides Europe — Year 9 Windrush and post-war migration — Year 9 The end of empire — Year 9 Primary and secondary sources — Year 7 Making inferences from sources — Year 7 Your local area as evidence — Year 7 Cross-referencing sources — Year 8 Reliable or useful? — Year 8 Propaganda as evidence — Year 9 Numbers as evidence — Year 9 Significant or just famous? — Year 7 Change and continuity — Year 7 Avoiding anachronism — Year 7 Short and long-term consequences — Year 8 Writing a supported judgement — Year 8 Comparing two interpretations — Year 9 Geography 70 topics OS maps & grid references — Year 7 Rivers & the water cycle — Year 7 Weather vs climate — Year 8 Population & urbanisation — Year 8 Coasts & erosion — Year 8 Fieldwork enquiry — Year 9 Continents and oceans — Year 7 Latitude and longitude — Year 7 Map scale and distance — Year 7 Contour lines and relief — Year 7 The UK: nations and cities — Year 7 Earth's structure and plates — Year 7 Plate boundaries and hazards — Year 8 Africa: a continent of regions — Year 8 An African region up close — Year 8 China and India rising — Year 9 An Asian region up close — Year 9 Russia and the Middle East — Year 9 The drainage basin — Year 7 Erosion, transport, deposition — Year 7 Waterfalls and gorges — Year 8 Meanders and oxbow lakes — Year 8 Coastal landforms: caves to stacks — Year 8 Why rivers flood — Year 8 Managing flood risk — Year 9 Defending the coastline — Year 9 Glaciers shaped Britain — Year 9 Measuring the weather — Year 7 Three kinds of rain — Year 7 Air masses over Britain — Year 7 Global atmospheric circulation — Year 8 World climate zones — Year 8 Microclimates around us — Year 8 Tropical storms — Year 9 Climate since the Ice Age — Year 9 Evidence for climate change — Year 9 Responding to climate change — Year 9 Where people live and why — Year 7 Settlement sites and growth — Year 7 Birth, death and natural change — Year 8 The demographic transition model — Year 8 Migration: push and pull — Year 8 Megacities — Year 8 Life in informal settlements — Year 9 Measuring development — Year 9 The development gap — Year 9 Aid, trade and development — Year 9 Ecosystems: living connections — Year 7 Rocks, weathering and soils — Year 7 What counts as a resource — Year 7 The tropical rainforest — Year 8 Deforestation: causes and costs — Year 8 Energy: fossil and renewable — Year 8 Water scarcity — Year 9 Feeding a growing world — Year 9 The four economic sectors — Year 9 Asking a geographical question — Year 7 Measuring and recording outdoors — Year 7 Aerial and satellite images — Year 7 Field sketches with purpose — Year 7 Maps that show data — Year 8 GIS: maps in layers — Year 8 Presenting and analysing field data — Year 9 Climate change synthesis — GCSE horizon Landscapes as connected systems — GCSE horizon Sustainable cities — GCSE horizon Resource security and geopolitics — GCSE horizon The Anthropocene — GCSE horizon Evaluating an enquiry — GCSE horizon Statistical tests on field data — GCSE horizon time runs left to right across KS3 · one lane per subject · dots = topics · threads = what must come first · ◇ = the GCSE horizon THE BRIDGE YEARS
What is Key Stage 3? In England, school is organised into blocks called key stages . Key Stage 3 — KS3 — covers Years 7, 8 and 9: ages 11 to 14, the first three years of secondary school.
THE ENGLISH SCHOOL JOURNEY · AGES 4–18
4–5
5–7
7–11
11–14
14–16
16–18
R Reception KS1 Yrs 1–2 KS2 Yrs 3–6 KS3 Yrs 7–9 KS4 Yrs 10–11 Sixth form Yrs 12–13
PRIMARY SCHOOL
SECONDARY SCHOOL
SATs ✎
no national exam
GCSEs ✎
A-levels ✎
Key Stage 3 · Years 7–9 · ages 11–14 The first three years of secondary school. No national exam — and the years where the foundations of every GCSE are laid.
See the full map ↓ THE ENGLISH SCHOOL JOURNEY · AGES 4–18
Reception age 4–5 KS1 Years 1–2 · ages 5–7 KS2 Years 3–6 · ages 7–11 · ends with SATs KS3 — your child is here Years 7–9 · ages 11–14 The first three years of secondary school. No national exam — and the years where the foundations of every GCSE are laid.
See the full map ↓ KS4 Years 10–11 · ages 14–16 · GCSEs Sixth form Years 12–13 · ages 16–18 · A-levels The years nobody measures Primary school ends with SATs. GCSEs begin in Year 10. Between them sit three years with no national exam — which is why KS3 is sometimes called the forgotten years . Nothing is formally tested; almost everything that matters is quietly decided. The ideas a child secures in Years 7–9 set the ceiling on their GCSE options and grades.
If you didn’t go to school in the UK None of this is obvious — and it isn’t meant to be guessed. The timeline above is the whole journey, ages four to eighteen. Your child is in the double-ruled block.
YEAR 7 · AGE 11–12 Arrival & foundations New school, seven subjects taught by specialists for the first time. The year for securing the ground everything else stands on.
YEAR 8 · AGE 12–13 The deepening year Ideas start depending on each other in earnest — algebra leans on number, chemistry leans on the particle model. The classic dip year; momentum matters.
YEAR 9 · AGE 13–14 The launchpad The bridge into GCSE: options are chosen, early GCSE ideas appear on the horizon, and secure foundations quietly become grades.
Why a map Three years. Seven subjects. Hundreds of small ideas that depend on each other in a definite order — you can’t collect like terms until 3x means three lots of x. The map shows every one of them, and what must come before what.
EVERY LINK SAYS WHY
Why order matters Fractions → Probability
“You can’t weigh chances you can’t write down.”
Ratio → ConcentrationMATHS → CHEMISTRY
“Concentration is a ratio: how much stuff in how much water.”
Algebra → F = maMATHS → PHYSICS
“F = ma is a two-step equation wearing a lab coat.”
THE CURRICULUM, AS CARDS
Every topic on this map can become a card in your child’s pocket Made by the professor who taught it, scheduled by the science of spacing. Tap a sample to flip it:
KS3-MATH-NUM-0010 What is 6 ÷ 1/2? KS3-MATH-NUM-0010 12 Dividing asks 'how many fit?'. Twelve halves fit into 6, which is why dividing by 1/2 is the same as multiplying by 2. KS3-CHEM-PAR-0002 In a gas, how do the particles move? KS3-CHEM-PAR-0002 Quickly and randomly in all directions Gas particles have lots of energy and are widely spaced, so a gas has no fixed shape or volume and can be squashed into a smaller space. KS3-BIOL-CEL-0009 Why does a red blood cell have no nucleus? KS3-BIOL-CEL-0009 To make more room to carry oxygen Without a nucleus taking up space, a red blood cell can pack in more haemoglobin, so each cell carries as much oxygen as possible.
See how cards get made — try the demo → THE 3-YEAR MAP · PARENT DASHBOARD (DEMO)
Number
▲ Algebra — building this term
Ratio & Proportion
Geometry & Measures
Your child, on this map Their tutors teach to this exact landscape — and quietly record which ground is secure, what’s being built this term ▲, and what waits at the horizon. The map you’ve just explored is the same one their tutors keep for them.
Or start with their Learning Genius quiz — free.
FOR PARENTS
KS3 questions, answered What is Key Stage 3? Key Stage 3 (KS3) is the first stage of secondary school in England — Years 7, 8 and 9, ages 11 to 14. It sits between primary school (which ends with SATs in Year 6) and the GCSE years (Years 10–11).
What ages and years does KS3 cover? Years 7, 8 and 9 — normally ages 11 to 14. Your child starts KS3 the September after finishing primary school.
Is there an exam at the end of KS3? No. KS3 has no national exam — schools assess internally, in different ways. That absence is exactly why these years are sometimes called the forgotten years: nothing is formally measured, yet the foundations of every GCSE are laid here.
Why does KS3 matter for GCSEs? GCSE courses assume the KS3 ground is secure — algebra assumes number, chemical equations assume the particle model. Gaps left in Years 7–9 don't disappear; they surface in Year 10 with less time to fix them. The ideas a child secures in KS3 set the ceiling on their GCSE options and grades.
What subjects does my child study in KS3? The national curriculum sets a broad core — English, maths, science (biology, chemistry, physics), history, geography, languages, and more. The KS3 Map covers the seven subjects our tutors teach: Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History and Geography.
How is KS3 different from primary school? Subjects are taught by specialists rather than one class teacher, ideas start depending on each other across subjects, and the pace of new concepts roughly doubles. The map exists to make that invisible structure visible.
Drafted by AI agents against the DfE programmes of study, reviewed by humans, validated in CI. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. With thanks to Marble, whose open primary-years map precedes ours. Dataset version nc2013 — the national curriculum in force in England since 2014.