IGCSE Subject Lists

We offer a wide range of subjects, from which students can choose. If they know what career they ultimately wish to follow, they can begin to specialize in related subjects. If they are unsure about their future, they are encouraged to maintain a broad balance of subjects. The combination of on-going teacher support throughout the two years of sustained study and the experience of final examinations provides an excellent base for success in A Levels and for university study thereafter.

The skills of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening are covered in a range of activities in order to prepare and practice for the final examination. As a further means of developing their language skills, students are encouraged to continue a personal reading programme at home and to regularly watch and listen to English language media broadcasts.

The rationale for English as a Second Language is based on the widespread use of English as the medium of instructionand as the language of business and entertainment. The subject matter of the examination material reflects this international perspective. The topics selected and the settings used relate to the interests and needs of the students: education, the world of work, current affairs, travel, health and welfare, dealing with official bodies and using public services.

The English as a Second Language examination consists of two written papers and one internal assessment of speaking:

Paper 2 (70%): This is a two-hour Reading and Writing Paper which examines a variety of skills, such as information transfer, note-taking, summary writing and formal/informal writing for a particular audience, involving six different tasks.

Paper 4 (30%): This is a 45-minute Listening Test which includes tasks such as taking notes, drawing conclusions and being aware of variations in spoken dialogue.

Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics is recognised by universities and employers as proof of mathematical knowledge and understanding. The course allows students to develop their problem-solving skills by applying their mathematical knowledge to various situations, working with accuracy, logically and with flexibility.

Students of IGCSE Mathematics gain lifelong skills, including the development of their mathematical knowledge; confidence by developing a feel for numbers, patterns and relationships; an ability to consider and solve problems and present and interpret results; communication and reason using mathematical concepts and a solid foundation for further study.

Below is a list of topics which are covered as part of the IGCSE Mathematics syllabus. A detailed scheme of learning will be published on Google Classroom.

Numbers

  • Number and language Accuracy
  • Calculations and order
  • Integers, fractions, decimals and percentages Further percentages
  • Ratio and proportion Indices and standard form Money and finance
  • Time
  • Set notation and Venn diagrams

Algebra

  • Vectors and transformations Probability
  • Algebra and graphs
  • Algebraic representation and manipulation Algebraic indices
  • Equations and inequalities Linear programming Sequences
  • Proportion
  • Graphs in practical situations Graphs of functions
  • Differentiation and the gradient function Functions

Measurement

  • Mensuration
  • Measures
  • Perimeter, area and volume

Geometry

  • Geometrical vocabulary and construction similarity and congruence
  • Symmetry
  • Angle properties

Trigonometry

  • Bearings trigonometry
  • Further trigonometry

Coordinates

  • Coordinate geometry
  • Straight line graphs

Statistics

  • Mean, median, mode and range
  • Collecting and displaying data
  • Cumulative frequency and box-plots

The examination consists of two papers. Paper 2 (35%) consists of 1 ½ hours of short answer questions. Paper 4(65%) lasts 2 ½ hours and is made up of longer, structured answer questions. All students need a scientific calculator(a Casio fx-95ES PLUS or similar is recommended) and drawing instruments (ruler, compasses and a protractor) for this course.

The Science Department offers IGCSE courses in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. All of the Science subjects have similar aims, which are to:

  • Provide studies of experimental and practical Science so that pupils become confident citizens in a technological world
  • Enable students to recognise the usefulness, limitations and applications of scientific thinking
  • Develop skills, which encourage efficient, safe practice and effective communication
  • Develop attitudes of accuracy, precision, objectivity, integrity, inquiry, initiative and inventiveness
  • Stimulate an interest in, and care for, the environment and to appreciate that science may be both beneficial and detrimental to the environment
  • Promote an awareness that scientific theory and methods have developed as a result of the co- operative activities of groups and individuals
  • Provide the necessary educational grounding for the commencement of a course of higher study in the Sciences (A-level, IBDP etc)

All three Science subjects have a practical basis and experimental work is important, although the volume of content in each course requires that the majority of lessons will be theory based. The School has four laboratories, all of which are very well equipped.

There are three examination papers in each of the Science subjects:

  • Paper 2 (30%) 40 multiple choice questions on the Extended Syllabus
  • Paper 4 (50%) Extended theory paper based on the Extended Syllabus

Paper 6 (20%)   Alternative to practical –  a  written  paper  designed  to  test  familiarity  with Experimental skills

Biology is the study of living things. The following topics are studied:

  • Classification
  • Plant Transport
  • Animal Nutrition
  • Co-ordination and Control
  • Animal Transport
  • Homeostasis
  • Respiration
  • Reproduction: plants & humans
  • Plant Nutrition
  • Genetics and Inheritance
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Issues

The Biology examination requires a good standard of English to achieve the best possible results. All students will need to continue to improve their English in order to experience success in the IGCSE Biology examinations.

Chemistry is fundamentally the study of changes in substances.  This also includes study of the structure of atoms and kinetic theory.  The topics studied are:

  • Atomic Structure
  • Acids, Bases & Salts
  • Chemical Bonding
  • Air and Water
  • Rates Of Reaction
  • Electrolysis
  • Experimental Techniques
  • Energy Changes in Chemistry
  • Chemical Analysis
  • Redox Reaction
  • Periodic Table
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Metals

The topics studied in Chemistry are often not linked to everyday life and some students find the abstract nature of Chemistry difficult. There are some calculations in Chemistry, but fewer than in Physics. An ability to write coherently in English is essential in Chemistry since explanations of applied situations are necessary.

Physics is the study of the behaviour of energy and how it changes in the following topics:

  • General Physics (including mass and weight, forces, speed, velocity and acceleration)
  • Thermal Physics (including: Kinetic Theory, thermal expansion, measuring temperature, latent heat)
  • Waves, Light and Sound
  • Electricity (including current, potential difference, resistance, electrical circuits, electrical charge, electronics)
  • Magnetism and Electromagnetism
  • Atomic Physics (including radioactivity, structure of the atom)

The study of Physics relies very much on the application of Mathematics and it is likely that students who enjoy success in Mathematics will also do well in Physics. Topics such as atomic structure and the kinetic theory are common to both Chemistry and Physics, so that these two subjects support each other well. There is an enormous range of applications of Physics in the modern technological world, which means that the scope of examination questions is wide-ranging and good problem solving and interpretation skills are vital to success.

Aims

The aims of the syllabus are the same for all students. The aims are set out below and describe the educational purposes of a course in a First Language for the IGCSE examination.

The aims are to:

  • Enable students to communicate accurately, appropriately and effectively in writing;
  • Enable students to understand and respond appropriately to what they read;
  • Encourage students to enjoy and appreciate the variety of language;
  • Complement the students’ other areas of study by developing skills of a more general application (e.g. analysis, synthesis, drawing of inferences);
  • Promote the students’ personal development and an understanding of themselves and others.

Assessment objectives

Reading

Candidates are assessed on their ability to:

  • R1: Understand and collate explicit meanings
  • R2: Understand, explain and collate implicit meanings and attitudes
  • R3: Select, analyse and evaluate what is relevant tospecific purposes
  • R4: Understand how writers achieve effects.

Writing

Candidates are assessed on their ability to:

  • W1: Articulate experience and express what is thought, felt and imagined
  • W2: Order and present facts, ideas and opinions
  • W3: Understand and use a range of appropriate vocabulary
  • W4: Use language and register appropriate to audience and context
  • W5: Make accurate and effective use of paragraphs, grammatical structures, sentences, punctuation and the questionpapers are set entirely in the target language.

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The ability to communicate in a foreign language is regarded as an increasingly important asset in the majority of careers our students may be considering. The course aims to teach students to use French effectively for the purpose of communication in all countries where the language is spoken. Alongside the development of cultural awareness, students develop an understanding of the nature of language and language learning. Authentic materials (e.g. newspapers, magazines, television programmes, movies) are used throughout the course and teaching is carried out in the French language.

The topic areas studied for IGCSE French are:

  • Everyday activities
  • Personal and social life
  • The world around us
  • The world of work
  • The international world

The main assessment objective of communication incorporates the four skills, which are of equal importance:

P1 Listening (45 minutes) – 25%

Students listen to extracts of spoken French and answer questions on facts, opinions, emotions etc.

P2 Reading (1 hour) – 25%

Students are tested on their comprehension skills.

P3 Speaking (15 minutes) – 25%

These tests are conducted individually with an examiner. Students must participate in a role-play, introduce and discuss a topic of their choice and take part in a general conversation.

P4 Writing (1 hour) – 25%

Students are expected to respond in the target language to three tasks in which they demonstrate their mastery of written French.

The Commercial Studies subjects are Business Studies, Economics and Travel & Tourism. All students will be involved in the business sector in one way or another when they leave school. For this reason, it is very important that they have a basic understanding of how a business operates.

The aims of the subjects are to promote:

  • knowledge and understanding of facts, definitions, concepts and principles
  • analysis through selection, organisation and interpretation
  • judgment and decision-making and distinguishing evidence from opinion

analysis through enquiry and evaluation

Business Studies looks at all aspects of businesses: how they are run and organised, the people who work in them and the factors that affect the way they operate. It also looks at the Government’s influence on business activity.

Students often ask what the difference is between Business Studies and Economics, because some parts of the courses seem very similar. Basically, Economics takes a wide view of the whole economic system, whilst Business Studies focuses on individual businesses. If we take the topic “Imports” for example, Economics students might learn about the problems of a country that imports too much, whilst Business Studies students might learn why a business might need to increase its imports of materials to provide a good or service.

Topics in Business Studies:

  • Understanding Business Activity: including types of business organisations, enterprise and the entrepreneur and why businesses grow or remain a certain size
  • People in Organisations: Human resource management including recruitment and retention, and how communication happens in an organization
  • Marketing: how firms do market research in order to sell their products more successfully, and the various methods of marketing the product including the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion
  • Operations Management: the decisions that firms have to make when they start to produce goods or provide a service, including quality management and production decisions
  • Finance: including the creation and analysis of financial statements
  • External influence on Business activity including the economy, government, ethics and the forces of globalization

The examination consists of:

Paper 1 (1 ½ hours) – This paper contains short-answer questions and structured/data response questions. 50% weighting.

Paper 2 (1 ½ hours) – Candidates will be presented with a business situation or problem, and required to answer questions arising from it. 50% weighting.

Business Studies is a subject for students who can think for themselves and who enjoy problem-solving.

Students study economic systems and the way they function, at a national and at an international level. They will also learn how the government manages the national economy.

Some of the topics dealt with are:

  • The basic economics problem which stems from scarcity of resources
  • Demand and Supply: how people and businesses decide what they want in the shops
  • Business Organizations, such as firms and banks, and how they operate
  • Government Influence: how it can affect the economy
  • Employment: doing a job and earning wages
  • Economic development how development can change population, living standards and poverty.
  • International Economics: the importance of trade between countries

Students are examined in the following way:

Paper 1 (45 minutes) – 30 multiple-choice items (all questions to be answered). 30% weighting.

Paper 2 (2 hours 15 minutes) – Structured questions (all questions to be answered). Paper 2 is a compulsory data response question, then a choice of 3 from 6 structured essay questions. 70% weighting.

Economics overlaps with numerous Geography topics such as factors determining the location of industry, the environmental impact of economic activity and an analysis of the relationship between developed and developing countries.

The Literature course develops students’ ability to communicate accurately, to understand texts far beyond the basic level and to explore authors’ craft. Students are encouraged to continue a personal reading programme of challenging texts at home and to formulate their own opinions on a variety of texts. Language and Literature reinforce each other and there is a strong correlation between improved language skills and the study of Literature.

Students enjoy studying three set literary works in depth. They study a group of poems, a work of drama and either a selection of short stories or a novel. The works studied are chosen from the Cambridge examination board setworks list. Students will also develop the skills of analyzing previously unseen texts.

This course is particularly suited to students taking English as a First Language, and those who have shown some skill in dealing with literary texts during their English studies at Key Stage 3 level. Students study their set texts in great depth and detail. They also learn how to comment critically and coherently on texts they have not seen before.

The examination consists of three sections:

Paper 1 (50%) Poetry and Prose

This is a 1 hour and 30 minute examination that tests the students’ knowledge of the set prose and poetry texts they have studied. They answer two questions selected from a choice of question on each text. Answers are written in essay form. This is a ‘closed book’ examination, meaning that students are not permitted to take the texts with them into the examination.

Paper 3 (25%) Drama

This is a 45 minute examination. Students answer one question on the Drama text they have studied in class. There will be a choice of questions on the play. This is an ‘open book’ examination, meaning that students are permitted to refer to a clean copy of the play during the examination.

Paper 4 (25%) Unseen Text

This is a 1 hour and 15 minute examination during which students answer one question on previously unseen texts. They can choose to write either about a prose passage or about a poem they have not studied before.

ICT is the study of how modern information and communication systems are created and used in the real world. The course covers not only the skills used in standard business software but also the reasons that this software is used and the social, legal and ethical implications of using the technology.

The Cambridge IGCSE ICT encourages learners to develop lifelong skills, including:

  • understanding and using applications
  • using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to solve problems
  • analysing, designing, implementing, testing and evaluating ICT systems, ensuring that they are fit for purpose
  • understanding the implications of technology in society, including social, economic and ethical uses
  • awareness of the ways ICT can help in home, learning and work environments.
  • skills to analyse, design, implement, test and evaluate ICT systems
  • skills to consider the impact of current and new technologies on methods of working in the outside world and onsocial, economic, ethical and moral issues
  • ICT-based solutions to solve problems
  • the ability to recognise potential risks when using ICT, and use safe, secure and responsible practice.

Knowledge and understanding (Theory Units) covered

  • Type and components of computer systems
  • Input and output devices
  • Storage devices and media
  • Networks and the effects of using them
  • The effects of using IT
  • ICT applications
  • The system life cycle
  • Safety and security
  • Audience
  • Communication

Practical skills covered

  • File management
  • Images
  • Layout
  • Styles
  • Proofing
  • Graphs and charts
  • Document production (Microsoft Word)
  • Data manipulation (Databases)
  • Presentations (Power Point)
  • Data analysis (Spreadsheets)
  • Website authoring

All candidates are entered for three papers

Paper Percentage
Paper 1 (2 hours) knowledge and understanding (Theory)  40% of final grade
Paper 2 (2 hours 3 minutes) Practical skills test 30% of final grade
Paper 3 (2 hours 3 minutes) Practical skills test  30% of final grade

Computer Science is best suited to those students planning to work specifically within the computing industry orthose planning further study in the subject in Higher Education. Students wishing to study the use of computers in business and industry rather than how computers are developed and programmed should consider  taking  ICT and not Computer Science.

Computer Science is  the study  of  the  foundational  principles  and  practices  of  computation  and computational thinking and their application in the design and development of computer systems.

This course aims to encourage candidates to develop computational thinking, that is thinking about what can be computed and how. This includes consideration of the data required. Learning computational thinking involves learning to program, (write computer code), because this is the means by which computational thinking is expressed.

The Cambridge IGCSE Computer Science course aims are to:

  • develop computational thinking
  • develop an understanding of the main principles of solving problems by using computers
  • develop understanding that every computer system is made up of sub-systems, which in turn consist of further sub-systems
  • develop an understanding of the component parts of computer systems and how they interrelate, including software, data, hardware, communications and people
  • acquire the skills necessary to apply this understanding to develop computer-based solutions to problems using a high-level programming language.

Syllabus Overview

Section 1 Theory

  • Unit 1.1 – Data Representation
  • Unit 1.2 – Communication and Internet Technologies Unit 1.3 – Hardware and Software
  • Unit 1.4 – Security Unit 1.5 – Ethics Section 2 – Practical
  • Unit 2.1 – Algorithm design and problem-solving Unit 2.2 – Programming
  • Unit 2.3 – Databases

Assessment

The assessment for this course consists of two examination papers:

Paper 1 (60%) – Theory of Computer Science

A written paper of short response and structured questions from Section 1 of the course.

Paper 2 (40%) – Practical Problem Solving and Programming

A written paper of short response and structured questions from Section 2 of the course. This paper contains questions based on a Case Study which will be researched in advance of the examination.