Year 8 Curriculum Overview
Year 8 Curriculum: Summer 2
Find out what Year 8 pupils will be learning across the curriculum this half-term, along with simple ways families can support learning at home.
Contents
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English
Pupils explore imaginative writing through Travelling Through Time and Twisted Tales. Using texts such as A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, they analyse how writers create tension, suspense and twists. They develop their own writing through diary entries, descriptions and short stories, focusing on ambitious vocabulary, varied sentences and structure. Themes include morality, stereotypes and consequences.
How you can help at home: Encourage regular reading, discuss plot twists, and support vocabulary, spelling and punctuation. Reviewing their writing together can build confidence.
Maths
This half term focuses on data handling and statistics. Pupils learn how to represent information clearly using bar charts and pictograms, as well as how to interpret relationships between variables using scatter graphs. They also refine their understanding of averages, including mean, median and mode, and the range to help them describe and compare sets of data effectively.
How you can help at home: Look at data in the news or sports results together and ask your child what the “average” result might suggest. You could also help them create a simple pictogram or bar chart based on a household survey, such as favourite meals or daily screen time.
Science
Pupils study four science topics this half-term: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. These include inheritance, chemical bonds, magnetism and space physics. They learn about DNA, adaptation and biodiversity, different types of chemical bonding and carbon structures, magnetic fields and electromagnets, and the origins and structure of the universe. Practical and theoretical work helps pupils develop scientific understanding and curiosity about the world around them.
How you can help at home: Encourage your child to complete their Sparx Science homework and use their Meeting Mats to revise key knowledge before assessments.
Art and Design
Pupils respond to the theme of cut-out and collage. They study the large-scale paper collages of French artist Henri Matisse, who overcame adversity through creativity by transitioning from painting to papercut when he was bedridden after an operation. Pupils work towards a graphic, collaged poster design for a school subject using bright and bold paper cut colours. On their journey, they experiment with “painting with scissors” and directly cut out positive and negative shapes to layer and collage. They also practise drawing different basic forms, including the human body and objects relating to their school subjects.
How you can help at home: Encourage your child to complete the related independent learning tasks listed by their teacher on ClassCharts.
Design Technology
Engineering: Pupils develop their electronics knowledge through building an electronic amplifier. They learn to assemble circuits, solder components safely and understand the role of PCBs in modern products. Pupils also study common electronic components and explore different plastics and manufacturing processes used in engineering and product design.
Food Preparation and Nutrition: Pupils build on their understanding of nutrition and healthy eating while developing more advanced cooking skills. They prepare a range of dishes including chilli noodles, focaccia and cheesecake, learning new techniques and exploring how ingredients contribute to a balanced diet and successful recipe outcomes.
Product Design: Pupils design and manufacture a USB night light while developing woodworking, CAD/CAM and electronics skills. They learn about wood joints, laser cutting and electrical circuits, and take part in a structures challenge to investigate how materials can be combined to create strong and stable products.
Drama
Pupils continue to work on “Clashes and Couplets”, taking the safe practices and stage combat skills that they have learned and combining them with Shakespearean text to create an original and exciting performance. They build on the physical control skills that they learnt during the Spring Term to deliver a polished and convincing performance.
How you can help at home: Ask your child to teach you the safe method for each of the skills they have learned, making sure they start with warm up, eye contact, distance, speed and awareness.
Geography
Pupils investigate how tsunamis form and explore why their impacts vary between countries of different wealth. They compare the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami with the 2011 Japanese tsunami while revisiting their understanding of tectonic plate margins from Year 7.
How you can help at home: Encourage discussions about recent natural disasters in the news, explore world maps together, and encourage pupils to explain how tectonic plates cause earthquakes and tsunamis at destructive plate margins.
History
Pupils are studying the Holocaust through the enquiry question: how and why were ordinary people involved? They explore this complex history using the work of Saul Friedländer, focusing on the importance of hearing victims’ voices rather than only those of perpetrators. Pupils follow individual stories from Jewish and Traveller communities to understand lived experiences during this period. The unit also examines the legacy of the Holocaust, including its impact on survivors and Britain’s response. Throughout, pupils are encouraged to identify and challenge antisemitism, helping them develop both historical understanding and awareness of its relevance today.
How you can help at home: Encourage your child to use their knowledge organiser regularly to revise key vocabulary, historical interpretations and summaries of lessons. Short, frequent review is far more effective than last-minute cramming. It is also helpful to talk with them about what they have been learning each week in History. Asking simple but probing “why” questions can deepen their understanding and help them explain their ideas more clearly. To further extend their contextual knowledge, we strongly recommend Settela’s Last Road by Janna Eliot, which provides an accessible and powerful exploration of a young Traveller’s experience of the Holocaust.
MFL: French
Year 8 pupils continue the topic of travel in French. They learn how to describe holidays, transport and holiday activities, while developing their use of the perfect tense and comparatives to talk about past experiences and give opinions. To enrich their learning, pupils explore the life and achievements of Jacques Cousteau, helping them connect language learning with French culture.
How you can help at home: Encourage your child to complete the Linguists for Life challenges in their Knowledge Organiser, ask them to teach you the vocabulary they have learnt, and regularly test them by saying the English so they can respond in French.
MFL: Spanish
Pupils continue the topic of travel in Spanish. They learn how to describe holidays, transport and holiday activities, while developing their use of the preterite tense and comparatives to talk about past experiences and give opinions. To enrich their learning, pupils explore the life and achievements of Carlos Alcaraz, helping them connect language learning with Spanish culture.
How you can help at home: Encourage your child to complete the Linguists for Life challenges in their Knowledge Organiser, ask them to teach you the vocabulary they have learnt, and regularly test them by saying the English so they can respond in Spanish.
Music
Pupils study the historical origins and cultural significance of Blues music. Practical skills focus on the 12-bar blues progression, walking bass lines, blues scale improvisation and lyric writing. Using music technology, such as GarageBand, pupils record compositions, building confidence in ensemble performance, creativity, timing and expression.
How you can help at home: Encourage listening to Blues music at home and discuss instruments, lyrics and musical features. Ask your child to explain terms like improvisation, syncopation and blues scale, or share their own lyrics. Support regular practice with instruments or technology, if available, encouraging creativity and rehearsing confidently with backing tracks to boost performance and composition skills.
Physical Education
Pupils participate in summer sports and focus on the following concepts in their lessons: communication, resilience, emotional intelligence and intra-personal skills. They do this through athletics, cricket, tennis, rounders and softball.
How you can help at home: Speak to your child about what they did in PE. Can they attend an after-school club this summer term? PE Instagram encourages our tag lines #fitforlife and #sportforall. Parents/carers and pupils can follow us on Instagram @swanmoresport.
Religious Education
Pupils study unexplained mysteries as part of Religious Education, focusing on how such phenomena are investigated and understood. They examine a range of examples, consider the types of evidence and data used to support or challenge claims, and explore how people interpret these mysteries from religious, scientific and cultural perspectives. Pupils also consider the impact of unexplained mysteries on beliefs, behaviour and society, approaching the topic analytically rather than promoting any particular view.
How you can help at home: Encourage your child to discuss examples they have studied, question sources of evidence, and reflect on how different viewpoints shape understanding of unexplained events.
