iLowerSecondary
About this course
iLowerSecondary is a complete, three-year program for children from 12 to 15 years old. It includes the basic subjects: Mathematics, Science, English, ICT, Geography, History, Music/Art/Drama, Modern Foreign Languages (French/Spanish/German).
The program is based on the latest English National Curriculum (2014) and comprises all the latest tendencies in Global education and the best practices of teaching at Secondary level. The program builds foundations and skills needed for IGCSE and the education at higher levels.It perfectly fits the learners of English as the second language and covers the most engaging and inspiring topics for teenage learners.
The curriculum contains core, foundation and additional subjects, so it is flexible enough for you tochoose any combination of the subjects available.
- English
- Maths
- Science
- ICT
- Music/Art/Drama
- Geography
- History
- Modern Foreign Languages (French/Spanish/German)
- PSHE
English as Additional Language – a course that is aimed to support the students who are not English speakers.
About subjects
The main aim of iLowerSecondary Mathematics program is to ensure that key Mathematics skills are properly embedded and that students understand all the basic concepts needed to be competent in Mathematics. Developed for the non-native speakers of English, the iLowerSecondary Mathematics curriculum gives an excellent platform for later learning, promotes engagement and enjoyment and ensures students are well prepared for their International GCSEs.
What resources are used at Math lessons?
After studying on this course students will be able to:
- Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics.
- To recall and apply complex formulae, terminology and facts with increasing speed and accuracy.
- Develop conceptual understanding.
- Apply detailed understanding of complex mathematical procedures to a given context.
- Present and organise data in a variety of forms with limited guidance.
- Interpret information from graphs, tables, charts and lists and draw conclusions.
- Use a logical approach to generate efficient strategies to solve problems by translating problems into a series of mathematical processes.
- Solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine problems, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps.
What level of English do students need to study Math in English?
To start the course of iLowSecondary Maths students need to have a B1 (Intermediate) level of English. At this level students:
- Are able to understand the main points of clear texts in standard language if they are about topics with which they are familiar.
- Is able to produce simple, coherent texts about topics with which they are familiar or in which they have a personal interest.
- Can describe experiences, events, wishes and aspirations, as well as briefly justifying opinions or explaining plans.
iLowerSecondary English curriculum contains two main strands, Reading and Writing, although the development of all four communicative skills, including Speaking and Listening, is woven throughout the course. The program ensures students to be engaged with a range of text types and learn to communicate effectively in written and spoken English. It gives the students more profound knowledge of English as a system, forms a habit for reading and gives an excellent foundation for International GCSEs in English.
What is the difference between this English course and English as a Second Language at school?
Let’s compare the courses
General English at school:
- We build basic vocabulary
- We teach in a playful way (songs, chants, rhymes)
- Learning to read using whole-word recognition and phonics methods (by the end of the second year)
- Getting Ready for the Starters Exam
- We develop fine motor skills
- Learning to learn and communicate
- We develop communicative skills in English
English as a subject of iLowSecondary:
- We build extensive vocabulary
- Students read and respond to non-fiction and fiction texts, including comparison of non-fiction texts
- They analyse texts and understand the ways in which writers achieve their effect
- Students construct and convey meaning through written language, matching form to audience and purpose
- We develop critical and creative thinking
- We develop knowledge of how the English language works, focus on syntax and punctuation, etc
- We develop communicative skills in English
Do the students really need two different English courses - English as a Second Language and English as the native language?
When students learn English as a mother tongue it is obviously different from learning English as a Second Language. While studying at school children learn general English and their courses are specifically designed for foreigners and exploit teaching methods aimed at students with different mother tongues and the English course we offer is the one aimed at english speaking children and we exploit the approaches which are used to teach language and literature in your national schools in your language. Therefore, learning language differently will undoubtedly be beneficial for every student. Students will be well prepared for further study in International GCSEs in either English as a First or English as a Second Language.
Children are naturally curious and science supports the development of a child’s curiosity, helping them to investigate problems, learn more about the world around them, understand and use scientific explanations for a wide range of phenomena. Within two subjects, Physics and Geography, the iLowerSecondary Science curriculum gives the students the opportunity to understand the nature, processes and methods of science and to achieve highly in later examinations.
What is Science in iLowerSecondary? What do students learn?
Science is taught in ways that ensure that students gain the knowledge which helps them to develop curiosity about the natural world, insight into working scientifically, and they will be able to see the relevance of science to their everyday lives.
At this course they develop:
- Scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding in the areas of biology, chemistry and physics.
- Understanding of the nature through scientific enquiry, which helps them to answer scientific questions on the world around them.
- Learning of how to apply observational, practical and enquiry-based skills to the world around them.
- They will develop their skills of critical analysis of methods, evidence and conclusions.
What level of English do students need to study Science in English?
To start the course of iLowSecondary Science students need to have a B1 (Intermediate) level of English. At this level students:
- Are able to understand the main points of clear texts in standard language if they are about topics with which they are familiar.
- Is able to produce simple, coherent texts about topics with which they are familiar or in which they have a personal interest.
- Can describe experiences, events, wishes and aspirations, as well as briefly justifying opinions or explaining plans.
iLower Secondary ICT program (years 7-9) will equip students to understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science and information technology and be responsible, confident and creative users of information and communication technology. The iLowerSecondary ICT curriculum gives an excellent platform for later learning and ensures students are prepared for the challenges ahead of them.
At the end of the course students:
- can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
- can analyse problems in computational terms and that they have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
- can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
- are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology.
The strands are:
- Problem Solving: Algorithms and Abstraction
- Programming and Development
- Data and Representation
- Information Technology — Application of IT
- Software Skills — Web Authoring
What resources are used at ICT lessons?
iLowerSecondary ICT course is compatible with all commonly found devices:
- Windows desktops and laptops
- Mac desktops and laptops
- Apple/ Android tablets
You can also use one of the following operating systems
- Microsoft Windows
- Apple MacOS
- Chromium/Chrome OS
- Android (Smartphones and tablets)
- Apple iOS (iPhones and iPads)
You will also need the following software:
- Complete suites, which include word processing, spreadsheets, email and presentation software – Microsoft suite (Office, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook), Google suite (GDrive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail)
- Internet browsers (also known as web browsers) – Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer
- Audio/music players – iTunes, Spotify, Windows Media Player
- Email – Gmail
- Photo viewers/graphics editors – Microsoft Photos, Sketchpad or others
Year 7
Problem Solving: Algorithms and Abstraction
- Be able to code an algorithm in both a visual and textual language
- Be able to compare the utility of alternative algorithms for the same problem
- Use computational abstractions that model the state and behaviour of real-world problems and physical systems.
Programming and Development – Errors
- Be able to locate and fix syntax errors in a program
- Be able to interpret an error report from a textual language IDE.
Year 8
Programming and Development — Programming Constructs
- Understand and use variables and type declarations.
- Understand and use sequence, selection and iteration.
Data and Representation – Binary
- Understand how to perform simple binary arithmetic (addition).
- Understand how bitmap images are represented in binary.
- Understand and be able to create a binary word to represent a simple bitmap image.
- Understand and be able to create a simple bitmap image that is represented by a binary word.
- Understand and use the terms describing capacity of storage.
- Be able to convert between binary and denary multiples of values for storage.
- Understand that file storage is measured in bytes and be able to calculate storage requirements.
Year 9
Information Technology — Application of IT
- Be able to select and use multiple applications.
- Be able to collect data.
- Be able to meet the needs of known users.
- Be able to bring together and organise different types of information to achieve a purpose.
- Be able to work accurately and proofread, using software facilities where appropiate for the task.
Software Skills — Web Authoring
- Use HTML, including hyperlinks, bookmarks and anchors, inserting images/animations/ sound, font enhancements, text (including title, body, paragraph), lists (including simple, bulleted), head (including meta data), comments to create web pages.
Year 10
Information Technology — Application of IT
- Be able to select and use multiple applications.
- Be able to collect data.
- Be able to meet the needs of known users.
- Be able to bring together and organise different types of information to achieve a purpose.
- Be able to work accurately and proofread, using software facilities where appropiate for the task.
Software Skills — Web Authoring
- Use HTML, including hyperlinks, bookmarks and anchors, inserting images/animations/ sound, font enhancements, text (including title, body, paragraph), lists (including simple, bulleted), head (including meta data), comments to create web pages.
The purpose of iLower Secondary Geography program (years 7-9) is to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people and equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.
The program aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.
- Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.
- Are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes,
- interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS),
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
Subject content
Locational knowledge
Extend their locational knowledge and deepen their spatial awareness of the world’s countries using maps of the world to focus on Africa, Russia, Asia (including China and India), and the Middle East, focusing on their environmental regions, including polar and hot deserts, key physical and human characteristics, countries and major cities.
Place Knowledge
Understand geographical similarities, differences and links between places through the study of human and physical geography.
Human and physical geography
Understand the key processes in:
- Physical geography relating to: geological timescales and plate tectonics; rocks, weathering and soils; weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present; and glaciation, hydrology and coasts.
- Human geography relating to: population and urbanisation; international development; economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors; and the use of natural resources.
- Understand how human and physical processes interact to influence, and change landscapes, environments and the climate; and how human activity relies on effective functioning of natural systems.
Geographical skills and fieldwork
- Build on their knowledge of globes, maps and atlases and apply and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom and in the field.
- Interpret Ordnance Survey maps in the classroom and the field, including using grid references and scale, topographical and other thematic mapping, and aerial and satellite photographs.
- Use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to view, analyse and interpret places and data.
- Use fieldwork in contrasting locations to collect, analyse and draw conclusions from geographical data, using multiple sources of increasingly complex information.
Grade 7
Natural hazards (e.g. drought, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes and tropical cyclones):
- simple explanations of how natural hazards occur — physical processes, climate change, poor environmental management;
- the impact of hazards on people’s lives — distinguish between disasters and hazards;
- why some people are more at risk than others;
- who is at risk;
- management of risks and risk reduction — preventative measures (e.g. with regard to flooding, measures such as catchment management to improve the quality of rivers, vales and wetlands and to reduce risks to human life and ecosystems).
Population growth and change:
- factors affecting population growth and change (e.g. age and gender structures, population movement, life expectancy, mortality, fertility, aging populations);
- processes affecting population growth and change (e.g. disease, poverty, attitudes to birth and death, conflict and war, genocide, forced migrations, rural-urban migration, cause-and-effect relationships on different scales (e.g. South Africa compared to Africa, Africa compared to the world), focus on the impact of HIV/AIDS.
Mapwork:
- extracting information from maps and photos;
- measuring distances on maps, atlases and globes and converting to reality;
- comparing orthophotos with reality where possible.
Grade 8
Settlement:
- functions of cities;
- settlement patterns, including internal structures of settlements and location patterns in South Africa and elsewhere;
- factors affecting settlement patterns, including physical, environmental, social, political and economic (e.g. legacy of colonialism and apartheid, rural depopulation, effect of globalisation).
Transportation:
- effect on trade;
- response to demand for trade;
- role in providing access to opportunities;
- effect on the shape and structure of settlements;
- transport between settlements.
Natural resources (e.g. types of marine life, water, air, forests and soil) in South Africa and worldwide.
- how they are being used;
- conservation and protection of resources (including wildlife);
- why conservation is necessary;
- threats to conservation;
- new opportunities to conserve resources (e.g. community development, eco-tourism, ways to share resources in a sustainable manner).
Mapwork:
- extracting information from maps and photos;
- identifying features on maps and orthophotos;
- comparing distances on maps and orthophotos.
Grade 9
Development issues:
- approaches to development: concepts of developing, developed, sustainable development and sustainability
- the role of science and technology: effect on development, the Green Revolution, modification of crops, use of appropriate technology.
Sustainable use of resources:
- principles of Agenda 21, such as the need for everybody to participate in the management of resources;
- the dependence of all people on natural resources for their livelihoods and survival;
- the need for all our actions to ensure future sustainability;
- the need for everybody to be actively involved in addressing environmental problems (e.g. pollution, waste disposal).
Mapwork:
- extracting, analysing and comparing information from maps, atlases, satellite images, aerial photographs;
- correlating information with observations in the field.
The purpose of iLower Secondary History program (years 7-9) is to help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
iLower Secondary History program (years 7-9) aims to ensure that all pupils
- Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
- Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion of empires; understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts and analyse trends.
- Understand the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.
- Extend and deepen their knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, so that it provides a well-informed context for wider learning.
- Identify significant events, make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends within periods and over long arcs of time.
- Use historical terms and concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways.
- Pursue historically valid enquiries including some they have framed themselves, and create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response.
- Understand how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to make historical claims and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
The strands are:
- The development of the Church, state and society in Medieval Britain (1066-1509).
- The development of the Church, state and society in Britain, 1509-1745.
- Ideas, political power, industry and empire in Britain, 1745-1901.
- Challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world, 1901-present.
- A local history study.
- A study of an aspect or theme of British history before 1066.
- A study of a significant society or issue in world history and its interconnections with other world developments.
Year 7
The development of Church, state and society in Medieval Britain 1066-1509
- the Norman Conquest
- Christendom, the importance of religion and the Crusades
- the struggle between Church and crown
- Magna Carta and the emergence of Parliament
- the English campaigns to conquer Wales and Scotland up to 1314
- society, economy and culture: for example, feudalism, religion in daily life (parishes, monasteries, abbeys), farming, trade and towns (especially the wool trade), art, architecture and literature the Black Death and its social and economic impact
- the Peasants’ Revolt
- the Hundred Years War
- the Wars of the Roses; Henry VII and attempts to restore stability
Year 8
The development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745
- Renaissance and Reformation in Europe
- the English Reformation and Counter Reformation (Henry VIII to Mary I)
- the Elizabethan religious settlement and conflict with Catholics (including Scotland, Spain and Ireland) the first colony in America and first contact with India
- the causes and events of the civil wars throughout Britain
- the Interregnum (including Cromwell in Ireland)
- the Restoration, ‘Glorious Revolution’ and power of Parliament
- the Act of Union of 1707, the Hanoverian succession and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 society, economy and culture across the period: for example, work and leisure in town and country, religion and superstition in daily life, theatre, art, music and literature
Ideas, political power, industry and empire: Britain, 1745-1901
- the Enlightenment in Europe and Britain, with links back to 17th-Century thinkers
- and scientists and the founding of the Royal Society Britain’s transatlantic slave trade: its effects and its eventual abolition
- the Seven Years War and The American War of Independence
- the French Revolutionary wars
- Britain as the first industrial nation – the impact on society
- party politics, extension of the franchise and social reform
- the development of the British Empire with a depth study (for example, of India)
- Ireland and Home Rule
- Darwin’s ‘On The Origin of Species’
Year 9
Challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day
- women’s suffrage
- the First World War and the Peace Settlement
- the inter-war years: the Great Depression and the rise of dictators
- the Second World War and the wartime leadership of Winston Churchill
- the creation of the Welfare State
- Indian independence and end of Empire
- social, cultural and technological change in post-war British society
- Britain’s place in the world since 1945
A local history study
- a depth study linked to one of the British areas of study listed above
- a study over time, testing how far sites in their locality reflect aspects of national history (some sites may predate 1066) a study of an aspect or site in local history dating from a period before 1066
The purpose of iLower Secondary Citizenship program (years 7-9)
- A high-quality citizenship education helps to provide pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society. In particular, citizenship education should foster pupils’ keen awareness and understanding of democracy, government and how laws are made and upheld. Pupils get equipped with the skills and knowledge to explore political and social issues critically, to weigh evidence, debate and make reasoned arguments. It should also prepare pupils to take their place in society as responsible citizens, manage their money well and make sound financial decisions.
iLower Secondary Citizenship program (years 7-9) aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Acquire a sound knowledge and understanding of how the United Kingdom is governed, its political system and how citizens participate actively in its democratic systems of government.
- Develop a sound knowledge and understanding of the role of law and the justice system in our society and how laws are shaped and enforced.
- Develop an interest in, and commitment to, participation in volunteering as well as other forms of responsible activity, that they will take with them into adulthood
are equipped with the skills to think critically and debate political questions, to enable them to manage their money on a day-to-day basis, and plan for future financial needs.
Price iLowerSecondary (12-15 y.o.)
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Month
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€
1456
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- 28 classes a week
- 9 months
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Year
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€
13104
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- 28 classes a week
- 9 months
Registration fee 200 €