The Middle School

The Middle School curriculum and subjects Homework, setting and class sizes follow this link Pupils joining in the Third Year study a core of subjects which comprises English, Maths, Science (taught separately as Biology, Chemistry, Physics), Humanities (History, Geography, Philosophy & Theology), Art, DT, Computing and either French or German. In addition to this core, boys choose two options from Latin, Ancient History, Ancient Greek, Drama, Music, ab initio French/German/Spanish/Mandarin. Alongside these subjects, boys follow PE, Sports, Career Guidance and PSHCE programmes. In the Fourth Year students choose their GCSE options and follow the GCSE syllabus for two years, taking their public exams, usually in ten subjects, at the end of the Fifth Year. Part of each pupil’s development in the Middle School is to establish good habits, learning to work more independently and to improve organisational skills. However, we do not expect this to happen overnight and there is plenty of help along the way! Class sizes are capped at 24 pupils, except for the top set in maths, but numbers are often much smaller than this. We do have setting in some subjects but it is not widespread across the curriculum. Homework is an important part of the learning process at Abingdon and we have guidelines as to what we expect pupils to undertake. We keep the work expected outside of class to a manageable level. In the Middle School, students might expect to start with around 15 hours per fortnight in the Third Year, moving up to approximately 20 hours per fortnight in the Fifth Year. Find out more: 5 T e a c h i n g 1:9 teacher student ratio 96 tutor groups - each pupil is known and cared for