Information & Resources

for Pre-IB Students

1 | Pre-IB

2 | Pre-IB

Contents

Information and resources: Firefly and other links 3

Further subject resources and notes 5

English as a Second Language 6

History 7

Geography 9

Mathematics 10

Physics 14

French 17

Spanish 18

German 20

Latin 21

Music 23

Mandarin 24

3 | Pre-IB

INFORMATION & RESOURCES FOR PRE-IB STUDENTS

‘Pre-IB’ means the final year before the GCSE examinations, which are taken at the end of Year 11.

This guide is intended to help students joining us for a pre-IB year in Year 11 to prepare themselves

for the start of that year.

The guide will show you what topics the class you are joining will have covered in Year 10. It also

provides links to subject-specific resources on our virtual learning environment, Firefly.

There is an additional section containing further information on a number of subjects in the form of

summaries of the content of schemes of work for Year 10.

We strongly advise you to look at these resources and to do as much preparation as possible in your

chosen subjects before your arrival. This will enable you to settle in quickly and to get the most out

of your pre-IB year.

Subject

Resources

English Literature

Drama Text for literature exam

We are also able to provide a comprehensive text guide with suitable exercises

and resources to help a student engage with the text independently.

Paper 2 Poetry Texts

Revision materials and student guides to the 16 poetry texts examined for Paper

2

Over the summer the student should read the specified prose text for study in

Year 11 term 1.

Firefly resources - English

Language

Reading Coursework (10% of overall)

Section C writing skills

French See the relevant page in the booklet.

Firefly resources – French

Spanish Firefly resources – Spanish

Latin Firefly resources – Latin

History Firefly resources – History

Geography Firefly resources – Geography

4 | Pre-IB

Religious

Studies

In RS we will have covered:

the first three topics in Ethics (The Right to Life, The Use of Medical

Technology, Personal Responsibility);

and the first three topics in Philosophy of Religion (The Existence of

God, Characteristics of God, Revelation and Enlightenment)

Firefly resources – Ethics

Firefly resources – Philosophy of Religion

Biology The Year 9 & 10 teaching plans in Firefly show the topics covered

before Year 11.

Every topic is already stored as a PowerPoint in Firefly under the IGCSE

section

Firefly resources - Biology

Chemistry Please refer to Scheme of Work (Excel file) for the content of the year’s work

in Years 9, 10 and 11.

Firefly resources - Chemistry

Physics Firefly resources - Physics

Mathematics www.mymaths.co.uk

Login: bedfordschool

Password: newton2014 (subject to change in September 2015)

Firefly resources- Mathematics

Music Firefly resources - Music

5 | Pre-IB

Information & Resources for Pre-IB Students

Further Subject Resources and Notes

6 | Pre-IB

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

The course book we use for IGCSE ESL is Collins Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language Student

Book, by Alison Burch et al., and published by HarperCollins in 2013.

During year 10 we cover chapters 1, 6, 8, 9 and 10. Pre-IB students should study these chapters in

section 1 plus the exam guidance in section 2.

English

as a Seco

nd

Lan

guage

7 | Pre-IB

HISTORY

Year 10

The History IGCSE course covers mostly American History from 1917-74. You will have needed to

have covered the following areas:

The USA, 1917-29

The impact of the First World War on the USA: Economic benefits. Isolationism. Attitudes to

Versailles settlement and the League of Nations. Protectionist policies.

Immigration: Attitudes to immigration. Policies to restrict immigration. The ‘Red Scare’. The Sacco

and Vanzetti Case.

Prohibition and gangsterism: Reasons for the introduction of and failure of prohibition. Organised

crime, including Al Capone.

Mass production and the stock market boom: Reasons for economic boom in the 1920s. Henry Ford

and mass production. Hire purchase, consumerism and the popularity of the stock market. Problems

in farming, including over-production and mechanisation. The decline of older industries.

The Roaring Twenties: The leisure industry, cinema, Jazz, dancing, sport, radio, advertising and

motoring, morals and values and the ‘Monkey Trial’. The changing position of women, including the

flappers.

The position of black Americans: The Jim Crow Laws, segregation and discrimination. The Ku Klux

Klan. The influence of Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois.

A divided Union: Civil rights in the USA, 1945-74

McCarthyism and the Red Scare: Reasons for the Red Scare including the Cold War 1945-50, Hiss

and Rosenberg cases, the FBI, the HUAC and the Hollywood Ten. Methods used by McCarthy and

the growth of opposition. Reasons for the downfall. Overall impact of McCarthyism on the USA.

Civil rights in the 1950s: Segregation and discrimination. The work of the Supreme Court. Key events

and importance of Brown versus Topeka (1954), Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) and Little Rock

1957.

The impact of Martin Luther King and of Black Power: Freedom riders, Anniston fire bombing, sit-ins

and voting rights and the Meredith Case. The methods and activities of Martin Luther King. The

Birmingham and Washington Peace Marches and the ‘dream’ speech. Civil rights legislation of the

1960s. Selma and Voting Rights. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. Reasons for the growth of Black

Power, Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Race riots especially in the Watts District.

The Black Panther movement.

Protest movements: students, women, anti-Vietnam: General reasons for the growth of protest

movements. The student movement, Berkeley Free Speech movement, and links to war in Vietnam,

Histo

ry

8 | Pre-IB

Students for a Democratic Society and ‘hippies’. Betty Friedan, Eleanor Roosevelt, NOW, women’s

liberation movement and abortion. Phyllis Schafly and opposition to the women’s movement.

Nixon and Watergate: Reasons for and key features of the Watergate scandal. Impact on Nixon and

US politics. New laws including the Election Campaign Act (1974), the War Powers Act (1973), the

Privacy Act (1974) and the Congressional Budget Control Act (1974).

Materials

The first topic is a source paper, and you will need to practise source work. You can find help on how

to answer the source paper here.

The second topic is an essay topic and guidance on how to answer this paper is found here.

Materials for the courses can be found here.

9 | Pre-IB

GEOGRAPHY

Year 10

The book that we use is by Canavan, Rae and Ross:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AQA-GCSE-Geography-Student-Book/dp/1408502712

We follow the AQA A Geography GCSE Specification.

In Year 10 we aim to cover four units of the six required, two from Unit 1 and two from Unit 2. Two

further units are covered in year 11 when we also write up the controlled assessment work.

Modules covered in Year 10:

Water on the land

Population Change

The coastal zone*

Tourism

*Of these, perhaps the most vital is the coastal zone as we are most likely to conduct coursework on

this unit.

Pre IB boys are likely to have missed the official field trip where data is collected for the controlled

assessment; they do, however, tend to do well on coursework, but you need to devote time outside

your normal lessons. Support sessions for the coursework are provided on a weekly basis.

Once a student has arrived we recommend that he attend the weekly Year 10 support clinics. This

will mirror the course that the Year 10 students will be covering and will allow knowledge to be tested

on material that the student has covered independently.

Geograp

hy

10 | Pre-IB

MATHEMATICS

Year 10 - Topics you need to cover

Number

Surds (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, rationalising the denominator)

Terminating and recurring decimals (including converting to and from fractions)

Percentages:

- compound interest

- overall percentage change

- reverse percentages

Upper and lower bounds

Financial maths

- saving and borrowing

- appreciation and depreciation

- loan repayments and budgeting

- exchange rates and commission

- using spreadsheets to model financial situations

- flow charts (the reason why these are highlighted in yellow is outlined at the bottom of the

document)

Algebra

Substitution

Rearranging

Solving and factorising linear equations

Factorising quadratics and difference of two squares

Solving quadratic equations:

- graphically

- by factorising

- using the quadratic formula

Math

em

atics

11 | Pre-IB

Problems leading to quadratic equations

Sequences: generating terms and finding the nth term of linear and quadratic sequences

Indices (including negative and fractional)

Graphs:

- y = mx + c

- gradients of speed, distance, time graphs

- gradients of parallel and perpendicular lines

Coordinate geometry: midpoints and lengths of lines

Direct and inverse proportion

Shape

Maps and scale drawings

Bearings

Constructions and loci

Circle theorems

Vectors:

- vector arithmetic

- vector geometry

Arc length and area of sectors in circles

Surface area and volume of 3D shapes including

- prisms

- pyramids

- cones

- spheres

3D Pythagoras and 3D trigonometry

3D coordinates

Transformations (reflection, rotation, translation, enlargement)

Similar shapes

12 | Pre-IB

Data

Probability, including:

- tree diagrams

- Venn diagrams

- mutually exclusive events

- independent events

- conditional probability

Two-way tables

Relative frequency

Stem and leaf diagrams

Cumulative frequency and box & whisker plots

Time series and moving averages

See next page for details of how to cover these topics.

13 | Pre-IB

How to Access the Resources

With the exception of the topics highlighted in yellow, all revision resources can be found on the

following website: www.mymaths.co.uk

The Bedford School login details are:

Login: bedfordschool

Password: newton2014 (subject to change in September 2015)

A screen shot of the login page (left) and the page you will see after you login (right) is below:

As you will see, the topics have been categorised into number, algebra, shape and data topics, and

then subcategorised accordingly.

The best approach for revising each topic is to:

1) go through the ‘lesson’ (see bottom right hand corner of left hand screen shot, below); and

then

2) do the ‘online homework’ (when it asks you for your personal login just click ‘next’ do ‘do

this homework for fun’ – see right hand screen shot):

For the topics highlighted in yellow, you will need to purchase the ‘New GCSE Maths Linked Pair’

book by Collins (ISBN number 978-0-00-741005-7), and work through chapters 3 and 4. This book

is the book used by all boys in year 11, so you will need a copy of it anyway.

14 | Pre-IB

PHYSICS

Years 9 and10

Year 9 Topic Textbook link Approx

timings

Autumn term 1. Experimental Physics

2. Astronomy (Forces section d)

N/A

Ch. 6

7 weeks

6 weeks

Spring term 3. Energy Ch. 15-18 11 weeks

Summer term 4. Waves (a and b) Ch. 11 6 weeks

Year 10 Topic Textbook link Approx

timings

Autumn term 4. Waves (c and d)

5. Forces (a, b and c)

Ch. 12-14

Ch. 1-3

6 weeks

7 weeks

Spring term 5. Forces (c continued)

6. Electricity (a, b and c)

Ch. 4-5

Ch. 7, 9-10

5 weeks

6 weeks

Summer term 6. Electricity (d) Ch. 8 5 weeks

Note: red text denotes material is for Triple Award but will be taught to all boys in years 9 and 10

regardless.

Year 9

1. Experimental Physics (a practical course on how to do experimental work)

2. Astronomy (based on section d from Forces and Motion topic with extra input)

a. Solar system

i. Moons

ii. Gravity (and field strength)

iii. Orbits

Physics

15 | Pre-IB

iv. The solar system

b. Beyond the Solar system

c. Astronomical instruments

d. Cosmology intro

3. Energy Resources and Energy Transfer

a. Standard units

i. Standard units (kg, J, m, m/s, m/s2, N, s, W)

b. Energy transfer

i. Energy conservation

ii. Efficiency

iii. Heat transfer and insulation

c. Work

i. Work

ii. GPE and KE

iii. Power

d. Energy resources and electricity generation

i. Fuels for electricity generation

ii. Comparison of fuels

4. Waves

a. Standard units

i. Standard units (°, Hz, m, m/s, s)

b. Properties of waves

i. Transverse and longitudinal

ii. Wave properties

iii. Wave equation

iv. Types of wave

v. Diffraction

Year 10

4. Waves (cont)

c. The electromagnetic spectrum

i. Spectrum of properties

ii. Uses and dangers

iii. Signals

d. Light and sound

i. Reflection, refraction, diffraction

ii. Snell’s law

16 | Pre-IB

iii. Total internal reflection

iv. Sound (pitch, amplitude and using oscilloscope)

5. Forces and Motion

a. Standard units

i. Standard units (kg, m, m/s, m/s2, N, s, kgm/s, N/kg)

b. Movement and position

i. Speed (average and instantaneous)

ii. Acceleration

iii. Distance-time graphs

iv. Speed-time graphs

c. Forces, movement and shape

i. Forces

ii. Vectors

iii. Newton’s laws of motion

iv. Weight

v. Terminal velocity

vi. Stopping distance

vii. Momentum

viii. Moments

ix. Applications of moments

x. Centre of gravity

xi. Hooke’s law and elasticity

6. Electricity

a. Standard units

i. Standard units (A, C, J , s, V, W)

b. Mains electricity

i. Electrical safety

ii. Electrical energy and power

iii. Ac / dc

c. Energy and potential difference in circuits

i. Series and parallel circuits

ii. Voltage (definition of a volt), current and resistance

iii. Charge

d. Electric charge

i. Conductors and Insulators

ii. Electrostatics

iii. Electrostatic phenomena

iv. Uses and dangers

17 | Pre-IB

FRENCH

Year 10

The topics we cover are:

School, education

Leisure activities (general, TV, reading and sport, music, films)

Local area + home life

Food and drinks + cultural habits

Holidays (destination, activities, tourist information)

The grammatical content is :

Present tense

Depuis

Adjectival agreements

Immediate future

Gerund

Negatives

Perfect tense

Comparative and superlative

DOP

Possessives

Partitive articles

En and y

Reciprocal verbs

Questions

Imperfect

Future (including with quand)

A lot of material can be found on Firefly – learning resources. We can also sign new students up on

Vocab Express.

Fre

nch

18 | Pre-IB

SPANISH

Year 10

We cover two IGCSE modules. They are as follows:

Unit 1: Así soy yo – This is what I’m like

The months of the year and birthdays

Family relatives

Pets

Jobs

Physical and character description

Your house, its rooms and furniture

Jobs round the house

What we do with the money we earn or receive

Daily routine

Our local area: facilities, bad and good points

Giving directions

What our part of town used to be like

Question words

Connecting words (and, however, because …)

The present simple tense

Saying how long using ‘desde hace’

Prepositions of place

Frequency expressions

Reflexive verbs

The Imperfect tense

Unit 2: Gente Joven – Young People

Free-time activities

Youth club activities

Buying tickets to concerts …

What you did last weekend (Preterite tense)

Technology (computers, mobiles, social media …)

Television

Describing films

Describing those whom you admire

Span

ish

19 | Pre-IB

Present tense (regular and radical-changing verbs)

Impersonal verbs (‘gustar’, ‘encantar’)

The language of invitation

Present tense of irregular verbs

Preterite tense (regular verbs and ‘ser’, ‘ir’ and ‘hacer’)

Expressions of past time (yesterday, last night, a week ago …)

Negative expressions (nothing, nobody, neither)

Adverbs (quite, less, very, a little bit, more, not very)

More than / less than / as … as …

Agreement of adjectives

The Perfect tense

The superlative (the biggest, the most interesting)

20 | Pre-IB

GERMAN

Year 10

The topic areas we cover in year 10 are listed below. A further knowledge is required of language

basics, equivalent to at least 1 year of study, is assumed as starting point for the year 10 course. By

the IGCSE exams at the end of year 11, students will typically have completed 4 years of German,

with some “fast tracking” the content in 3 years (9, 10, 11).

Year 10 – content areas

Media – role of new media, advantages, disadvantages, TV, films, music

Travel and Tourism – describing countries, journeys, activities, accommodation, ordering

food, making complaints

School life – describing school routines, uniform, rules, talking about issues at school

Family and home life – traditional and modern families, getting involved in the local

community

The grammatical content for year 10 includes:

HT Units Grammar and other concepts

1 1 Reiterate present, perfect and future, frequency, opinions, weil. Give a brief oral

presentation, extended / extending writing pieces

2 2 Cases accusative, dative, imperfect, imperative, stating preferences, comparisons,

practise role plays

3 2-3 Comparisons, reasons and justifications, negatives, adjective endings, reminder of

cases, future tense, use of wenn, prepare long written answer and short

presentation on holidays

4 3-4 Further work on word order (subordination) across tenses, comparisons, cases

and adjectives. Separable verbs. Potential for recorded presentation about school

/ lonely hearts.

5 4-5 Giving advice, adjective endings and cases repetition + genitive, conditional mood

6 5 +

revision

Role play practice on health, compiling short and long writing answers, putting

together learning across the year.

A further knowledge is required of language basics, equivalent to at least 1 year of study, is assumed

as starting point for the year 10 course. By the IGCSE exams, students will typically have completed

4 years of German, with some “fast tracking” the content in 3 years (9, 10, 11).

Germ

an

21 | Pre-IB

LATIN

Year 10

Latin grammar that you need to have covered is as follows:

Accidence:

The forms of regular nouns of all declensions within the vocabulary list

The forms of regular and deponent verbs in all moods, tenses and voices within the

vocabulary list

The forms of regular adjectives and adverbs within the vocabulary list

The forms of adjectives and adverbs, including comparative and superlative, within the vocabulary

list

The forms or all irregular nouns, verbs and adjectives contained within the vocabulary list

Syntax:

Uses of all cases

Expressions of time with accusative and ablative cases

Prepositions contained within the vocabulary list

Direct questions

Imperatives

Prohibitions with noli and nolite

Participles and Ablative Absolutes

ad + gerundive to express purpose

Conditional clauses

Relative clauses

Indirect statements

Indirect commands

Indirect questions

Purpose clauses

Fearing clauses

Result clauses

Vocabulary:

Latin vocabulary that you need to have learned is available on the school’s Firefly page here

Latin

22 | Pre-IB

MUSIC

Year 10

A course summary is posted here: http://elearning.bedfordschool.org.uk/usmusic/gcse-music

Although we do some performing in class, the majority of lesson time is spent on composition and

the listening exam.

Composition

During the remove year we work from first principles in composition, learning how to write a

melody, how to add harmony to it, how to extend ideas and structure a longer piece in a coherent

way. We also learn how to use music software Logic and Sibelius. It’s not really possible to study

this aspect of the course on your own, although we will be able to help you when you arrive in the

5th form and it is possible to catch up if you already have some experience in the subject.

Listening paper

The listening paper is centred around the study of 12 set works – pieces which are representative of

a wide variety of music. In class we analyse them in terms of the basic elements of music (structure,

rhythm, melody etc.) and also look at what the typical style features are of each piece.

In Year 10 we study the following pieces:

Area of Study 1 – Music 1600-1899

G F Handel: Chorus: And the Glory of the Lord from Messiah, HWV 56

W A Mozart: 1st Movement from Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K 550

F Chopin: Prelude No 15 in D flat major, Op. 28

Area of Study 2 – Music in the 20th century

A Schoenberg: Peripetie from Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16

L Bernstein: Something’s Coming from West Side Story

S Reich: 3rd Movement (fast) from Electric Counterpoint

Music

23 | Pre-IB

Area of Study 3 – Popular music in context

M Davis: All Blues from the album Kind of Blue

J Buckley: Grace from the album Grace

Moby: Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? From the album Play.

Area of Study 4 – World music

Capercaillie: Chuir M’Athair Mise Dhan Taigh Charraideach (Skye Waulking Song) from the album Nàdurra

Scores of these pieces are all available in a score which you can request from Bedford School.

Recordings are available by clicking on the relevant area of study at the bottom of this page.

There is information on our Firefly pages on all the set works we have studied in the Remove form

including lists of key features, tests, video resources, PowerPoint shows, links to other relevant sites

and notes.

One key set of terms you should be familiar with is the elements of music

There are also comprehensive revision notes on each piece here.

24 | Pre-IB

MANDARIN

Mandarin does not feature on the Year 10 or 11 curriculum. We offer it as a course for beginners

(Mandarin ab initio) on our IB programme. The link below is to inform any prospective IB students

of the nature of the subject so that they can begin to explore it if they wish.

Firefly resources

Man

darin

25 | Pre-IB

Notes

26 | Pre-IB

27 | Pre-IB