Year 8

Our End of Year Assessments for students in Years 7-9 (KS3) will take place from June to July. To help support students in preparing for these assessments, we have included revision materials for the following subjects:

English

There are two end-of-year tests for English: a reading test and a writing test. The reading test will assess your reading skills using an extract from a fiction text you have not studied this year and will last 60 mins. There will be four questions and these will assess:

• Your comprehension skills (how well you understood the text).
• Your ability to analyse how the writer has used language to create specific effects.
• Your ability to analyse how the writer has structured the text to create a particular effect e.g. tension. 
• Your ability to evaluate how the writer has created a specific effect within the text and whether you think they were successful. 

There is also a writing test which will last 45 mins. This test will assess your ability to write a descriptive or narrative piece of writing using an image or an opening line as a stimulus. This test will assess:

• Your ability to present ideas in a clear, articulate and engaging way.
• Your ability to use interesting language and language devices to interest your reader e.g. descriptive language, metaphors or other figurative language.
• Your ability to structure the text to interest the reader.
• Your ability to use accurate grammar, spelling and punctuation.

You can prepare for these tests by:

• Reading lots of different genres of fiction.
• Discussing books you have read, thinking about the language the writer has used and how they have organised their ideas - what did you think of the book? Why?
• Practising writing openings to stories and descriptions of different characters and settings.
• Developing your vocabulary by creating word clouds- choose a word e.g. tree and list all the different words that describe this thing; use a thesaurus to use interesting and unusual words. 
• Practising writing different types of sentences using punctuation accurately to create different effects. 
• BBC Bitesize has material ideal for preparing for these tests:

Reading Writing

Maths

Progress Test in Maths - End of Year Assessment

Students take this test online in school over two lessons. 
There are two sections:
Section A - Mental Arithmetic
Section B - Assessing Students’ Mathematical Knowledge and Understanding

These tests measure students' mathematical skills and knowledge in Number, Shape, Data Handling and Algebra, as well as their mathematical reasoning and problem solving. 

The results from these tests are used to understand current levels of attainment and identify gaps in knowledge.
  
Year 7, 8 and 9 complete these tests at the end of each academic year (Term 6). In addition, Year 7 complete a baseline assessment at the start of Term 1. 

Year 10 and 11 complete GCSE mock exams throughout the course of each year. 

Science

This assessment is one 60-minute paper testing the taught Year 8 curriculum for terms 1-5 plus term 6 of Year 7 (Earth Sciences and Space/the Universe). It is designed to test your knowledge as well as your use of skills such as maths and extended writing. 

The paper will be on topics linked to the knowledge organisers below. 

You will find the following will help with your revision. 

KS3 Knowledge Organisers Year 8

Strategies used in class are directly applicable to questions. 

Results will be used as part of the setting process.

Geography

You will complete one 60-minute assessment of 50 marks on topics you have learnt so far in Year 8. The assessment resources include a Question-and-Answer Booklet and a Resource Booklet.  
 
There are 4 Mandatory topics in Year 8:

• River Landscapes
• Population
• Settlement and Urbanisation
• Tectonic Hazards

You will be assessed using a variety of different question types, with one 4-mark Describe question and one 4-mark Explain question using a Case Study they have been taught in either Population, River Landscapes or Settlement & Urbanisation.

Your Geography Teacher will provide you with a special Knowledge Organiser and Revision Booklet to use for your revision.  You can also use Seneca and your class notebook to create flashcards, diagrams and mind maps about each topic.

History

Students will sit one 60-minute exam in which they will answer the following types of questions:

• Section A - Core knowledge recall 
• Section B - Chronology task - Students are to place various historical events into chronological order.
• Section C - Source & Interpretation skills.  Students will be given a source in which they need to identify key details linked to the focus of the question and then add an inference.   Students will be given two historical interpretations, where they have to identify what the historian is saying about the focus of the question.
• Section D - Extended writing task - students have to pick one question to answer from a choice of questions.

Main topics to be covered in the exam:

• Transatlantic Slavery
• British Empire
• Industrialisation

Resources to help students revise and prepare:

• Student class book
• Revision resources made for the topics listed above when studied within the academic year
• Any new resources/homework that have been set to help the students prepare.

MFL

Students will sit one 60-minute exam in which they will be assessed on the following skills:

• Listening Test –  Vocabulary on the modules studied so far. Spanish: Students have to select the correct vocabulary used to short fragments and determine whether statements are True, False or Not Mentioned. French: Students need to match short fragments by selecting the correct answer from 3 possible answers, and a True/False activity.
• Grammar - Students are to apply and recognise grammar. Spanish: adjectives and verbs, into activities. These are multiple-choice answers where there will be 3 possible answers given to choose from. There will also be an activity to form the negative. French: adjectives and verbs. These are multiple-choice answers where there will be 3 possible answers given to choose from. There will also be an activity to choose the correct verb tense out of 3 possible answers, and students will also be asked to write the adjectival agreement. There will also be an activity to form the negative.
• Translation - Students will be given sentences that are in English and will be asked to translate into Spanish/French. The sentences vary in length.
• Reading: Spanish - the reading tasks are composed of a gap-filling activity matching the correct picture to short texts, and an activity where students have to choose the best answer out of three. French: the activities consist of 2 gap-fill activities where students need to extract the correct answer and a True/False activity.
• Writing - Students have to write 50 words addressing the 5 bullet points that will be given to them.

Main topics to be covered in the exam:

• Vocabulary and grammar in Modules 1-4 and some content from module 5.

Resources to help students revise and prepare:

• Student class book and vocabulary lists, including grammar in the Modules
• Revision resources made for the topics listed above when studied within this academic year
• Any new resources/homework that have been set to help the students prepare.