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What do we actually do in KS3?

Just wondering, what you guys did in KS3 - years 7,8 and 9 -- cz to be quite honest, idont remember doing anything serious... ever since this SATs thing stopped ifeel kids haven't got anything to work towards.. and when it gets to GCSE's some find it a large jump.. if we just prepared for GCSE's or actually did something useful during these 3 years, it might not all go to waste.. whatdya think?

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Reply 1
Avatar for Saleemadat
Saleemadat
6
I cannot remember 7 and 8 but year 9 we had to revise for an exam which puts us into sets for science (triple science, Core and btec)
Reply 2
Avatar for River85
River85
17
Building upon the knowledge you had when you began KS3 and preparing you for GCSE study.

In my day we did have SATS (I was the second year to do them - taking my KS2 SATS in 1996 and KS3 in 1999). They were quite useless in my experience.

Edit: - Damn, when I took my year 6 SATS you weren't even born (I assume?). That's scary.
Reply 3
Avatar for ArtGoblin
ArtGoblin
16
I never felt I was working towards SATS at all though. They were just tests we had to do at the end of the year - no preparation went into them. My town has a three tier system where we go to middle school in year 4 and high school in year 9, so for me, year 8 was all about preparing for high school and year 9 was about settling into a new school. I always claimed that year 7 was the doss year in middle school because it was the only one where we weren't aiming towards something, but in reality I worked just as hard then as I ever have done. Motivation comes from the learning process itself, not some irrelevant exam.
Reply 4
Avatar for JayTee97
JayTee97
OP
1
Original post by ArtGoblin
I never felt I was working towards SATS at all though. They were just tests we had to do at the end of the year - no preparation went into them. My town has a three tier system where we go to middle school in year 4 and high school in year 9, so for me, year 8 was all about preparing for high school and year 9 was about settling into a new school. I always claimed that year 7 was the doss year in middle school because it was the only one where we weren't aiming towards something, but in reality I worked just as hard then as I ever have done. Motivation comes from the learning process itself, not some irrelevant exam.



- Yeah, but what is the point of motivation when all you are doing ( in my experience) is spending 3 years of school doing nothing (more or less) and it won't add to any of your qualifications whatsoever..?
Reply 5
Avatar for Contessa
Contessa
Original post by JayTee97
idont remember doing anything serious...

are you serious those posters were well hardcore
Hmm, looking back now, ks3 was actually pointless. I don't actually remember doing any learning whatsoever bar history, which I didn't do at GCSE

Posted from my [insert name of device to exaggerate my wealth]
Original post by JayTee97
Just wondering, what you guys did in KS3 - years 7,8 and 9 -- cz to be quite honest, idont remember doing anything serious... ever since this SATs thing stopped ifeel kids haven't got anything to work towards.. and when it gets to GCSE's some find it a large jump.. if we just prepared for GCSE's or actually did something useful during these 3 years, it might not all go to waste.. whatdya think?



Well, if you think about it you knew jack all from primary school.

KS3 = learning things like how to use a Bunsen burner, basic Physics experiments, learning basics of all the sciences, introduction to Maths including algebra, graphs, shapes, geometry etc.

Music you'll do keyboard skills, bits of composition, fun projects.
Art, PE are obvious.

It's mainly taking you from a clueless year 6 to a knowledgeable GCSE starter.
Original post by mynameisntbobk
Hmm, looking back now, ks3 was actually pointless. I don't actually remember doing any learning whatsoever bar history, which I didn't do at GCSE

Posted from my [insert name of device to exaggerate my wealth]


Is your sig thing permanent or do you type it in each time? If it's perm, how did you do it?
Reply 8
Avatar for TaraBelle
TaraBelle
10
Original post by JayTee97
- Yeah, but what is the point of motivation when all you are doing ( in my experience) is spending 3 years of school doing nothing (more or less) and it won't add to any of your qualifications whatsoever..?


Yeah but year 6s are hardly thinking about qualifications are they? I went to school to see friends and learn, and I was okay with that until things got serious in year 9 about picking options etc
Reply 9
Avatar for ArtGoblin
ArtGoblin
16
Original post by JayTee97
- Yeah, but what is the point of motivation when all you are doing ( in my experience) is spending 3 years of school doing nothing (more or less) and it won't add to any of your qualifications whatsoever..?


We need to develop the skills to get those qualifications though! With or without SATS, I still would have learnt the same stuff that are needed for GCSEs and beyond. I don't think it's helpful to see everything in terms of what qualifications you will gain from it - education for the sake of education is a perfectly sound reason for teaching something. That's one of the issues with GCSEs the way they are - it teaches you to pass exams and disregard anything that doesn't fit into the syllabus. I don't blame students for doing that - it seems like the sensible thing to do in reaching the goals we have been set. However, in the long term I think it produces a culture where we only value achievements that have specific measurable results. Whereas we should be teaching that gaining knowledge for its own sake is wonderful. Why start this line of thinking before we have to?
People often say that those years are pointless because you're not working towards any exams. I've never understood this view - learning for its own sake is so much better!
During the early years of secondary school you start to go further into each individual subject and increase your knowledge about them generally. They bridge the gap between primary school and GCSEs - I don't think that they should be seen as preparation for GCSE (why would we want to impose even more pressure on kids regarding exams taken at the age of 16?!) but without them, GCSEs would be pretty impossible.
I started helping in a Year 6 class last year, and I was surprised by how different their way of working was and how slowly they wrote etc. Those years at the start of secondary school are really crucial in acquiring skills such as essay writing, time management, research etc. Although during those years, you don't go into any of them that deeply, you are provided with the basic building blocks of academic study which you can then continue to build upon and improve.
i remember twiddling my thumbs and daydreaming a fair bit :tongue:
Original post by The Polymath

Is your sig thing permanent or do you type it in each time? If it's perm, how did you do it?


It's permanent. Basically, I changed the settings on my phone so that this is posted as my Sig.
Option bar (most androids have them) - more - settings - signature - customize

Posted from my [insert name of device to exaggerate my wealth]
Original post by mynameisntbobk
It's permanent. Basically, I changed the settings on my phone so that this is posted as my Sig.
Option bar (most androids have them) - more - settings - signature - customize

Posted from my [insert name of device to exaggerate my wealth]


Ah, well I use my laptop for TSR, so no can do :biggrin:
Original post by The Polymath
Ah, well I use my laptop for TSR, so no can do :biggrin:


I'm hardly ever on my laptop. If you get the app on your phone, then you could change it.

Posted from my [insert name of device to exaggerate my wealth]
Original post by mynameisntbobk
I'm hardly ever on my laptop. If you get the app on your phone, then you could change it.

Posted from my [insert name of device to exaggerate my wealth]


Got the app on the ol' Android tablet :smile: Can't think of a witty sig though :tongue:
I think we just learned the basics in science (e.g. what is a electron/proton/cell/atom/molecule/compound etc) Same with maths.
Reply 17
Avatar for K_star
K_star
3
It's true

I'm in year 10 and currently I'm stitting some gcses they're useful for CVS really but its a lot different from when you were in school government has changed it alot

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by The Polymath
Got the app on the ol' Android tablet :smile: Can't think of a witty sig though :tongue:

It'll come :wink: when I thought of mine, it was just like -*boom* of course how did I not think of this before-

Posted from my [insert name of device to exaggerate my wealth]
You learn all the basic knowledge needed for GCSE. Take a Year 6, tell them too look at a Year 10 syllabus and they will understand nothing.


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