Year 8

Energy; forces and their effects on motion; moments, centre of gravity and stability; independent investigative work on electricity (current in series and parallel circuits, resistors, sensors, basic logic circuits); light and sound (their wave nature and speeds, reflection, refraction and colour).

Year 9

Pressure in solids, liquids and gases and its applications (including hydraulics); heat transfer (convention, conduction, radiation and evaporation); the Earth in the universe (evidence supporting theories about the origin of the Earth and the universe, from plate tectonics to nuclear fusion in stars and the Big Bang); uses and properties odf different types of electromagnetic radiation (students also learn to make informed evaluations of risk).

Year 10

Explaining motion (forces, motion, momentum and energy changes – with contexts including a look at car safety features and the physics of roller coasters); electric circuits (including large-scale electricity generation and the importance of energy efficiency); the wave model of radiation (wave properties, light, the electromagnetic spectrum, digital communication, radiation from space and how astronomers use it to explore the universe).

Year 11

Assessed practical investigation into resistance in electric circuits; energy generation; the nature of radioactive decay; radiation dose and risk; fission and fusion; medical and industrial uses of radioactivity, controversies surrounding nuclear power; geometric optics (reflection, refraction, diffraction and their use in telescopes); multi-wavelength astronomy; astronomical distance determination; spectra (including energy levels in atoms); ideal gases and black body radiation; stellar evolution; evidence for the Big Bang and current scientific theories on the large-scale structure and fate of the universe.

Year 12

Communication (imaging, optics, sensing circuits, signalling and bandwidth); designer materials (properties, testing and micro-structure of natural and artificial materials); wave and quantum behaviour; kinematics and dynamics; case studies in quality of measurement (random and systematic uncertainty, calibration, sensitivity, resolution and response time of instruments). There are two pieces of coursework: one presentation of research done on the practical use of a material and one measurement task where students construct and evaluate a sensor or measure a fundamental physical quantity such as g or h.

Year 13

The "clockwork universe" (mathematical and computer models, simple harmonic motion and resonance, momentum, thermodynamics, ideal gases, cosmology and gravitation); field and particle physics (electric and magnetic fields, electromagnetic machines, fundamental particles, nuclear radiation and risk); current advances in physics (dark matter, radar ranging, energy-efficient buildings, scanning electron microscopy and hybrid vehicles). For coursework, there's one extended practical investigation and one independent research report.