First Year
Academic > Educational Course > First Year
The main aims during this year are:
- to give all boys a fair start together and to ensure that firm foundations are laid for their subsequent careers at Tonbridge.
- to make provision for their different abilities in different subjects.
- to give them the intellectual stimulus of new subjects and new methods and techniques, so that they do not get the feeling that they have done it all before.
- to introduce them to as many as possible of the subjects taught here, so that they may gain experience as a basis for their future choices of subjects and so that we may gain some idea of their suitability for these subjects.
These aims are implemented as follows:
- Boys are placed in the upper (1A) forms according to general aptitude, though particular attention is paid to their ability in Science and English which make up four of their Form subjects. The rest of the forms (IB) are normally of mixed ability, arranged alphabetically.
- All boys in the year group are 'setted' (i.e. re-grouped according to their ability in the particular subject) for each of Mathematics, Modern Languages, Latin or Latin and Greek: some adjacent sets cover a band of boys of equally mixed ability. Set changes are made during the year as boys settle into school.
- All boys take two modern foreign languages. One will be one they have studied before (French, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese). The second can be a new language from a menu including German, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. (All boys have to take at least one Modern Foreign Language to GCSE.) Please note that timetable constraints prevent us offering continuation Spanish with ab initio Mandarin.
- A boy who has studied Greek at his previous school will also be encouraged to continue it. Boys in some of the top Latin sets study both Greek and Latin in the periods allocated to Latin.
All boys have the following curriculum of 60 forty-minute periods per 10-day cycle:
| English | 7 |
| *Continuation language | 5 |
| *Mathematics | 7 |
| History | 3 |
| *Latin or *Latin and Greek | 5 |
| Biology | 4 |
| Geography | 3 |
| Chemistry | 4 |
| Physics | 4 |
| Technology | 3 |
| Technology: a composite course including Design Technology and Electronics | |
| New language | 5 |
| Drama | 2 |
| Information Systems | 2 |
| Divinity/PSE | 2 |
| Art | 3 |
| Music | 1 |
* Setted Subjects
Physical education is incorporated into the Wednesday Afternoon Activity programme.
In order to allow timetabled Music Practice periods, Music Award-holders are normally expected to opt out of one non-core subject in the Third and Fourth Forms.
A Parents' Evening is held in the Michaelmas Term, shortly after half-term. A second Parents' Evening, in which the focus is on GCSE courses, is held in the Summer Term.