The curriculum frameworks for each subject for Lower Secondary School are organised into three stages corresponding to grades 6, 7 and 8. They reflect the teaching target for each grade and provide comprehensive learning objectives.

For Cambridge Lower Secondary Science, the curriculum is presented in four content areas or ‘strands’. These are further divided into ‘substrands’. The four strands and substrands are:

Scientific enquiry

• Ideas and evidence
• Plan investigative work
• Obtain and present evidence
• Consider evidence and approach

Biology

• Plants
• Humans as organisms
• Cells and organisms
• Living things in their environment
• Variation and classification

Chemistry

• States of matter
• Material properties
• Material changes
• The Earth

Physics

• Forces and motion
• Energy
• The Earth and beyond.

The Scientific enquiry objectives underpin Biology, Chemistry and Physics, which are focused on developing confidence and interest in scientific knowledge. Environmental awareness and some history of science are also incorporated. The Cambridge Secondary 1 Science curriculum framework provides a solid foundation for further stages of education such as Cambridge IGCSE.

Teaching in Lower Secondary School ensures that ‘investigating and making’ includes ‘exploring and developing ideas’ and ‘evaluating and developing work’. ‘Knowledge and understanding’ should inform this process.

Students are taught to explore and develop ideas:

• record and analyse first-hand observations, to select from experience and imagination and to explore ideas for different purposes and audiences
• discuss and question critically, and select from a range of visual and other information [for example, exhibitions, interviews with practitioners, CDROMs] to help them develop ideas for independent work
• organise and present this information in different ways, including using a sketchbook.

Students are taught to investigate and make art, craft and design:

• investigate, combine and manipulate materials and images, taking account of purpose and audience
• apply and extend their experience of a range of materials and processes, including drawing, refining their control of tools and techniques
• experiment with and select methods and approaches, synthesise observations, ideas and feelings, and design and make images and artefacts.

Students are taught to evaluate and develop work:

• analyse and evaluate their own and others’ work, express opinions and make reasoned judgements
• adapt and refine their work and plan and develop this further, in the light of their own and others’ evaluations.

Students are taught to have knowledge and understanding:

• the visual and tactile qualities of materials and processes and how these can be manipulated and matched to ideas, purposes and audiences
• codes and conventions and how these are used to represent ideas, beliefs, and values in works of art, craft and design
• continuity and change in the purposes and audiences of artists, craftspeople and designers from Western Europe and the wider world

The curriculum frameworks for each subject for Lower Secondary School are organised into three stages corresponding to Grades 6, 7 and 8. They reflect the teaching target for each Grade and provide comprehensive learning objectives. For Cambridge Lower Secondary Mathematics, the curriculum is presented in six content areas or ‘strands’. These are further divided into ‘substrands’. The six strands and substrands are:

Number

• Integers, powers and roots
• Place value, ordering and rounding
• Fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio and proportion
• Calculation

Algebra

• Expressions, equations and formulae
• Sequences, functions and graphs

Geometry

• Shapes and geometric reasoning
• Position and movement

Measure

• Length, mass and capacity
• Times and rates of change
• Area, perimeter and volume

Handling data

• Planning and collecting data
• Processing and presenting data
• Interpreting and discussing results
• Probability

Problem solving

• Using techniques and skills in solving mathematical problems
• Using understanding and strategies in solving problems.

The first five content areas are all underpinned by Problem solving, which provides a structure for the application of mathematical skills. Mental strategies are also a key part of the Number content. Together, these two areas form a progressive step preparing students for entry onto IGCSE level courses. This curriculum focuses on principles, patterns, systems, functions and relationships so that learners can apply their mathematical knowledge and develop a holistic understanding of the subject.

The Mathematics curriculum framework provides a solid foundation on which the later stages of education can be built.

History

The curriculum frameworks for each subject for Lower Secondary School are organised into three stages corresponding to grades 6, 7 and 8. They reflect the teaching target for each grade and provide comprehensive learning objectives.

Students are taught ‘Chronological understanding’ or to recognise and make appropriate use of dates, vocabulary and conventions that describe historical periods and the passing of time.

Students are taught about social, cultural and ethnic diversity of the societies studied. They are taught to analyse and explain the reasons for, and results of, the historical events, situations and changes in the periods studied.

Students are taught how and why historical events, people, situations and changes have been interpreted in different ways and evaluate interpretations.

Students are taught to identify, select and use a range of appropriate sources of information including oral accounts, document, printed sources, the media, artefacts, pictures, photographs, music, museums, buildings and sites and ICT-based sources as a basis for independent historical enquiries.

Students are taught to recall, prioritise and select historical information. They are taught to accurately select and use chronological conventions and historical vocabulary appropriate to periods studied to organise historical information.

Students are taught about local history, European history and world history before and after 1900.

Geography

In undertaking geographical enquiry, students are taught to ask geographical questions, suggest appropriate sequences of investigation, collect, record and present evidence and analyse and evaluate evidence and draw and justify conclusions.

In developing geographical skills, students are taught to use an extended geographical vocabulary, to select and use appropriate fieldwork techniques, to use atlases and globes, and maps and plans at a range of scales, to select and use secondary sources of evidence, to draw maps and plans at a range of scales, using symbols, keys and scales, and to communicate in different ways, including using ICT.

In reference to knowledge and understanding of places students are taught the location of places and environments studied, to describe national, international and global contexts studied, to describe and explain the physical and human features that give rise to the distinctive character of places, to explain how and why changes happen in places and to explain how places are interdependent.

Students are taught to describe and explain patterns of physical and human features and relate these to character of places and environments and to identify, describe and explain physical and human processes, and their impact on places and environments.

Students are taught to describe and explain environmental changes and recognise different ways of managing it as well as to explore the idea of sustainable development and recognise its implications for people, places and environments and for their own lives.

Students are taught 10 themes: tectonic processes and their effects on landscapes and people, geomorphological processes, how and why weather and climate vary, ecosystems, population distribution and change, the changing characteristics of settlements, changing distribution of economic activity and its impact, development, environmental issues and resource issues.

The programme develops the skills of research, analysis, evaluation, reflection, collaboration and communication. It strengthens the links across English as a first or second language, mathematics, science and ICT Starters.

Research says that the earlier students start to develop and practise their skills, the greater the impact on their learning. Global Perspectives helps to develop and embed cross-curricular skills at an earlier age, supporting them in their studies as they progress to Cambridge Upper Secondary and beyond.

Global Perspectives in Lower Secondary School is made up of a series of challenges. Every year there are six different challenges. Each Challenge is six hours long, subdivided into a range of activities, and covers a range of skills. The skills are taught through a wide range of topics using a personal, local and global perspective. These topics are the same as the Cambridge IGCSE syllabus, allowing the school to develop and embed cross-curricular skills at an earlier age. Teachers help students to look at a variety of global issues or topics that give a range of contexts.

Throughout the programme, teachers focus on formative feedback on the skills they want students to develop. When a Challenge is completed, teachers can discuss with students ‘what went well’ and how they can improve further, so that students can reflect on, and improve, their performance.

A Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint Global Perspectives assessment is available at the end of the final year to assess learner performance. Students produce an individual research project. It enables teachers and students to assess how skills have developed throughout the programme. Teachers mark the projects before they are moderated in Cambridge. Learners receive a statement of achievement at Gold, Silver or Bronze level and the school receives a feedback report.

Teaching in Lower Secondary School ensures that ‘listening, and applying knowledge and understanding’, are developed through the interrelated skills of ‘performing’, ‘composing’ and ‘appraising’.

Students are taught performing skills:

• sing unison and part songs developing vocal techniques and musical expression
• perform with increasing control of instrument-specific techniques
• practise, rehearse and perform with awareness of different parts, the roles and contribution of the different members of the group, and the audience and venue.

Students are taught composing skills:

• improvise, exploring and developing musical ideas when performing
• produce, develop and extend musical ideas, selecting and combining resources within musical structures and given genres, styles and traditions.

Students are taught appraising skills:

• analyse, evaluate and compare pieces of music
• communicate ideas and feelings about music using expressive language and musical vocabulary to justify their own opinions
• adapt their own musical ideas and refine and improve their own and others’ work.

Students are taught about listening, and applying knowledge and understanding:

• listen with discrimination and to internalise and recall sounds
• identify the expressive use of musical elements, devices, tonalities and structures
• identify the resources, conventions, processes and procedures, including use of ICT, staff notation and other relevant notations, used in selected musical genres, styles and traditions
• identify the contextual influences that affect the way music is created, performed and heard

Teaching in Lower Secondary School ensures that when ‘evaluating and improving performance’, connections are made between ‘developing, selecting and applying skills, tactics and compositional ideas’, and ‘fitness and health’.

Learners are taught to understand fitness and the benefits of physical fitness to health. Learners are taught through a number of activities including:

Games activities

• Using techniques that suit a specific game
• Use the principles of attack and defense
• Responding to changing situation in games

Gymnastic activities

• Perform sequences
• Use techniques and movement combinations

Athletic activities

• Set and meet personal and group targets in a range of athletic events, challenges and competitions
• Students learn and play football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, etc..

The curriculum frameworks for each subject for Cambridge Lower Secondary School are organised into three stages corresponding to Grades 6, 7 and 8. They reflect the teaching target for each Grade and provide comprehensive learning objectives.

For Cambridge Lower Secondary English, the curriculum promotes an enquiry-based approach to learning to develop thinking skills and encourage intellectual engagement. The curriculum is presented in five content areas or ‘strands’. These are further divided into ‘substrands’. The five strands and substrands are:

Phonics, spelling and vocabulary

Grammar and punctuation

• Reading
• Writing

Reading

• Fiction and poetry
• Non-fiction

Writing

• Fiction and poetry
• Non-fiction

Speaking and listening

The curriculum encourages learners to be confident, creative and intellectually engaged, capable of applying their skills to respond to a range of information, media and text with enjoyment and understanding. Learners who follow this framework will develop a first language competency in English based on a curriculum designed to be successful in any culture and to promote cross-cultural understanding. The English curriculum framework provides a solid foundation on which the later stages of education can be built.

The curriculum frameworks for each subject for Cambridge Lower Secondary Schools are organised into three stages corresponding to Grades 6, 7 and 8 of Lower Secondary education. They reflect the teaching target for each year group and provide comprehensive learning objectives.

For Cambridge Lower Secondary English as a Second Language, the curriculum is presented in five content areas or ‘strands’. The learning outcomes in each strand for each successive stage are defined in terms of what learners should be able to do in English. The five strands are:

• Reading
• Listening
• Writing
• Speaking
• Use of English

The curriculum provides a comprehensive set of progressive learning objectives for learners of English as a Second Language. These are based on the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), which is used widely both within and beyond Europe to map learners’ progression in English. 

The learning of a foreign language in Lower Secondary School provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for all students. Students develop communication and literacy skills that lay the foundation for future language learning. They develop linguistic competence, extend their knowledge of how language works and explore differences and similarities between the foreign language and the student’s own mother language. Learning another language raises awareness of the multi-lingual and multi-cultural world and introduces an international dimension to a student’s learning, giving them an insight into their own culture and those of others. The learning of a foreign language provides a medium for cross-curricular links and for the reinforcement of knowledge, skills and understanding developed in other subjects.

Turkish is the national language of the host culture – a natural choice for foreign students and an even more natural choice for children from multicultural families where one parent is Turkish.

Spanish has been chosen as a suitable foreign language for two main reasons – a huge number of people throughout the world use Spanish and it has an immense rich culture and literature largely known only in translation. It is also a relatively easy language to learn and a very helpful stepping stone to other Latin based European languages

At Istanbul International School Turkish is introduced at Grade 1 level. Spanish is introduced at Grade 5 level. In Lower Secondary School learners must choose between Turkish and Spanish.

Learning another language presents opportunities for the reinforcement of knowledge, skills and understanding developed in other curriculum areas.

● aspects of English such as speaking and listening skills, knowledge and understanding of grammatical structures and sentence construction
● aspects of mathematics such as counting, calculations, money, the time and the date
● songs, alphabet, poems, rhymes and stories in other languages
● international or multi-cultural work, for example celebration of festivals, storytelling
● using ICT, for example e-mail with schools abroad, materials from the internet and satellite television
● geographical and historical work relating to other countries.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is a part of the educational experience worldwide and regarded as a new ‘literacy’ alongside reading, writing and numeracy.

Cambridge ICT Starters is a series of modules which assess candidates on their ability to use a range of compuıter software to communicate, handle information, model and program solutions.

Learners will develop key ICT skills in a range of applications including computer programming, word processing, digital graphics, databases, spreadsheets, email, presentations, video/animation, the internet and web authoring. They will also consider wider issues such as eSafety and the adaption of their work to suit their audience.

Learners will learn to:

• Use ICT hardware and software and develop knowledge of ICT
• Communicate using ICT
• Handle information using ICT
• Program solutions to problems

Learners will:

• Learn how to use software to create and edit short pieces of text
• Learn how to use software to create, edit and save pictures
• Learn how to use ICT to classify information and present their findings in the form of simple charts or graphs
• Learn how to plan and create a program
• Learn how to use ICT to search for digital information
• Learn how to use email software to write and send messages, and to collect, read and reply to messages