Year 10 and 11 Curriculum
General Statement
The Curriculum at Sha Tin College is designed to enable all students to fulfil their potential, giving them many opportunities and choices about their future as they move into the wider world.
Our curriculum is structured around the following principles:
a) The need for breadth and balance, to give every student an opportunity to fulfil their academic and personal potential.
b) The need to ensure relevance and internationalism, to promote responsible citizenship and develop an awareness and understanding of regional, international and global issues
c) The need to develop the elements of learning: knowledge, skills, concepts and values/attitudes. This aims to foster a spirit of enquiry, a sense of adventure, a pride in individual and team achievements, the confidence to meet challenges and the opportunity to develop leadership skills.
d) The need to ensure progression and continuity, building on and extending the work done by our partner schools.
e) The need to ensure coherence of learning. Whilst subjects are taught through different curriculum areas, consistency of approach, common themes and inter-disciplinary links are emphasised to ensure that students gain a holistic view of knowledge and its acquisition.
As students progress through the school, the range of subjects they study will narrow and they will be able to make more choices about which areas they wish to pursue in depth. At all stages of their education students will be exposed to a variety to teaching and learning styles and will be encouraged to think reflectively about their own development.
In addition to equipping students with the practical knowledge and skills needed in adult life, our curriculum aims to increase students' critical awareness, their understanding of themselves, their Hong Kong environment and the international context in which they are growing up. The iPSE (International, Personal and Social Education) programme plays a key role in developing this understanding and skills.
Year 10 and 11 Curriculum Overview
The curriculum offered in Years 10 and 11 builds on the skills, knowledge and understanding gained in the lower years and more choice is introduced to allow a greater degree of specialisation. Students follow (I)GCSE or GCSE courses offered by UK examination boards, which lead to the award of prestigious, internationally recognised certificates from either Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) or Edexcel. The Information Technology course leads to the award of a new CIE Diploma which is equivalent to (I)GCSE. The Curriculum is divided into two areas, the core and options.
CORE: All students will continue to study courses leading to qualifications in Mathematics, English Language, English Literature and Science (Dual Award). Physical Education is also part of the core curriculum and students can take a GCSE qualification in this area if they wish to. Finally all students complete the International, Personal and Social Education (iPSE) programme, which develops critical thinking and international awareness.
OPTIONS: Students then specialise their programme by choosing four additional subjects, one from each of the following groups.
Group 1: Chinese as a first language, Chinese as a second language, English as an additional
language (EAL) , French, Spanish.
Group 2: Business Studies, Economics, Geography, History, Religious Studies.
Group 3: Art and Design, Design Technology, Drama, Information Technology (ICT), Music
Group 4: Free choice - any one of the subjects above.
The curriculum at this stage is designed to ensure that students keep open as many career paths as possible, and it is for this reasons that we require them to choose from fixed groups of subjects. Students will usually have the opportunity to gain nine or ten (I)GCSE certificates, more than enough to meet university and career requirements anywhere in the world.
More detailed information about courses offered can be found in the Year 10 Curriculum Brochure.
