| 9 | Energy stores and systems, changes in energy, kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, elastic potential energy, energy changes in systems, specific heat capacity, required practical 1 | Power, work done, conservation and dissipation of energy, energy transfers in a system, required practical 2 (physics only), efficiency, national and global energy resources | Current, potential difference and resistance, standard circuit diagram symbols, electrical charge and current, required practical 3, series and parallel circuits
| Resistors, filament lamps, diodes, current-voltage characteristic graphs, ohmic and non-ohmic conductors, thermistors, light dependent resistors, required practical 4 | Domestic uses and safety, direct and alternating potential difference, mains electricity, energy transfers in everyday appliances, the national grid, static electricity (physics only) | Review of Energy and Electricity |
| 10 | Waves in air, fluids and solids, transverse and longitudinal waves, properties of waves, required practical 8, reflection of waves (physics only), required practical 9 (physics only), sound waves (physics only), waves for detection and exploration (physics only) | Types of electromagnetic waves, properties of electromagnetic waves 1, required practical 10, properties of electromagnetic waves 2, uses and applications of electromagnetic waves, lenses (physics only), visible light (physics only), black body radiation (physics only)
| Forces and their interactions, scalar and vector quantities, contact and non-contact forces, gravity, resultant forces, resolving forces, vector diagrams, free body diagrams
| Work done and energy transfer, forces and elasticity, required practical 6, moments (physics only), levers and gears (physics only), distance and displacement, speed, velocity, acceleration | Newton's first law, Newton's second law, required practical 7, Newton's third law, stopping distance, thinking distance, braking distance, momentum, pressure in fluids (physics only) | Waves & Forces Review |
| 11 | density of materials, required practical 5, changes of state, internal energy and energy transfers, changes of state and specific latent heat, particle motion in gases, pressure in gases (physics only) | Structure of an atom, mass number, atomic number and isotopes, development of the model of the atom, radioactive decay and nuclear radiation, nuclear equations, half-life, hazards and uses of radiation (physics only), nuclear fission and fusion (physics only) | Poles of a magnet, magnetic fields, the motor effect, electromagnetism, Fleming's left hand rule, electric motors, loudspeakers (physics only), induced potential (physics only), transformers and the national grid (physics only)
| Our solar system, the life cycle of a star, orbital motion, natural and artificial satellites, red shift (all physics only)
Trilogy group begins revisiting ideas from year 9 and 10 to target problem areas and build familiarity with exam questions. | Review of fundamental ideas, including a complete summary of required practical activities. Revision technique advice and exam skills and exam question practice. | Independent preparation and completion of external exams: Physics and Trilogy. Transition work including a choice of research tasks on cosmology, cold temperatures, quantum mechanics, medical physics or other physics topic. Booklet of key concepts that form the foundation of the study of Physics. |
| 12 | Quantities and units, derived units, scalar and vector quantities, adding and resolving vectors, current and charge, moving charges, Kirchoff's first law, mean drift velocity | Distance, displacement and velocity, acceleration, equations of motion, free fall, projectile motion, circuit symbols, potential difference and electromotive force, resistance, resistivity, Required practicals 1 and 3. | Force, mass and weight, drag and terminal velocity, moments, couples and torques, triangle of forces, Archimedes' principle, Kirchoff's laws, combining resistors, internal resistance, potential divider, Required practical 4. | Work done and conservation of energy, kinetic and gravitational potential energy, power and efficiency, progressive waves, wave properties, reflection, refraction, diffraction and polarisation, intensity, EM waves, refractive index, total internal reflection, Required practical 6. | Springs and Hooke's law, elastic potential energy, deforming materials, stress and strain, Young modulus, superposition and interference, Young's double slit experiment, stationary waves, harmonics, Required practicals 2 and 5. | Newton's first and third laws, linear momentum, Newton's second law, impulse, collisions in two dimensions, the photon model, photoelectric effect, Einstein's photoelectric effect equation, wave-particle duality. |
| 13 | Temperature, solids, liquids and gases, internal energy, specific heat capacity, specific latent heat, kinetic theory of gases, gas laws, root mean square speed, Boltzmann constant, Required practicals 8 and 11. | Angular velocity and the radian, centripetal acceleration, exploring centripetal forces, oscillations and simple harmonic motion, analysing simple harmonic motion, simple harmonic motion and energy, damping and driving, resonance, Required practical 10.
| Gravitational fields, Newton's law of gravitation, Kepler's laws, satellites, gravitational potential, objects in the universe, star life-cycle, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, stellar luminosity, astronomical distances, Doppler effect, Hubble's law, Big Bang Theory | Capacitors in circuits, energy stored by capacitors, charging and discharging capacitors, electric fields, Coulomb's law, uniform electric fields, charged particles in electric and magnetic fields, Faraday's law, Lenz's law, transformers, required practical 9. | Rutherford scattering, antiparticles, hadrons and leptons, quarks, nuclear decay, half-life, modelling radioactive decay, carbon dating, binding energy, nuclear fission and fusion, X-rays, CAT scans, gamma camera, PET scans, ultrasound, required practical 7. | Exam preparation. |