Dover Middle School Programme

School week

Students spend much of their day in the Middle School building, moving to specialist facilities and classrooms that are also used by the High School for subjects such as Visual Arts, Drama, Design and Technology, Music and PE.

Classes remain together with their Mentor group for the majority of lessons, except Languages other than English in Grades 6–8. In Grades 7 and 8 students are placed in mixed ability Mathematics classes and in Grade 8 English they are placed in mixed classes to widen their friendship groups.

School starts at 8am and finishes at 3pm, although many students will be involved in the Activities programme after school, and some may even be involved in sports training before school.

Middle School Weekly Periods

The curriculum is based on 40 periods per week. While most subjects remain consistent, the humanities and elective focus shift as students progress through their studies.

Subject	Number of periods per week
	Grade 6	Grade 7	Grade 8
English or English as an Additional Language (EAL)	5	6	6
Humanities	5	5	5
Mathematics	5	5	5
Science	5	5	5
Language other than English / Extra EAL / Study Skills*	5	5	5
Physical Education (PE)	4	4	4
Design and Technology**	4	3	3
Visual Arts***	4	4	4
Drama***	4	4	4
Music	2	2	2
Life Skills	1	1	1
Total Periods per Week	40	40	40

*Language Options

Students have several pathways for their language studies:

• First Languages: Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Japanese
• Beginner Languages: Chinese, French, Spanish
• Foreign Languages: Chinese, French, Spanish
• Second Language: Chinese

**Design and Technology Modules

• Product Design
• Food Technology
• Textile Technology
• Electronics
• Communications and Technology
• Graphic Products
• Engineering

***Visual Arts and Drama

• Visual Arts and Drama are each taught for 4 periods per week for half the school year, with students rotating between the two subjects.