St Dominic’s School Curriculum Plan - AQA GCSE Combined Science Synergy - Long-Term Plan

Sep 5, 2026

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Long-term curriculum plan for Year 10–11 studying AQA GCSE Combined Science Synergy at St Dominic’s School, outlining what pupils learn and when across four exam papers. The course is organised into Life and environmental sciences (Papers 1 and 2, mainly Year 10) and Physical sciences (Papers 3 and 4, mainly late Year 10 through Year 11), each divided into four conceptual sections. It integrates biology, chemistry and physics through key ideas, links themes such as radiation, atmosphere, and resources for sustainable futures, and includes 21 required practical activities to build transferable scientific skills.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Science Subject Intent

Papers 1 and 2: Life and environmental sciences

Papers 3 and 4: Physical sciences

Integrated key concepts and examples

Required practicals and transferable skills

KS3 progression and GCSE outcomes

Key ideas embedded across the course

Biology key ideas

Chemistry key ideas

Physics key ideas

St Dominic’s School Curriculum Plan What will pupils learn and when? | Subject | AQA GCSE Combined Science | Year Group | 10-11 Key Stage 4 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Science Subject Intent
KS4
AQA GCSE Combined
Science Synergy
| Throughout the AQA GCSE Combined Science Synergy science course, learning is enriched with teaching drawing on different areas that can be naturally linked together. The content is divided into two main sections, which contain connections between areas of biology, physics and chemistry that sit together as part of good science.
Papers 1 and 2 focus on Life and environmental Sciences, and we cover most of this content during Year 10. This includes 4 sections
• Building blocks: from atoms to cells, behaviour and transport on the small scale.
• Transport over larger distances: systems in animals and plants and how these systems interact.
• Interactions with the environment: the effects of factors in the environment on organisms, how our choices affect our health.
• Explaining change: how organisms, species, living and non-living systems change over time.
Papers 3 and 4 focus on Physical Sciences, and most of this content will be covered towards the end of Year 10 and throughout Year 11. This is also broken down into 4 sections
• Building blocks for understanding: organising, patterns, properties and analysis.
• Interactions over small and large distances: strong and weak forces between atoms, molecules and larger structures and how they interact.
• Movement and interactions: rates of change of motion and direction of large and small objects, and chemical changes.
• Guiding Spaceship Earth towards a sustainable future: resources of materials and energy.
Both sections include topics that draw together and apply key concepts. Examples in Life and environmental sciences include Radiation and risk and The Earth's atmosphere. In these topics, earlier work on atomic structure, waves and electromagnetic radiation is used to explain the effects of different types of radiation on human tissues and on the climate. An example in Physical sciences is Resources of materials and energy, which introduces life cycle assessment as a way of evaluating the impacts of using materials and energy to manufacture useful products.
There are also 21 required practical's that support pupils in learning science and developing their scientiﬁc skills that are highly transferrable such as analytical thinking, performing risk assessments, teamwork, communicating with different audiences, ﬁne motor skills, displaying and interpreting data and many more.
The content builds on our KS3 curriculum and prepares pupils for further science study, allowing pupils access onto both traditional A level courses and vocational qualiﬁcations. The nature of the synergy speciﬁcation as laid out by AQA, lends itself well to our pupils. Teaching as big ideas rather than discretely as Biology, Chemistry and Physics allows lots of opportunities for recall practice and interleaving to support | | | St Dominic’s School Curriculum Plan What will pupils learn and when? | | our pupils in memory and application of their knowledge. The result will be two GCSE grades awarded after pupils have sat four exam papers in the summer of Year 11, each 1 hour 45 minutes.
The complex and diverse phenomena of the natural and man-made world can be described in terms of a small number of key ideas in biology, chemistry and physics, listed below. These key ideas are of universal application, and they are embedded throughout the subject content.
Key ideas in biology:
• life processes depend on molecules whose structure is related to their function
• the fundamental units of living organisms are cells, which may be part of highly adapted structures including tissues, organs and organ systems, enabling living processes to be performed effectively
• living organisms may form populations of single specie

FAQs

How is the AQA GCSE Combined Science Synergy course organised across Year 10 and Year 11?

The content is split into two sections: Papers 1–2 (Life and environmental sciences) mainly in Year 10, and Papers 3–4 (Physical sciences) from late Year 10 through Year 11.

What are the four main sections within the Life and environmental sciences part of the course?

They are Building blocks; Transport over larger distances; Interactions with the environment; and Explaining change.

How do pupils build scientific skills in addition to subject knowledge?

The plan includes 21 required practicals that develop transferable skills such as analytical thinking, risk assessment, teamwork, communication, and data handling and interpretation.

Sep 5, 2026

Upload by Terk