Grade 9 Physics

Two things decide a student’s result in Grade 9 physics: whether they can read a motion graph, and whether they can draw a free-body diagram. Everything else in the year — the equations of motion, momentum, torque, even the thermal chapters — is easier once those two habits are in place. We give both a great deal of attention and revisit them all year.

The numerical work is taught with a fixed routine: write down the given quantities with units, choose the formula, rearrange before substituting, then check that the answer is sensible. Students who follow that routine lose far fewer marks to arithmetic slips.

By the end of the course a student should be able to attempt a past-paper numerical question from this syllabus unaided, and explain the physics of a simple everyday situation — a cyclist braking, a ladder against a wall — in the language of the subject.