Science at KS3

The three school years from age 11-14 are called keystage three in the UK. Keystage three is a strange place to be. It is a kind of waiting area.
For science at KS3I have bought Galore Park's So You really Want to Learn Science book 2.It states that it completes the course for KS3. It is quite a thick textbook, divided into colour coded sections on each of biology, chemistry and physics. Many of the topics repeat and extend what we did in book 1, and I'm pretty sure the same stuff will come up all over again at GCSE level. This makes KS3 either a time of going through the motions while waiting for a GCSE course to begin, or a time to explore in ways that are off curriculum.
Obviously the school going child has no choice in this matter, but home educators do!
This year's science for us, therefore, is going to focus on chemistry, using the book as a base, but hopefully, inshAllah, exploring chemistry generally as much as we can.
Here are some places that might be worth exploring on the way.