AQA Science GCSE in Human Health and Physiology

[SophiaWinters]

My son's school is offering this GCSE to Year 9 pupils. It's a one year course meaning that it will be completed at the end of Year 9 which he starts in September this year. I don't know anything about GCSEs (I didn't grow up in the UK so it's all new to me) and as I was anticipating his first GCSE exam to be at the end of Year 10 it's landed on me unexpectedly early. Is there anything I should be doing to support him through the year of learning for this exam, are there text books or support material that I can buy to help him with this in addition to what he'll work with at school? I'm also wondering why it's a one year course, I was under the impression that GCSE course work was usually spread over two to three years.