Science
Within the Science department, we aim to provide a consistently hands-on and engaging curriculum that develops scientific and transferable skills.
We aim to give every student the skills needed to have a secure understanding of science for both their GCSEs as well as allowing them to be in a position to study science as part of their further education.
We want every boy to experience success regardless of the path that they chose to study.
Key Stage Three
Years Seven and Eight follow a dynamic scheme that aims to give a hands-on and engaging overview of all three sciences. On joining the school, Year Sevens follow an induction programme designed to equip them with the scientific skills necessary to succeed in science. The students are given plenty of opportunities to gain practical experience in order to inspire an enquiry based mindset. Within the curriculum are embedded GCSE style required practicals in order to promote investigative scientific skills and to best prepare students for the new and demanding GCSE courses.
Students undertake termly assessments, combining two units of work for each assessment in order to encourage a more rigorous approach to study, which is more closely related to GCSE style assessments.
Key Stage Four
At Key stage four students either follow a combined science pathway or a separate science pathway.
Combined science:
Combined Science is a two-GCSE sized (double award) qualification covering Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Students are awarded a grade based on their overall performance across these three disciplines.
There are six papers: two biology, two chemistry and two physics. Each of the papers will assess knowledge and understanding from distinct topic areas. All combined science exams will be 1 hour 15 minutes long.
Paper 1 will assess across chapters 1-4 (1-5 for Chemistry).
Paper 2 will assess across chapters 5-7 (6-10 for Chemistry).
Separate sciences:
Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their physical structure, chemical processes, molecular interactions, physiological mechanisms, development and evolution. Despite the complexity of the science, there are certain unifying concepts that consolidate it into a single, coherent field. Biology recognises the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity, and evolution as the engine that propels the creation and extinction of species. Living organisms are open systems that survive by transforming energy and decreasing their local entropy to maintain a stable and vital condition defined as homeostasis.
Chemistry is the study of substances, their properties and the way they interact with others through chemical reactions. Chemistry is vital in the development of new materials and to solving many of the problems facing the world today including pollution, waste and resource management and the development of renewable energy resources. Students will also develop working scientifically skills necessary for the continued study of chemistry at A level and beyond.
There is a significant maths requirement to the chemistry course, with 20% of the exam marks being for mathematical reasoning and calculations.
The course is based around a core selection of ten required practicals. These demonstrate the core principles of Chemistry, as well as allowing students to apply key concepts of scientific enquiry.
Physics is the study of the principles of the world around us. It is possibly the most wide arching of the sciences, taking into account principles from the forces that hold atoms together to the formation of the Universe.
There are strong mathematical links within the GCSE course, with around 30% of the papers having a strong mathematical demand. This is particularly apparent in the number of equations needing to be recalled by students.
The course is based around a core selection of ten required practicals. These demonstrate the core principles of Physics, as well as allowing students to apply key concepts of scientific inquiry.