The science curriculum aims to equip all pupils with an understanding of the world around them

The science curriculum aims to equip all pupils with an understanding of the world around them and create a life-long interest in the world of science and scientific research.

In Years 7 & 8 Combined Science is taught. In Year 7 students remain in their tutor groups for their lessons. There is a science club for students to attend and in Year 8 students participate in ‘The Future is Wild’ project. This is a cross curricular project which looks at how organisms might evolve over millions of years. This project is always met with great enthusiasm by students, and the quality of work that they produce in such a short amount of time is excellent. The week culminates in an exhibition of their work which is attended by parents and guardians. This is an opportunity for students to show their parents their work and for some cheese and wine.

In Year 9 the sciences are split into the separate sciences. Students take Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Most students take all three Sciences in Year 11 although a handful will take the Double Award. During the course of the GCSE’s students will have a number of enrichment opportunities. We have close links with both Bristol and Oxford University. We also have our Science Fair which is held in March and appears to be growing in popularity every year. Throughout the year we are visited by primary school pupils. They are able to use the laboratory facilities and many attend the Science Fair.
We also have a number of excellent links for students that are particularly interested in engineering. This is a growing area in the Science Department led by Mr Downes our Head of Physics. We are also lucky enough to have our own weather station. Sadly we are not yet able to give an accurate weather forecast, but neither does it seem, can anyone else. We are set to expand this weather station facility again very soon (courtesy of our CSA) to include some temperature and humidity sensors (linked by radio to the weather station) which will enable some Crest Gold Award work on plant growth (correlated to weather conditions) to be attempted. This will, we hope, encourage some of our very best students to study Meteorology with Physics at university.

We were delighted this year to receive a grant from the Wolfson Foundation for £35,000. This has meant that we have been able to update the apparatus that the students use. This equipment is particularly useful for the Sixth Form students, but is also clearly available to all. The students are already using the new resources, and we are delighted with the results that they are achieving/effects they are having on the quality of teaching and learning?
Science at Sixth Form has experienced a huge increase in numbers over the last few years. We feel that this is due to the enjoyment of the subject in the lower school and the university choices which students are making.