The Science Department has 7 full time teachers and 3 technicians. Staff are enthusiastic, committed and supportive. Teachers have their own lab. as their base. The department meets regularly on a formal basis and is expected to act as a team. There is contact between the department every day. The department has an important emphasis on sharing good practice with individual staff regularly presenting at department meetings. The school was awarded specialist status in Science in 2006 and redesignation in 2009.

Premises & Equipment

Currently the department has 8 labs. 3 labs are in a new block; they also have a Prep. room and an office. The other 5 labs. are in an older block they also have their own Prep. Room. The department is well resourced with basic equipment, all labs have an IWB and a white board, video, OHP, access to over two hundred video programmes, data logging equipment, a variety of textbooks and other educational resources. The department has its own laser printer and scanner. Each member of the department is issued with their own laptop with access to the schools internet. There are also PC laptops available for use by pupils. The department has access to the schools IT suite (of which there are 3 rooms equipped with 30 iMac computers). The department use the school MLE platform to share resources and store documents centrally.

KS3

KS3 classes have 3 lessons of Science each week. Year 7 classes are taught as mixed ability, form groups. Years 8 and 9 and are grouped on ability. The department has written their own SOWs based on the National curriculum 2007 scheme with a strong focus on PLTs. Each SOW include SATs style unit test, core homeworks and Sc1 activities. In year 9 there is a large emphasis on Scientific enquiry.  Since the removal of the SAT exams in 2009, the department has moved towards a 2 year KS3 curriculum. As a result identified pupils are entered for a GCSE module in the summer term of Year 9.

KS4

A number of qualifications are offered in the Science department. From Year 9 pupils are identified as to whether they will follow the Triple award route, Science and Additional Science route or the Edexcel BTEC first extended certificate / diploma in Applied Science. Pupils taking GCSE exams follow the AQA exam board, specification B.

KS4 classes are grouped on ability and students have 5 lessons of science a week. Classes have 2 teachers who will teach separate units of work. The Department has invested heavily in books each teacher has access to the Nelson Thorne AQA core science, additional science and separate science. The department also has a number of interactive resources including Boardworks for KS3 and KS4