Year 7
Students are taught in tutor groups.
Topics Include:
Cells, Tissues and Organs, Reproduction, Working In a Laboratory, Particles and Reactions, Forces and Speed, Classification and Food Webs, Weathering and Fossils.
Year 8
Students are taught in sets based on ability:
Topics Include:
Energy Transfer, Keeping Healthy, Studying Disease, Separating Mixtures, Atoms, Elements and Compounds, Magnetism and Navigation, Sound and Heat, Life and Death, Space.
Year 9
Students are taught in sets based on ability:
Topics Include:
Plants for Food, Variation and Behaviour, Chemical Patterns, Chemical Reactions, Pressure, Forces and Moments, Energy Transfers, Humans and the Environment, Geology.
Years 10-11
OPTION 1: Double Award GCSE SCIENCE and GCSE ADDITIONAL SCIENCE
Examining Board: AQA
Number of lessons per week: 6
This course takes 20% of the total curriculum time.
GCSE Science will be completed at the end of Year 10. Multiple choice exams in March and June of Year 10 will provide 75% of the final mark, with 25% coming from internal assessment of investigative and practical skills made during the year.
Students will be taught 2 periods each of Biology, Physics and Chemistry by a specialist teacher.
GCSE Additional Science will be completed in Year 11 and follows a similar breakdown and format of assessment except the multiple choice modules will be replaced by written examinations.
IMPORTANT
Students must follow this option or Triple Science if there is any possibility that they may want to take any of the following A-level subjects: Physics or Chemistry or Biology.
OPTION 2: Single Award GCSE SINGLE SCIENCE
Examining Board: AQA
Number of lessons per week: 3
There will be the option to take GCSE Science over Year 10 and 11. This course will take 10% of the total curriculum time.
Students will be assessed by 6 multiple choice module tests during the two years which make up to 75% of the final mark. The remaining 25% will come from internal assessment of investigative and practical skills made during the year.
The full range of grades A* - G is possible on Option 1.
A limited range of grades C – G is possible on Option 2
OPTION 3: GCSE TRIPLE SCIENCE
Examining Board: AQA
Number of lessons per week: 9
This course takes 30% of the total curriculum time.
Students will be taught 3 periods of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. They will be awarded separate GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics at the end of Year 11.
25% of the marks for each Science will be from Internal Assessment.
Only pupils who are likely to achieve a level 6 or 7 in their Year 9 Science levels are eligible for this course.
The course is modular in format with students being able to take some of the modules during Years 10 and 11.
Students need to follow this option or GCSE Science and the Additional Science option if they wish to take A Level Sciences.
Edexcel BTEC Level 2 Extended Certificate in Applied Science
The BTEC course has been developed to:
- Provide full-time learners aged 14-16 with an Applied Science qualification that covers the Key Stage 4 programme of study for Science.
- Gain an appropriate vocational qualification
- Give learners the opportunity to develop a range of skills and techniques, personal skills and attributes essential for successful performance in working life.
- Enable learners to consider their relationship with the scientific community and their responsibilities towards the community and the environment.
The programme is taught as a series of topics to gain 30 credits. Each topic ends with an assignment (no exams are sat).
Topics Include:
- Chemistry and our earth
- Energy and our universe
- Biology and our environment
All units are internally assessed and students can achieve a pass, merit or distinction. This is equivalent to 2 GCSE grades (pass=CC).
Head of Department: Mrs C. Brown