Science
Science education provides the foundations for understanding the world.
Science changes our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity. Through science education, students learn to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. They are encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.
Our curriculum aims to ensure that all students develop scientific knowledge, conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge (skills) and learner attributes through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics. The curriculum is a progression model, through which the ‘big ideas’ are developed and built upon, as students develop their own schema for Science. Our big ideas or Core Concepts, through which all aspects of science can be linked to or explained by are:
The Core Concepts
- The links between structure and function in living organisms.
- The particulate model as the key to understanding the properties and interactions of matter in all its forms.
- The resources and means of transfer of energy as key determinants of all of these interactions.
- Forces and motion to describe moving objects and interactions between particles.
- The principles of working scientifically.
key stage 3
Year 7
Particles, Atoms & Elements
- How does the energy a particle possesses help us understand states of matter?
- How can the ideas of particles be used to explain the differences between elements, compounds and mixtures?
Cells & Reproduction
- How does the structure and function of a cell support its role in the seven life processes?
- What are the key features of plant and animal cells, and the differences between these types of cells?
Forces & Space
- What causes an object’s motion to change?
- What is our solar system and how is it organised?
Sound & Light
- What are the different types of waves and how are they described in terms of the movement of particles?
- What is the function of wave in terms of energy?
Body Systems
- How are living organisms organised?
- How do different parts of the body work together to help keep us functioning?
Periodic Table
- What are mixtures, and how are they separated?
- How are the elements in the periodic table organised and how is this organisation linked to their properties?
Year 8
Chemical Reaction, Acids & Alkali
- What are the different types of chemical reactions?
- What is neutralisation and how would we know when it has happened?
Energy motion and pressure
- What are the different ways in which we can transfer thermal energy and how are these methods linked to particles?
- How can we describe pressure in fluids and solids in terms of particles and forces?
Health and lifestyle
- What are the components of a healthy diet and what is the impact on cells and functioning of the body?
- What are the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle?
Electricity and magnetism
- What are the different types of circuit that we use?
- What are magnetic fields and how are they produced?
Ecosystems, adaptations and inheritance
- How do plants make their own food and what are the key features of their cells that enable them to do this?
- How are living organisms adapted to suit their ecosystem and how does this enable interdependence?
Reactions, materials and the Earth
- How do metals react with different chemicals and what products would we expect?
- How do the conditions on and within the Earth determine the type of rock that is formed?
Year 9
Biology; new technologies and disease
- What is DNA and how do living organisms pass on characteristics?
- How are diseases transmitted and what are our defences against these?
Physics New technologies and space
- How did our universe come to be and how have our ideas about its organisation changed with observations?
- What are the different ways in which radiation is emitted and how can this both be useful and harmful to us?
Chemistry
- How has the versatile chemical nature of Carbon led to a revolution in the science of materials, from polymers to nanotechnology?
- How has the development of our understanding of the atom led to the Periodic table becoming an essential tool for the Chemists of today?
key stage 4
Most students will follow the Combined Science route which includes chemistry, physics and biology and will subsequently obtain two GCSE qualifications graded 9-1.
KEY STAGE 5
Key Stage 5 options include:
- A Level Biology
- BTEC Applied Human Biology
- A Level Chemistry
- A Level Physics
For more information click the appropriate title above.