Our Science curriculum is an accessible and inclusive 7-year journey in which we prepare all students to be competent and responsible scientists for a sustainable and moral future. The main aims of the curriculum are to develop an understanding of the importance of science in the world, develop substantive and disciplinary knowledge, develop practical and transferable skills and prepare students for their next steps. Our curriculum is carefully designed and sequenced to build on the knowledge and skills that students have developed at previous stages of their science education, develop their scientific knowledge of the big ideas in biology, chemistry and physics (substantive knowledge), the development of being able to work scientifically (disciplinary knowledge), with an overarching theme of practical science.
Our curriculum is engaging and challenging and allows students to develop and apply various skills, including practical skills, mathematical skills, metacognitive skills, literacy skills (including reading) and collaborative skills. We have specifically designed our curriculum for the rounded development of our individual students, supporting the wider school intent of Learning, Loving, Living and with clear links to scientific careers and other subjects and the importance of diversity in the scientific community. Our curriculum identifies what students have learnt in their maths lessons so that students can successfully apply these maths skills in a scientific context.
Students are assessed regularly in a variety of ways, allowing them to build on their prior knowledge and allowing teachers to identify gaps in knowledge and address misconceptions before moving onto new content. Assessments also provide students with the opportunity to reflect on their progress and consider ways in which they can improve. We support students to develop their science capital by making links to scientific careers and science in the world around them, as well as providing enrichment opportunities such as trips, research opportunities, science clubs and activities during National Science Week.
Our three-year Key Stage 3 curriculum is designed to build a foundation of the big ideas in Science, as well as the development of their disciplinary knowledge (working scientifically) and key practical skills. We introduce science to pupils in a fun and engaging manner, allowing students to learn through doing. We have developed a broad curriculum to engage students in the three key areas of science: biology, chemistry and physics. This allows our students to consider how things work, the importance of the Earth’s resources for a sustainable future, why things happen, how things change and how to carry out investigations. Our students are given opportunities to ask scientific questions, carry out investigations and research, create models and analyse and evaluate their findings.
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum is designed to enthuse students and to develop the skills required to make them successful at GCSE. There are also opportunities for students to consider the importance of diversity in the scientific community and make links to future careers in Science. There are termly ISA’s (investigative Skills Assessments) which allow students to plan their own investigations, carry them out, record and analyse their results and evaluate- key skills required to become competent and responsible scientists. Students are assessed regularly, with a focus on the recall of key scientific knowledge, understanding of processes, application of knowledge and understanding and linking scientific phenomena to other areas of the curriculum and the world of work. Students are encouraged to use a range of metacognitive skills to reflect on their progress after each assessment to analyse where they did well and what they need to do to make improvements.
Students are given the opportunity to attend a weekly science club to carry out engaging science experiments beyond the classroom curriculum. Students have also recently attended Salters Festival of Chemistry workshops and take part in extra-curricular activities each year to celebrate science week, such as the “Look Who’s Talking Science” competition.
At Key Stage 4, students can choose to study GCSE Combined Science (Trilogy) or Triple Science (separate Sciences). In both courses, the KS4 curriculum covers a broad range of topics in biology, chemistry and physics, with an overarching theme of developing substantive knowledge of the big ideas in science, disciplinary knowledge (working scientifically) and practical skills . We support students to build on the substantive and disciplinary knowledge developed at KS3 and regularly use memory retrieval activities to help students embed knowledge in their long term memory stores.
Students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning journey, through the use of metacognitive strategies and self-reflection of their progress. There is also a focus on developing science capital by making links to Science A level courses, scientific careers, providing opportunities to participate in out of school science activities and relating what they are learning to science in everyday life.
Further details of the GCSE Triple Science courses can be viewed at the separate Biology, Chemistry and Physics subject areas along with the A-Level course details for each of these subjects.
Combined Science
AQA GCSE Trilogy 8464 (Foundation or Higher)
AQA GCSE Trilogy 8464 Foundation or Higher
Students are given the opportunity to attend a science club to carry out engaging science experiments beyond the classroom curriculum and take part in competitions. We also take students on visits to universities, other schools for competitions, or places of work to enthuse students and help them understand the role of science in the wider world.