Science

In September 2004 Science and Technology moved into a purpose built accommodation within a new school building and have some of the most modern Laboratories and Design and Technology facilities in the North of England.

The Science Department has a Head of Science, a Second in Science and a team of Teaching Staff who cover Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. There is a technical support team of three within the Science Area supporting across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5.

At KS4 students follow the AQA Modular system. Additional Applied Science is being developed for Year 11 students 2007 to 8 and will be taught alongside Additional Science. At KS5 AQA Biology and Physics is offered together with Salter’s A Level Chemistry. The Department is well resourced and is improving its resources further to deal with the demands of the changes to KS3, GCSE and A-Level.

The Science Curriculum Area has twelve Laboratories and six Preparation Rooms together with a Science Office that has a work area for teaching and technical staff. It is also part of a broader Science and Technology Curriculum grouping.

The laboratories are equipped with Interactive White Boards, Data Projectors and every laboratory has Internet Access both hard wired and wire free.

Results for KS3 2006 were Level 5+ 77% and Level 6+ 32% these results show an improvement over the last three years. GCSE 2006 were excellent at 57% A* to C and 15% A* and A. Boys perform very well at KS4 a fact which flies in the face of national trends.

Students studying the new GCSE (Curriculum 2006) are showing a healthy Value Added on the Modular exams completed to date.

The Department was complimented by Ofsted on the extensive use of data in Monitoring and Assessment. All students know where they are and how to get to where they want to be with performance data shared between staff and with students. For students a Traffic Light system operates which ignores setting in placing students in a league table of those who are doing well and those who need to improve. An even more extensive tracking system is used by teaching staff.