Chemistry

The Science Department is going from strength to strength, with a strong and expanding Sixth Form contingent. Many Science students enter Oxford or Cambridge, and a significant proportion of chemists go on to study medicine.

We have 12 well equipped laboratories, three prep rooms and 14 teaching staff who teach their specialist subject (Chemistry, Biology or Physics) in Years 10 to 13, and we all teach across the subjects to Key Stage 3.

There are three Science Department technicians; each is responsible for his or her subject area from Year 7 to 13. The department is very well resourced in that most laboratories have access to stand-alone PCs, data-logging equipment and CD-ROMs. Each laboratory has an interactive whiteboard. Every pupil has his own textbook to use for each of the three sciences. As well as this personal copy, pupils also have access to sets of different texts in school.

Within the Chemistry Department, there is a Head of Department, four teaching staff and a specialist technician. There are three laboratories equipped for Sixth Form teaching. The department has a strong interest in the use of ICT to develop the learning processes in Chemistry and has its own reference library for student and staff use.

Pupils are taught in sets based on ability from the Spring Term of Year 7 onwards. During the Key Stage 3 years, pupils follow a scheme written in-house based on the Starting Science scheme. At GCSE, the department offers Science taught as a suite of three GCSEs, as well as double-certificate Science (Science and Additional Science), which is taught as Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The GCSE and A level Chemistry courses follow the AQA specifications. The Advanced Extension Award is offered to the most able students.

As part of their further studies, some students take part in the Nuffield Bursary and Crest award schemes, and in all three subjects (Chemistry, Biology and Physics) students enter their respective societies' Olympiads. Some GCSE boys enter the 'Top of the Bench' national chemistry competition.

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