Science

Key Stage 3

Science is divided into 12 topics in each year of Key Stage 3. The topics are taught in four blocks of three topics. Assessment of subject information is done in two ways; A topic test at the end of each block (comprising questions from each topic taught in that block) and a Level Assessed Task (LAT) at least one per block. Assessment of Science skills will be done mainly by Assessing Pupils Progress (APP) although topic tests do contain a significant number of skill based questions. All assessment (topic tests, LATs and APP) will be reported as National Curriculum Levels. These levels are further divided into sub-levles e.g. 5c (low level 5), 5b (middle level 5) and 5a (top level 5). At the end of Years 7 and 8 the reported level for each student will be an average of their achievement over the year. This average level will be used as part of the setting criteria for the following year. Final assessment for Year 9 will also include an end of Key Stage exam. Each student will be challenged with progressing two full levels, from their Key Stage 2 level, during Key Stage 3 e.g. Key Stage 2 level 4a should lead to a Key Stage 3 level of 6a.

Key Stage 4

Triple Science

Students who achieve at least a level 6+ on their Year 9 assessment can choose to embark on a two year separate Science course. The student has to study each of the main Science disciplines and leads to three separate GCSE awards in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. This route is often referred to as ‘separate or triple Science and occupies 10 hours for Year 10 and 12 hours for Year 11 on the timetable.

Core and Additional Science

Most students will take AQA Core Science in Year 10 and AQA Additional Science in Year 11, which lead to two separate GCSE awards. These students will still be able to progress to AS/A2 levels in Science.

BTEC Science

This is a course designed for students who struggle in examinations and is wholly assessed with coursework. Students who do not complete all eighteen tasks during the two years do not pass the course. It has an equivalence of two Science GCSE grades or more but does not progress to post-16 qualifications where Science is an integral part of the course.