Science is an academic discipline where observation of phenomena around a person leads them to evaluate their experience and form an interpretation that explains the phenomenon. Scientists then go on to ask further questions: ‘how did it happen’, ‘what happened’, ’when did it happen,’ and ‘why did it happen’? Further evidence is recorded that answers these questions and from them scientists create models that explain the world around and within.
It is this natural curiosity of everyone, but especially of children, that we are trying to develop and stimulate in Science classes. Science is taught throughout the school, but it takes on a clearer identity in a child’s mind as they move up through it. Each child learns the three main, individual Science subjects of biology, chemistry, and physics. Practical work is performed throughout the school, but from Year 3 greater emphasis is placed upon learning through experimentation in our the new science laboratories.
The study of Science within the school is compulsory up to GCSE level, whether as a single subject in its own right, or as one of the three elements of composite qualifications in Science or Triple Science. The Department uses a practical, hands-on approach wherever possible; there is an emphasis on laboratory skills. Pupils are challenged to think imaginatively and to be critical scientists – to use, rather than to simply reproduce, the factual basis of their learning.