Science

All students have an inner-belief and ambition to fulfil their dreams and live a happy and successful life. 

Our science curriculum exposes students to a broad range of subjects and learning opportunities to deepen their educational experience and build a solid foundation of subject knowledge and skills across Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Students are continually assessed throughout the course, completing assessment tasks (green box activities) and written exams (PPE). Through activities embedded within the curriculum students are given the opportunity to experience a wide range of science disciplines with the aim of inspiring students to make a leap into a Science based field. The Science Department is committed to ensuring that all students make rapid and sustained progress. The department aim to develop learners who have the knowledge, skills, and the creativity to become the Scientists of tomorrow. Through a continual promotion of scientific careers, educational trips, and enrichment opportunities such as “Allotment Club” and “the Farm”, we aim to ensure that a large number of our students are equipped to pursue careers in science at the highest levels.

All students leave our academy with first-rate qualifications: 

This curriculum ensures that students leave the academy with a strength of qualification that allows that to compete in the next stage of their academic career, including combined or triple Science. Not only does the curriculum provides a solid foundation of knowledge and skills that ensure success in a post 16 academic setting, but all promotes application to all aspects of their lives.  In Science, we baseline students every lesson using mini whiteboards to establish their starting points, thus ensuring students access work that challenges them. This allows us to stretch the students to the top grades and give them the best chance to achieve a high quality Science qualification. As a department, we consider examination tier entry very carefully, ensuring that students are not impeded by completing a tier that is unsuitable for them, whilst still offering challenge and the opportunity to be successful. 

All students develop exceptional character: 

This Science curriculum provides students with contextualised experiences that allow the development of a growth mind-set. At Kingswood we ensure that the curriculum develops resilience and determination – by doing hard things we grow: the greater the challenge, the greater the potential growth as we grapple with challenging concepts. The curriculum develops student’s growth mind-set in different ways including solving problems through independent practical investigations, application to GCSE questions, and questioning that promotes deeper thinking.  We use this challenge in science to foster a positive work ethic, encouraging perseverance, and allowing students to apply their understanding of science. We actively encourage students to develop their oracy skills through discussion and questioning around the topic of study. We baseline students at the beginning of every lesson, ensuring that we are always stretching them from their starting point and that no student is completing work too easy for them. We drive them to make the most progress possible every lesson and encourage a growth mind-set in all students. Lessons are planned to ensure students embed the key skills required to work scientifically.

All students leave our academy with high levels of cultural and global awareness:

Within Science students study global issues such as the impact of global warming. We ensure the science curriculum at Kingswood Academy provides an opportunity to open students’ eyes to the influence their own everyday decisions can influence the lives of people around the globe. We consider the lifestyles of those in other countries and how science helps improve their quality of life through issues such as malaria eradication and water treatment. We consider how lifestyle choices in our own country can impact on health and how science can be used to treat such problems: for example, we learn how heart disease can be affected by diet but also how stents can be used to treat this disease. We also learn how other cultures and scientists from around the world have contributed to our own understanding of the universe in which we live, including Mendeleev’s contribution to chemistry and Bohr’s understanding of the nuclear model of the atom.

All students leave with an array of positive memories that last for a lifetime:

This Science curriculum gives students a wide array of positive memories to last a lifetime. Students complete differentiated and engaging projects to ‘hook’ them into science and its applications. Through science trips, residential activities, clubs (such as Allotment Club and the Farm project) and Golden Ticket events, staff and students build and develop relationships and positive attitudes through shared experiences they can reflect on and cherish.  We provide opportunities for students to consolidate, enrich and extend their learning.