Sciences

Course Information

GCSE Biology, Chemistry and Physics

Over half of our students follow the separate Science qualifications at Key Stage 4. This leads to 3 GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Students have the opportunity to study each Science at either Foundation or Higher Tier. Foundation Tier leads to a grade 5-1 and Higher Tier leads to a grade 9-4.

The separate Science courses contain the same content as the Combined Science course, with additional, more challenging content. This provides an excellent grounding in the Sciences and makes these courses especially suitable for students who may wish to pursue study of Sciences at college or Sixth Form.

We follow the AQA GCSE specifications. These can be found here:

AQA GCSE Biology Specification

AQA GCSE Chemistry Specification

AQA GCSE Physics Specification

GCSE Combined Science

Some students will instead follow the Combined Science course. This leads to 2 GCSEs, usually at grades 5-1 (Foundation Tier), but the option to study Combined Science at Higher Tier is also offered.

Combined Science covers all of the core curriculum content that is in the separate Sciences.

We follow the AQA GCSE specification in Combined Science (Trilogy). This can be found here:

AQA GCSE Combined Science (Trilogy) Specification

Options Choices

Science staff provide individual advice and guidance about which of the courses is most suitable for our pupils in the Spring and Summer terms of Year 9. Students who wish to follow the Triple Science pathway are placed into 2 sets at the start of Year 10. Those who follow the Combined Science pathway are split into 3 smaller sets which allows for extra support to be offered to individual students. Scientific ability is only one aspect of selecting which pathway students follow, pupils who show interest in Science are encouraged to be ambitious and work towards GCSEs in each separate Science.