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Science

Every student studies science in every year group with full access to the Key Stage Three and Key Stage Four National Curriculum.

Throughout both key stages science is delivered in an engaging and enjoyable way. We provide a learning environment with excellent facilities were every learner can make better than expected progress.

The Team:

The team is made up of three science specialists supported by a higher level teaching assistant and a team of highly trained support staff.

Achievement and progress:

Year 7 is taught in mixed ability groups, whereas years 8 to 11 are taught in ability groupings. Students follow a qualification pathway that suits their needs and achieve either an Entry Level, Level 1 Certificate or the Combined Science GCSE (resulting in the achievement of two GCSE qualifications).

KS3 Science Overview 2024-2025

 

KS3 Science Overview 2024-25

KS4 Science overview 2024-2025

 

KS4 Science Overview 2024-25

Practical science:

The key stage three and four science curriculum at Oaklands has a high practical content, whereby, all students access practical investigations to support and develop their learning.

 

Modelling:

The department maximises the opportunities for students to be involved in modelling, particularly to create visual representations of abstract concepts; this helps to make abstract concepts concrete and supports the student’s learning and progress.

 

Extra-curricular activities and enrichment:

To support the development of a curious mind-set and the real-life application of science knowledge, the science department are committed to providing extra-curricular activities, which provide real-life links to science, in order to enthuse and engage the students, making them question activities and choices in their everyday lives.

Science Week:

The main way in which the science department organise extra-curricular activities is with the annual implementation of British Science Week. During science lessons within science week at Oaklands, all students in KS3 and KS4, will have opportunities to broaden their application of science knowledge with the completion of tasks and activities designed to inspire young people to think, dream and behave like scientists; encouraging them to become more independent and reflective learners through enquiry-based project work.

A major part of science week at Oaklands, features external trips and visits, which allow the students to experience real-life links to science, often within everyday contexts. 

Science week at Oaklands School will be celebrated in the week commencing the 28th April 2025. A provisional plan for the science week external workshops and visits in the racaemic year of 2024-25 can be seen below (please note this runs alongside the extra-curricular science lessons delivered to all year groups throughout this week and may be subject to change):
Thursday 28th November 2024 Friday 25th April 2025 Monday 28th April 2025 Tuesday 29th April 2025 Wednesday 30th April 2025 Thursday 1st May 2025

Year 11 Science week CSI celebration.

 

 

 

Science week introduction assembly (whole school).

Creepy crawly show for the whole school after dinner.

 

 

Year 8 trip to Peak Wildlife  park.

 

Year 9 trip to Chester Zoo

 

Year 7 trip to Catalyst Science Discovery Centre.

 

 Year 10 forces trip to Alton Towers.

Please note that the main year 11 science week event will take place during the Autumn term as above, in order to ease time pressures for the pupils during their examination preparation time in the spring/summer terms.

 

Eco-Council:

To raise awareness of sustainability, Mrs Meachin runs an eco-council, consisting of one elected representative from each form group. The eco-council meet once per week and discuss ways to improve and implement sustainable practices within school and our local communities; in addition to this, the eco-council work hard to encourage a greater range of biodiversity within our school community grounds. The ultimate aim of the eco-council is for our representatives to take what they have learnt and educate others on sustainable practices and why they are important.
During the academic year 24-25 the eco-council will have an exciting opportunity to work with the Chester Zoo team on a climate and sustainability project during the spring and summer terms. The Chester Zoo 24-25 project will involve the pupils taking part in three weekly workshops, delivered by the Chester Zoo team at school, with the final, fourth workshop being held at the Zoo. Upon completion of the workshops, the eco-council will continue on with the project during their eco-council meeting time, to raise awareness with our school community about the issues they have learnt about during the project; which may involve them doing events to raise awareness, such as assemblies and raising money to go towards Chester Zoo’s work on supporting habitats affected by climate change.

Gardening Club:

Mrs Meachin also runs a weekly gardening club, which is open for all students to attend. As part of gardening club the students are involved with growing produce for our school animals and grow a variety of plants to encourage a greater range of biodiversity and offer habitats for animals within our school grounds.

Stretch and challenge in Science at Oaklands:

Within the science department at Oaklands, we want to stretch and challenge our most able learners and offer additional enrichment opportunities to stretch and challenge their skills as young scientists. In the past this has included an external project being undertaken with Chester Zoo, throughout the period of one year, which focussed on developing the students understanding of real-life environmental issues and then developing their abilities to educate others on real-life climate issues. Similar projects, visits and or workshops are organised each year. In the academic year 2023-2024 there will be a trip to Jodrell Bank observatory for this group of students to broaden their understanding of space, the solar system and our planet.  

During the academic year 24-25 selected pupils will have the opportunity to be stretched and challenged by working with the Chester Zoo team on a climate and sustainability project during the spring and summer terms. The Chester Zoo 24-25 project will involve the pupils taking part in three weekly workshops, delivered by the Chester Zoo team at school, with the final, fourth workshop being held at the Zoo. Upon completion of the workshops, the pupils will continue on with the project, alongside the eco-council, to raise awareness with our school community about the issues they have learnt about during the project; which may involve them doing events to raise awareness, such as assemblies and raising money to go towards Chester Zoo’s work on supporting habitats affected by climate change.

Additional enrichment projects:

The Science department embeds additional enrichment opportunities into the science curriculum, where possible.

Previous enrichment projects have focused on sustainability and living a healthy lifestyle.

One of the largest projects undertaken with a sustainability focus has been a project around deforestation and palm oil. The palm oil project included our school community learning about the impacts of harvesting palm oil for the biodiversity within Borneo and was concluded by the school raising money to support the conservation work of Chester Zoo in Borneo.

Science – An overview