Everybody needs a place to think...

The science faculty at the City of London Academy is team of highly qualified and enthusiastic teachers. The students are taught in mixed ability groups in year 7 and in matched ability sets from year 8 onwards. The department works closely with the Special Educational Needs team as well as the Gifted and Talented Coordinator to ensure that students are taught in groups where the learning needs are similar.

Learning Support Assistants work with specific students and are often involved with planning or (in some cases) delivering lessons.

KS3

KS3 The department is currently teaching using Thinking through Science, and is actively involved with the Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) program at Kings College London. Professor Philip Adey is delivering the course. We are working closely with Maths and Technology for CAME and CATE.

We make considerable use of state of the art technology, and all the classrooms have Smartboards to enable interactive teaching and learning.

We are expanding the department and working along side teachers of Science who:

• demonstrate a reflective approach to teaching and learning and building in review time for themselves and their pupils;
• 'modelling' a variety of skills/ attitudes / standards / qualities for pupils;
• analysing pupils' performance in tests and using the information for future learning plans;
• feeling confident / secure in classroom practice.
• Are dynamic and vibrant with ideas and the ability to implement them.

We are looking forward to developing students who are keen, confident scientists, able to move forward and knowledgeable enough to understand popular science in the news and explain it to the public and their peers.

A-Level

Physics is an excellent A level, providing a good start for many university science courses. We will be offering the new and exciting ‘Advancing Physics’ course to y12 students in 2005. We have two specialist physics teachers working in brand new labs with brand new equipment.

Advancing Physics is a contemporary course, developed by the Institute of Physics as part of a response to the falling numbers of students studying physics beyond 16.

Our core aims and objectives are that the course:

• Is contemporary in content and modes of delivery
• Is attractive and accessible to the widest possible variety of students
• Sets physics in a variety of contexts, illustrating connections with everyday life, people, places and culture
• Rewards students for initiative and commitment and allows them to develop their own interests
• Fully supports and recognises the use of essential mathematical methods in physics, helping students to understand them
• Fully supports teachers using extensive tried and tested resources and ongoing support
• Makes physics exciting and relevant

Advanced Subsidiary (AS) Level

Designed to attract students and give them a good basis for future decisions, the AS course offers a broad vision of physics as it is today. Providing an introduction to physics and its uses, it prepares the way for further study and focuses on the wide range of future careers for which physics is valuable.

Teaching and assessment are designed to give students opportunities to pursue and develop their own interests and examines their understanding of physics. Structure of the AS course

Advanced Level (A2) Course

Carefully balancing technological and applied approaches to physics in use, the A2 course deepens understanding of crucial ideas, giving students a wide-ranging and fundamental view of the nature of matter and the Universe. Mathematics in physics is further developed using modelling software.

Teaching and assessment provides opportunities for personal student involvement and individual initiative. Structure of the A2 course.