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The Regents Review
Winter 2015
15
Departmental News
Science
Breakfast club
We have had a fantastic turn out for our Science breakfast
club. Bright and early on a Wednesday morning, our
dedicated Year 11s have been arriving to school at the
crack of dawn to come and revise with the Science
department. Hot chocolate and croissant in hand,
hardworking students have been working hard to recap
important ideas ready for their exams in May.
Each week, Mrs Porter gives out a prize for the class with
the best attendance at revision – encourage all your friends
to come along so that your class can be the winners!
Mrs Porter and Miss Crowe have also issued loyalty cards
for our revision sessions. Every week, the students can
get their cards signed and when they are full, they will get
their own super Science badge!
Since November, we also have undergraduate students
from Southampton University coming into breakfast
club to support students with their revision, but also to
discuss with them about where their Science GCSEs could
take them after they leave school – a valuable insight,
considering that Year 11s are now applying to colleges!
If you haven’t yet made it to one of our breakfast club
sessions, pop along next week.
Science Museum
70 Year 8 students (and staff) were very excited to be
heading to the Science Museum at the start of this half term
where we were able to explore the museum, getting hands
on with Science and visiting the enormous IMAX 3D screens
to watch a futuristic film. We look forward to sharing pictures
with you in the next edition of the Regents Review!
Science Department training
Our Science Department are always looking for ways to
improve our teaching and learning. So on a staff training
day, we took part in a training session with Dave Whittle,
from the Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service,
addressing the common misconceptions that students
encounter in Science and how to improve building
the different stages in knowledge, whilst doing a few
experiments, of course!
The Science team will be putting our training into practise
to make our Science lessons even more engaging and
progressive than ever before.
Parental Evening
On 23rd September, the Science Department opened
its doors to both students AND their parents to run an
information evening about Science in Year 11. Many
sessions were held including:
•
Exam and controlled assessment information;
•
Resources room;
•
Studying Science at College;
•
Physics fun experiments;
•
How to revise.
We had a fantastic turn out. It was great to see
students motivated to find out how to make the
best of Science in Year 11 and we are very grateful
to parents who came along to find out how best to
support their children.
The Science Department would also like to thank our
visitors: Ian Galloway from the Stimulating Physics
Network and Amanda Humphries from Richard
Taunton’s Sixth Form College for running sessions.
Science club
We have had an amazing group of Year 7s and 8s
attending Science Club on a Wednesday after school.
Run by Miss Groves, students get opportunities to do
lots of hands on activities and fun, exciting science
experiments. So far, students have: made slime;
designed their own parachutes; crushed cans using
Bunsen burners and brewed many concoctions.
We also have some brilliant Year 9 students who help
run Science Club, and they have been supporting
some of the new students as they get to grips with
new scientific techniques.
Since November, we have also had undergraduate
students from Southampton University coming into
help run Science club. Students can get to see how
real scientists carry out real Science.
Coming up in Science Club: forensics; making snow
and many more exciting experiments!