Curriculum Summary
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10 Combined
Year 10 Separate
Year 11 Combined
Year 11 Separate
Curriculum Approach
A high-quality Science education is a fundamental part of a citizens’ baccalaureate, equipping our young people with the basic understanding of key concepts essential for their lives as individuals and citizens of the world.
Throughout their lives, pupils will face challenges in decisions they will have to make – e.g. vaccinating their children, understanding of risk, choices about the sort of energy source a car uses, alternatives to fossil fuel for electricity generation, dietary choices. It is vital that they are able to see beyond the current vogue for popular opinion that goes against acknowledged understanding based on valid data.
Many people see Science as being too remote and too difficult. Without an understanding of the Scientific Method they fail to see the essential peer review process that ensures that important ideas are more than opinion. Emergence of the anti-vax movement and of climate change denials are new challenges we must rise to.
Our Science curriculum focuses on key fundamental concepts and develops in depth and breadth over the five years. We make the Science relevant and open pupils’ minds to opportunities that are available to them for their futures. It promotes in pupils a curiosity about the world around them. It will equip all pupils for their lives whether they intend to continue their formal Science education at college and university or not.http://brannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Science-Curriculum-Overview-Brannel-2024-25.pdf
Future Careers
Scientists are needed in the public and private sectors and are hired by lots of employers including chemical and pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, universities, food and drink manufacturers, hospitals, environmental agencies, the government and charities such as Cancer Research.
As a scientist, here are some of the types of work you could find yourself doing:
- Research and development – your observations may be used by you or others to devise new products such as drugs, foods, building materials or cleaning agents.
- Monitoring industrial processes – you may analyse the products coming off a production line to ensure that they continue to be made to the correct standard in a safe and reliable way.
- Monitoring the environment of the earth and beyond – you may be measuring things ranging from the quality of air and water to ensure necessary standards are met, to the output of the sun to help predict the effects of solar storms on communication satellites.
Scientists do more than research, test and measure. You will also find yourself presenting your findings to other scientists and possibly to non-technical staff too.
There are other types of work done by scientists. If you decide on a career in science, you could find yourself:
- collecting data on weather and climate and making both short and long-term predictions
- monitoring pollution in the environment and reporting your data to industry or government
- ensuring the health of animals kept in zoos, on farms and in people’s homes
- investigating the action of water in the environment and its effects on flood defences
- using scientific methods to date objects found on archaeological digs