Our Aim

• Our core purpose is to encourage an appreciation for the wonders of the universe in students, and develop their natural curiosity
• We aim to deepen their understanding of the building blocks of the universe, by introducing students to the current standard model including the Particle Zoo as it stands
• We hope to improve the Science Capital of these students by engaging them with the stories behind the Physics, both historically and in our present time
• We hope to inspire students to continue to study physics, whether that be as a layman with a high level of science literacy or potentially a physicist. We will try to do this by introducing students to problems faced by physicists in modern times and how Physics is shown in the media.
• We aim to encourage critical thinking by students, by encouraging them to ask questions and then investigate, and analyse results

Our Delivery

• The course structure focuses on knowledge acquisition whilst continually building on prior knowledge, building meaningful schema throughout.
• A range of DNAs are used at the start of every lesson and focus on knowledge recall; this will also form the basis of a prior knowledge check and highlight any misconceptions.
• We will introduce new concepts using visual resources and videos, encouraging students to make connections within and between units.
• We ‘model the method’ so that students are clear about how to structure their answer in a systematic way and use correct mathematical and scientific notation.
• Students are given time in lessons to apply this new content and are shown unfamiliar style questions so that they become resilient.
• The questions we select will vary in style and difficulty so that all students are supported and stretched.
• Students are encouraged to self mark so that they can address mistakes/misconceptions within the lesson. This will also enable them to become more confident as they complete the task.
• There are opportunities for students to make connections with real life applications and with other topics where this can be applied.
• We model how to approach extended writing questions and explicitly teach Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary.
• There is a high-accountability expectation of 4-5 hours Independent Study to be completed each week. Very often this will require students to consolidate knowledge of what they have learnt and consist of a selection of graded exam-style questions. This may take the form of last lesson, last week, last month so that students are continuing to tap into their long term memories.
• Twice per term students will complete a purposeful topic based assessment and will receive detailed feedback and model answers. All classwork, notes and assessments will be kept in a folder and students must bring this to every lesson.