Chemistry

Mr Ashley Law (Head of Department)
Mr Shaun Thompson
Dr Arran Tulloch
Mrs Helen Walton
Miss Kate Woodhead
Mrs Joanne Devlin (Technician)
Dr Judith Webster (Technician)

Chemistry is taught by five members of staff. The Chemistry department consists of 3 chemistry laboratories and a centrally placed preparation room which is serviced by a full time technician and a part time technician. Each laboratory is very well equipped with an LCD projector or networked TV, fume cupboard and general apparatus. A 4th general science laboratory is also used for some lower school classes and 6th form theory lessons.

All pupils study general science in Year 7, and Chemistry from Year 8 onwards. The Chemistry course in Year 8 has been written in-house and aims to stimulate pupil interest, develop a broad basic knowledge of the subject and enables pupils to develop both a safe approach to practical work and practical skill. From September 2011 the majority of pupils will follow the internationally recognised IGCSE qualification in Chemistry (Edexcel), although a small proportion of pupils take GCSE Science and GCSE Additional Science (AQA). Both courses place a great deal of emphasis on practical work and the applications of Chemistry in the world around us. Practical work is used to reinforce pupil understanding of some of the theoretical nature of the specifications and to develop observations and other manipulative skills.

Teams of pupils regularly take part in Salter’s Festivals of Chemistry and the RSC Top of the Bench Schools’ Quiz. In 2008 the Yarm School team qualified for the final round in London.

IGCSE (Edexcel)
From 2011, Year 10 pupils will follow the Edexcel IGCSE course; this is a traditional course which is examined by two end of course exam papers: Paper 1, a two hour paper which comprises 66.6% of the total marks, and Paper 2, a one hour paper which comprises 33.3% of the total marks.

Each paper is structured so that as pupils progress through a question it becomes more difficult; additionally, as pupils progress through the paper the questions also increase in difficulty.

There is no coursework requirement for this course, which allows extra lesson time to enable pupils to gain a wide experience of practical work. This enhances the pupils’ understanding of key concepts, which is invaluable for both their IGCSE course as well as any further studies in science subjects. Practical and Investigative skills usually reserved for the coursework element in GCSE are examined on the written papers in IGCSE.

A Level (AQA)
A significant number of pupils choose to continue studying chemistry to A level. The AQA GCE specification is followed. There are three AS unit and three A2 units. At both AS and A2 two of the units are written units with the third being an internally-assessed coursework unit (ISA). Pupils would normally take the first written AS unit during January of the Lower 6 and the second written unit AS during June of the Lower 6. A similar format is followed during the Upper 6 year. Practical work is undertaken regularly with pupils working individually during most practical lessons.
A level results are excellent with over three quarters of students achieving a grade A or B each year. A steady stream of pupils proceed to science based degrees (including medicine, dentistry and veterinary science) with many gaining places at top UK universities.

 

 

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