The department is located in a suite of 10 fully equipped science laboratories. There is also a science laboratory located on the school farm.

The department consists of 12 full-time staff, including an Assistant Head Teacher with responsibility for the science department. A second in charge with responsibility for KS5, a Key Stage 3 Co-ordinator, and a Vocational Co-ordinator for the Applied GCSE and Nationals course. We also have an AST and three 3 full-time laboratory technicians.

In both Key Stages 3 and 4 pupils are taught in sets according to ability. In Key Stages 3 we have adapted the scheme of work to make it more appealing to pupils interests which has no set classroom textbook. Within Key Stage 3 we are working on raising pupils learning skills to fully equip them for the demands of Key Stage 4.

In Key Stage 4 we run OCR Gateway (core and additional science), OCR Nationals, OCR Applied Science and OCR 21st Century double and triple science courses. Btec Animal Care & Rural Science is an option in Years 10 and 11. This course is based around the farm. All pupils have the opportunity to work with the animals through the Young Farmers’ Club.

In the Sixth Form pupils may study ‘AS/A2’ Level Biology & ‘AS/A2’ Level Chemistry; and a Btec Applied Science (Forensics) course.

The department has 7 interactive whiteboards, 60 laptops and 15 sets of data logging equipment. ICT facilities are also available for booking elsewhere in the school.

The aims of the science department are to:

• foster an attitude of enquiry and curiosity;
• train pupils to apply scientific knowledge to concrete situations;
• enable pupils to eventually use the skills involved in the understanding of scientific problems;
• enable pupils to gain some understanding of the present progress of the world;
• encourage pupils to recall and reorganise material learned to enable them to fulfil the needs of the National Curriculum in science at Key Stages 3 and 4.

The departmental vision is:
Science @ Westlands
Investigating today’s world, inspiring tomorrow’s questions