The Science Specialism is well into its third successful year.  In February 2009 OFSTED gave the thumbs up to our endeavours saying that the Science College has had a positive impact on our school.

Achievements and Science Results in 2009

brilliant 81% of the year group gained Core Science at grade C or above and 87% of the 62 students taking Additional Science passed at C or above (that is gained two GCSEs in Science).  In Core Science over 25% gained a grade A or A* and almost 50% gained grade B or above.  A or A* grades were gained by 29% of those taking Additional Science with 56% gaining grade B or above.  The results for Additional Science actual attainment were statistically higher than expected.  Well done to all in the department!

Much of this success is due to the Science department’s tracking system, which is being rolled out for whole school use.   All students are made aware of their targets and how to achieve them.  Underachievers are identified, letters sent home to parents and individualised targeted intervention is put in place. 

Next year will see the first Triple Science results at the school.  Although only ten students are taking the exams in the first year, we hope to quadruple that number or more in following years.

Events and Competitions

A number of competitions took place against other schools including the ‘Top Class’ competition run by UEA (an on-line competition against other Norfolk high schools), the Science Olympiad at UEA, the Salter Science Festival of Chemistry, the Physics competition at Bury St Edmunds and the school won the first round of the High Energy Schools’ Challenge run by the East of England Energy Group. 

Students enjoyed ‘Origin of the Species’ event at the University of East Anglia, a biology trip to the John Innes Centre to look at their new electron microscopes, and the Chemistry road show at Hobart.   

ASHS also hosted events such as:

• a lecture by ‘Science made simple’ about the Herschel telescope
• during national Science and Engineering week a rocket day for year 9 was held with guest Rocket Rod from a Norwich High School
• the RAF ran a Science Mission day with year 10
• Frances Shaw, our 2009 researcher in Residence from the John Innes Institute, made models of bacteria with year 8
• with year 7 the science of water rockets was investigated and rockets launched to test the theories!
• Alex Jones from the Sainsbury Centre talked about careers in science.

Science and maths have had an increased input in cross-curricular work throughout the school and in science week themed work was implemented in projects such as ‘The Big Bang’ play in drama, water rockets in Flexible Fridays and the English department produced some of the Science newsletter.

Maths-related enrichment events, extra curricular activities and competitions included: 

• the Pfeg Stock Market challenge at Duxford
• joint GCSE revision sessions with Long Stratton and Hobart
• a Langley High School Computer Games and programming event
• a visit to the Bank of England with the Nat West Bank
• UKMT maths challenge with all year groups
• Credit File challenge in year 10 run by the Nat West Bank
• Cipher challenge run by Southampton University
• Maths bridging project at Norwich football ground
• an enterprise day with year 10
• UEA revision week for year 11 students
• The department has introduced a variety of clubs at lunchtime and after school  including homework, gifted and talented, statistics, and revision maths

Community and Partnership

We asked our primary feeder schools if our programme of events and visits with them has been useful.  Without exception, they were enthusiastic about the progress made between the partner schools and want it to continue.  The science results at Key Stage 2 have improved substantially over the last two years.  Our latest venture with the schools was the Honda ‘School of Dreams’ event that took place in December, encouraging pupils from the schools to work together and develop their leadership and team working skills.  Other activities with the primaries have included joint music events and science lab visits. 

Our Careers Fair in September was a major success with almost three hundred people looking at information about courses at sixth forms, colleges and universities, and jobs with the forces, the NHS and other large employers.

Enterprise days for families and Extended School programmes have been offered in the community.  For the first time local pensioners were invited for a special Christmas lunch at the school, the event being organised by Emma Johnson, our Extended Schools coordinator.  We hope to develop further links with the community over the next year so watch this space.

We are hoping to make rapid progress with our school garden and greenhouse once the school site plan has been completed and approved.  Two grants have been awarded to the Science College to the tune of £2,500 and we will be making good use of the money to set up the garden, greenhouse composting area.

The Joy of Food programme, currently being sponsored by the NHS and the National Lottery has been successfully launched for students at ASHS.  The course is aimed at providing students with practical support around cooking and food skills. Students in years 9 and 10 have been offered four 3-hour sessions to taste new foods, learn how to cook and eat the food they have prepared.

We are also involved in the Food for Life programme and are nearly at the bronze award stage: BRONZE schools serve seasonal school meals with at least 75% of dishes freshly prepared by a well-trained school cook. Pupils and parents are involved in planning improvements to school menus and the dining experience via a school nutrition action group, boosting school meal take-up. Every pupil has the opportunity to visit a farm during his or her time at school, and opportunities are given for groups of pupils to do cooking and food growing activities.

We are currently looking at opening a school film club that will primarily be an after school activity that is intended to open doors to a world of different cultures, life stories and aspirations. We hope to broaden the horizons of many students and encourage greater social interaction across all groups and age ranges.

We are hoping later in the year to make ASHS into an Eco School. The Eco Schools programme is an international award run by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) and links with 46 countries and over 40,000 schools. The programme tackles sustainable issues and a variety of environmental themes such as litter, waste, healthy living, energy and biodiversity. We look forward to extending the projects beyond the school into our local community and cluster primary schools. The three awards Bronze, Silver and Green are all run in England by the Keep Britain Tidy group and the programme is well recognised by Ofsted. One of our first tasks would be to assess the energy rating of the school and teach students to work in environments outside the school classroom.