Biology

Across science, our aim is to inspire, support and enable all pupils to leave as scientific thinkers, with a life-long interest in science.

Biology is a fascinating subject. Our primary aims, therefore, are to inspire and inform, to facilitate moments where students can enjoy biology and the process of scientific investigation and for all students to experience awe and wonder.

To add practical detail to this, we aim to help students to:

• Become scientific thinkers who are able to assess evidence objectively

• Develop scientific literacy, numeracy and communication skills

• Leave school knowing at least some of the basics of how their own bodies work, and how to look after their own health and that of their family

• Have the knowledge to be able to live in a more environmentally responsible way

• Be confident knowing how to find things out and begin to be able to assess the reliability of sources

• Consider studying biology further either formally or informally, and to appreciate the potential of lifelong learning by modelling it ourselves

We aim to do this through careful sequencing of topics, which build and develop year by year the knowledge and skills that a successful biologist needs. Topics are revisited and extended; links between topics and the other sciences are made explicit, to help students embed their learning. Students are given the opportunity to regularly review their work and practise the important skill of knowledge recall; a student who can successfully recall knowledge is likely to be more successful in applying it to unfamiliar situations and using it to evaluate scientific data.

We are lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country; we make use of the biology within the local environment as much as we can. For example sampling plants and animals in Derwentwater, carrying out lichen surveys in the churchyard, studying the ospreys at Whinlatter, getting involved with local and national conservation projects.