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Biology · Chemistry · Physics · KS3 to A Level · £6.99

Curious Scientists,
Confident Schools

Secondary science department handbook — KS3 to A Level

One book for a department that teaches three subjects, runs a laboratory and shares a technician. For the head of science who has to hold it together and the teacher setting up period four with a class already at the door.

£6.99The whole playbook, 72 pages

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One purchase covers the school that buys it. Print it, copy it, hand it round your department. Not for passing to other schools or uploading anywhere.

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Read before publication by the serving head of that department and by senior leaders, in school.

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Schools that have bought from Empower Educators include Nottingham High School, Northampton High School GDST and Sutton Valence School.

Everything else this site has for Biology: Biology teaching resources

  1. 1 Curriculum
  2. 2 Knowledge
  3. 3 Enquiry
  4. 4 Practical
  5. 5 Standard
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A science department is three subjects, one laboratory, one technician and one timetable to fit them all into. It has more scope for inconsistency than any other department in the school — units required in physics and tolerated in biology, equations written as symbols in one room and words in the next.

This booklet is written for the whole department at once. A head of science can read it as a curriculum and quality-assurance document; a teacher can open it at the page they need while setting up period four. The two GCSE routes are compared from the specifications themselves, including the one almost nobody outside the department understands.

Written to
The current GCSE and A Level science specifications
Intended for
department CPD, planning and curriculum review
Extent
72 pages · 69 sections

Watch

The Science playbook in thirty seconds

A quick look inside: one planning guide for a department that teaches Biology, Chemistry and Physics, built around five pillars, plus the five decisions that repeat in every GCSE required practical.

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Contents

All 69 sections

Taken from the book’s own contents page, so the page numbers are the real ones.

THE CASE

01 Three Subjects, One Department p3
02 Where Science Departments Drift p4

THE PRACTICE

03 Pillar 1 — Curriculum: What Builds on What p5
04 Pillar 2 — Knowledge: Secure Before Applied p6
05 Pillar 3 — Enquiry: Thinking Like a Scientist p7
06 Pillar 4 — Practical: Purposeful, Not Merely Present p8
07 Pillar 5 — Standard: One Department, Three Subjects p9

THE DISCIPLINES

08 Biology: Memory, Mechanism and Meaning p10
09 Chemistry: The Particle Model Underneath Everything p11
10 Physics: Usually a Mathematics Problem p12
52 Six Topics, Three Ways p54
53 Physics and the Two Ways It Fails p55

TEACHING SCIENCE

11 Explanation, Modelling and Dual Coding p13
12 Questioning and Scientific Talk p14
13 Scientific Writing and the Six-Mark Question p15
33 Scientific Vocabulary p35

PRACTICAL SCIENCE

14 Running Practicals That Work p16
15 Safety, Technicians and the Laboratory p17
16 Mathematics Inside Science p18
51 Teaching the Mathematics Science Needs p53
17 Three Years That GCSE Depends On p19

GCSE

18 Combined or Separate: The Decision and Its Cost p20
19 Required Practicals as Examinable Content p21

A LEVEL

20 The GCSE to A Level Step p22

ASSESSMENT

21 Assessment That Changes Teaching p23

EVERY STUDENT

22 SEND, EAL and Access to Science p24
23 High Attainers in Science p25
42 Intervention That Is Worth the Time p44

EXAM PREPARATION

24 Revision That Is Not Rereading p26

FOR LEADERS

25 The Head of Science p27
26 Data, Monitoring and Quality Assurance p28
27 Developing Science Teachers p29
28 The First 90 Days p30
35 Meetings, CPD and Technicians p37
54 Recommended Reading and Where It Helps p56
58 Ofsted and the Science Department p60

SCENARIOS

29 Six Situations, and Where to Look First p31
30 Three More, and the Question Underneath p32

MISCONCEPTIONS

31 Biology and Chemistry p33
32 Physics and Enquiry p34

CULTURE

34 Homework, Parents and Wider Science p36
41 Behaviour in a Laboratory p43
66 A Department Where Being Wrong Is Useful p68
67 Technology and AI in Science p69

THE TOOLKIT

36 Templates 1–3 — Curriculum and Practical p38
37 Templates 4–6 — Assessment and Misconceptions p39
38 Templates 7–9 — Monitoring, Meetings and Safety p40
39 Templates 10–12 — Self-Evaluation and New Staff p41
40 The Teacher’s Page — Science p42

CLOSING

43 The Science Department Excellence Checklist p45
68 One Department, Three Subjects, One Standard p70
69 References and Evidence Base p71

OUTSTANDING LESSONS

44 What an Outstanding Science Lesson Looks Like p46
45 Biology — Osmosis, Year 10 p47
46 Chemistry — Rates of Reaction, Year 10 p48
47 Physics — Resistance, Year 10 p49

CURRICULUM

48 Cumulative Knowledge: Cells and Particles p50
49 Cumulative Knowledge: Forces and Energy p51
50 A Science Scheme That Records Dependencies p52
57 Schemes of Work: Years 8 and 9 p59

THE BOARDS

55 Combined and Separate, Compared from the Specifications p57
56 Using Board Knowledge Strategically p58

THE SCIENTISTS

59 Eight Scientists, and What Each One Gives a Lesson p61
60 Two Centuries of Ideas, and Where They Sit in Your Curriculum p62

DRAWING THE HARD IDEAS

61 Three Misconceptions, Drawn Twice p63
62 One Practical, Five Decisions p64

THE FOUR BOARDS

63 GCSE Science: What Actually Differs Between Boards p65
64 A Level Science: The Endorsement and the Mathematics p66

THE EVIDENCE

65 Seven Recommendations, and What They Look Like in a Lab p67
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