Activities and courses
 |
The Chemistry department is staffed by 5 full-time Chemistry teachers and 2 excellent dedicated technicians. This means that we can do demanding, engaging and exciting Chemistry with all age groups. Year 12 girls run a science club for younger students, where novel experiments can be carried out including making volcanoes, crystals, slime and explosions. Sixth form students also get involved with symposium talks and debates in collaboration with other schools. Younger students are involved in the science club and we have started to do the CREST award for young scientists to take on more involved projects.
Students of all ages are encouraged to do Chemistry outside school, be it the Chemistry Olympiad competition, Salters’ Festivals of Chemistry, lectures at a variety of London university departments or analytical competitions.
We teach Chemistry from year 8 to year 13. All students take IGCSE double award science at 16 as we believe this gives them a solid foundation for further study without requiring them to narrow their options at too young an age. In the sixth form we teach both the IB diploma course (at higher and standard levels) and the new Edexcel A level specification. The subject is a very popular sixth form choice and students leave to do degrees in a variety of disciplines such as economics, pure sciences and medicine. Students should finish their school Chemistry studies with the ability to make sense of the physical world around them.
Chemistry is the bridge between the perceived world of substances and the imagined world of atoms. --Peter Atkins
“Love hides in molecular structures” – Jim Morrison