Newport Girls' High School
A key development in Science is to put together electronic schemes of work, which can be accessed by pupils, giving them more ownership of the curriculum. In the sixth form Physics group, the entire scheme is available to pupils, with all lesson resources hyperlinked in, as well as worksheets and past papers. Many past paper questions have been grouped together by topic, too, and teacher notes have also been scanned in for reference.
The sixth form have become much more pro-active in the school and now provide mentoring support twice a week to pupils who are referred to them by teachers, or who wish to seek help of their own accord.
In addition a science club has started, which runs one lunchtime a week and this is currently taking on a mixture of long term projects, as well as shorter activities; they are looking to make the school more wildlife friendly, by making bird feeders and boxes, as well as digging a pond. Popular science equipment has also been used in this club and includes the Van der Graaf generator to make your hair stand on end, and Magdeburg’s hemispheres, which demonstrate the significance of air pressure. We have linked with a local school and are offering extra curricular GCSE Astronomy, which will run until 2011, when the pupils will sit their exam.
Newport Girls' High School is an all girls community school in Newport, Shropshire, for ages 11-18. The school is selective and has Maths & Computing Specialist status.