The department is housed in a purpose built three storey building which contains eight recently fully refurbished laboratories and four preparation rooms. Each laboratory has internet connection and an interactive white board. Access to the College ICT facilities is through a booking system. There are seven ICT rooms, all very recently upgraded. The department is well resourced.

Results in recent years at KS3 and GCSE have been consistently and significantly above local and national figures. Last year 55% of students achieved a grade A*-C at GCSE.

The Head of Science leads a team of ten teaching staff and two technicians. There are teachers for each of the subject areas, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, each of whom are specialists in that particular subject, although some staff teach GCSE in more than one area. There are various responsibility points within the department for specific job descriptions, covering each subject, KS3 and KS4. Members of staff also represent the department on College working groups such as ICT and SEN.

The College has a six form entry and operates on a 30 period week. In year 7 students are taught in their tutor groups. There is half year blocking in years 8, 9,10 and 11, with four Science groups being set across the three forms in each half year, which reduces class sizes to an average of 22/23 students. Top sets are larger in number than the bottom sets. There are two periods of Science a week in Year 7, and four in Years 8 and 9 and six each week in Years 10 and 11.

All students follow the national Curriculum using schemes of work based on the QCA guidelines at KS3, with regular testing after each unit. The department has its own scheme of work which is based largely on the published course, but amended to suit our needs and to ensure appropriate coverage of the National Curriculum. Various texts are used.

At KS4, nearly all students follow the Edexcel GCSE Science Course followed by GCSE Additional Science. A limited number can take the BTEC Diploma in Applied Science and some take GCSE Science whilst attending other institutions to study vocational or work based courses. Specialists in Physics, Chemistry and Biology teach the course. The six (50 minute) periods are split equally across three staff, so that each group has three members of staff twice a week. Schemes of work follow closely the material provided by the board for this purpose.

The Edexcel Biology, Chemistry and Physics AS/A2 courses are offered Post 16.