Science

Did you know that every time you breathe, you exhale some 25 sextillion (that is 2.5 × 10²² or 25,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) molecules of oxygen – so many that with a day’s breathing you will, in all likelihood, inhale at least one molecule from the breaths of every person who has ever lived. Wow!  That means it is likely you have shared the breath of Elvis, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King and Albert Einstein!  Makes you think doesn’t it?

Here at Thirsk School Science Department, we want you to think; we want you to develop your natural inquisitiveness into analysis from which you can form opinion.  Opinion which is based on evidence or theories which have been subjected to rigorous peer assessment by scientists.  Analytical thinking not only leads to success in a lab but is a life-long skill which translates to everyday living and is coveted by all employers.

To enable our students to achieve this we will provide an interesting, varied, and challenging curriculum which covers all the science disciplines through KS3, KS4 and KS5.  The curriculum is further enriched with out-of-classroom events such as field work, visits, and STEM Club activities to supplement the theoretical and practical work carried out in the lab under the tuition of subject specialists.  Thirsk School Science believe that if the education is sufficiently challenging and interesting, genuinely high achievement can be reached by all, and will become apparent through students’ creativity, lateral thinking, and persistence.

Science by nature is the practice of trial and error.  We want to foster a mentality in our students that getting it wrong is merely the first stage of getting it right.  Student voice is crucial in our lessons which is why we promote a culture of discussing ideas and challenging concepts rather than marching students through the scientific landscape with no stop off points to explore the magnificence of science.

We know our preparation works well due to the large number of Sixth Form students who are selected to study Science based courses at the most prestigious Universities in the country. Engineers, medics, vets, physiotherapists and a host of others are successful due to the skill set they gained here at Thirsk.

The NASA scientists who worked on successfully delivering the Perseverance rover to Mars, took their first steps into their careers in a school lab trying to land an egg undamaged…where will your steps take you?

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