Coursework now gone

Thanks for all your help with the coursework. There where 9 errors in total so we need to be more careful next year. I have sent the list to the moderator and the exam board.

What will year 9 and 10 do now?

year nine to do B1 and B2.

year 10 to do (17 lesson) cover one module B4 and complete case study.

Please make sure you do complete these by the end of term

Yr 11 revision sessions

We have agreed to do revision sessions on these days. I will put a piece of paper on the wall to organise the actual dates. If we could have done this by this Friday. Thanks

P5 - Electricity - PL/AMA - Wed pm
P6 - EM/Waves - PL /JRo
B5 - Growth/development - WH - Wed pm
B6 - Brain - WV/GL - Wed pm
C5 - Earth/covalent bonds - LH - Tues 29/06/13
C6 - synthesis/rates of reaction - JRo/ARA - Thur

We will let you know what happens on "study leave".

Monday 21st April Department meeting

Agenda (year 11) (PL)

• See dates below
• Ideas and evidence paper > Kate has done some work on this. We need to spend time with Pupils. (I only have 2 lessons, this is not ideal but all I can afford)
  
• Students to sign forms for coursework. Very important we do this now otherwise we have to chase up pupils later.
• You need to sigh sheets yourself
• Revision books for year 11
  
• Hand out all paperwork to pupils.
  
• Revision lessons and timetable

• revision by subject?
• revision by request?
• When and who?
• Coursework
  
• now marked and handed into me for filing
  
• hand in alphabetically
• also hand in signed sheets alphabetically for both additional and core resits.
• 30 April is absolute latest
  

Agenda (KS3) (JR)

• Response to the SWOT analysis
• Revision for Year9, and what next?
• Target groups in the run up to SAT

Outcomes from this meeting

Yr 11

• To have taken all your sheets that need to be signed by the pupils
• To know how to process your coursework
• to have a revision schedule finished so that it can be advertised to the pupils

Yr 9

• Everyone is clear what exactly we are to do for marking and feedback to students
• Everyone has the opportunity to share good practice as regards revision which they have planned
• Everyone is clear what will happen IMMEDIATELY after SAT
• Everyone is clear who our targeted students are, and might think about whether they can impact on the performance of these students in SAT

May dates

look for exams that may affect year 11 lessons

April dates

Note items that may effect pupils in year 11 lessons.
21 and 23rd are Art exams.

Year 11 Coursework to send off on 28th April

Ideas in context paper

The pre-release material is now in for the ideas in context paper
The exams are

Core > 214 > 12/05/08
Additional > 218 > 23/05/08

I have scheduled the week beginning 28th April to go though this with your pupils. You must spend time doing this so they know what to expect in the exam.

Change in year 11 resubmission.

It has been decided that we are not going to change the year 11 list of those who are resubmitting core coursework. Everyone on the original lists, and on the forms the pupils have, will be resubmitting. Thank you for all your hard work in getting these lists to me. Sorry about this change.

Approximate coursework dates

We need to send coursework lists and work to moderators by these dates
GCSE > 28th of April
A Level > 12th of May

I have discussed these dates with Ros and I will let you know if there is any change.

Grade Boundaries

What are the OCR grade boundaries in the GCSE courses? Here's the current information given by OCR the awarding body. They will also publish specific grade boundaries and raw scores for the January and June exams with the results.
As a rough guide, the Foundation tier papers are targeted at 70% of the marks at low demand (grades E, F, G, U) and 30% at standard demand (C and D). The Higher papers are targeted at 50% standard demand and 50% high demand (A*, A, B).
Anyone getting 75-80% on a Foundation paper should be on C level. On Higher papers 50% for C, and 75-80% for A is an again rough guide for attainment.
The exact boundaries will vary from paper to paper at awarding. This answer applies to all C21 courses (except Entry level).

Urgent need for cancellation of resubmissions in year 11

I need now any cancellations for year 11 resubmitting year 10 coursework. If they are not going to do it we need to cancel.
If they want to resit any exams they need to send the money to Ros as indicated on their exam forms.

Shorter versions of the additional 6 topics

Thanks for all your help in getting the schemes of work done for P6,B6 and C6. Especially thanks to Kate. I have expanded P6 to 7 lessons which I think is better than the 5 lesson option.
Files for P6 and P5 are available on the intranet at science\SOW\KS4. There are also lots of other SOWs available for you to use.

Year 10 thinking.

We are thinking of doing the additional science coursework and teaching B5 to year 10 after the exams. The lowest two groups will do Biology.

Investigation up date

Please let me know how far you have got with year 10 and 11 and return to me.

Yr 10 Case study.
GL ?
WV ?
LH ?
AMA ?
WH - Being done now?
ARA - Being done now?
JRO - Being done now?
KS - Done?

Yr 11 Investigation.
AMA - Started?
PL - complete in one week?
JRO - All done in one week?
GL - ?
WH - Started?
KS - Done?

Please drop a note in my pigeon hole in science to let me know.

Mondays Strategy meeting.

There is a lot of concern that most of us are behind in teaching year 11. Due to this we need to do something really fast.
During Mondays strategy meeting we will be working in pairs to look at various modules. The aim of this is to reduce the number of lessons to a minimum. The following pairs will look at the following coursework.

PL/AMA > P6
KS/ARA > B6
GL/LH > C6
JRO > revision package.

So please meet up with the person you are working with on Monday and look at the material and get it to me by Monday 10th March

Year 11 resubmissions

Please ask your year 11 group how close they are in rewriting the core coursework. If they want some resubmitted we need to take it in and mark it very soon. If they have been lazy and not done anything and we need to withdraw them. We need to do this by the 17th March.
I will put lists in your pigeon hole of those who have entered for resubmission. If you want them withdrawn cross out the names and let me have it by the 12th of March at the latest.

coursework info

Exam results should be in on Thursday 6th of March. Science staff are going to hand them out. Please do not hand them to pupils until the last 5 minutes of the lesson.

The last date for changing entries is 17th of March. So if you want any to be re-entered they need to be done before this date.

AQA AS/A2 coursework submission deadline

June 2008 series
15 May	all GCE and Applied GCE except: Applied Art and Design, Art and Design, and Drama and Theatre Studies

Yr 11 coursework Deadlines

Please remember that all year 11 course work must be complete and marked by 25th of March. This is the day we have set for coursework moderation. Year 10 coursework is not being submitted this year.
As well as the additional coursework you will need any core resubmissions in year 11.
This is in only 4 weeks.

Mondays INSET

Here is an approximate layout of the day.

• Before break > Staff meeting and the new KS3 syllabus in year 7
• Between break and lunch > KS5
• After Lunch and dept meeting > Marking year 10 investigations.

Marking year 10 investigations.

• feedback from course (see "Feedback from investigation meetings" on this blog)
• introduction
• the mark scheme
• moderation exercise

Teachers of 21st C science

Meeting 21st January 2008

KS4 rota > see blog etc. Yellow indicates the best order for your class.

Yr 11 coursework

• Booklet > give out and go through file > year 11 coursework.pdf
• Presentation
• JRo/KS/WH to contribute?

Yr 10 coursework

More information in the "Blackpool powerpoint". Go through this if I have time.

• Data analysis

• Find your group
• Mark according to criteria
• Bring to department meeting p5 on Monday 11^th of February for moderation
• Case study
• JRo/WV/GL/WH/KS all have experience of this.
• How do we organise studies > what works well?
• Look at criteria and report on our marking from board

Resit coursework sessions.
We need to make a decision about who will resit yr 10 coursework in year 11 and if and when we do after school sessions. I suggest that we work closely with Mark and Sue. We just have to discuss the best way to do this.

Notes

• Booster days to be focus of lunchtime meetings.
• Ideas for budget before half term.

References and links

Filter 21 for many other links to documents

Training material from 21stcenturyscience.org

http://21stcenturyscience.org/support/training-materials,1495,NA.html

Specifications and support from www.ocr.org.uk

• Twenty First Century Science Suite Science A – J630
• Twenty First Century Science Suite Additional Science A – J631
• Twenty First Century Science Suite Additional Applied Science A – J632
• Twenty First Century Science Suite Biology A – J633
• Twenty First Century Science Suite Chemistry A – J634
• Twenty First Century Science Suite Physics A – J635

yr 10 and 11 predicted grades and tiers of entries for the summer exams needed by Thursday.

Sorry about this. I know it is too early and before some have even sat the January exams. You will be given back the sheet by Ros to check and sign just before she sends it to the board. Thanks for your continual help and support.

update to year 10 rota

update to year 11 rota

January events

• The INSET day is performance management so please bring in the correct documents.
• January is going to involve preparing students for yr 10 and 11 exams.
• Redoing coursework in year 11
• Starting coursework in yr 10 and 11
• Year 11 reports
• LEA visit on Thursday 10 January
  

January Calendar

URGENT ; Year 11 and 10 predicted grades needed

Please could you fill in the predicted grades for your year 11 class who are sitting exams during January. This includes resits. I have printed off a sheet for you to return to me. It is now in your pigeon holes in the middle prep room.
I will use the data that you gave me for year 10 recently to complete the year 10 sheets.
Sorry about this but the examination board requires them before Christmas.

Yr 10 Foundation question 5

Part of question five did not photocopy well and thus can not be counted for analysis.
It is part b and is worth three marks.
I think if we all say everyone obtained 2 marks to the total for question 5b it would be fair on average over all the groups.
So please assume that the candidate obtain 2 marks for 5b.
Sorry about the mistake.

Yr 10 and 11 mocks

Could you all please put data into a spreadsheet to help both yourselves and the department analyse the results from this exam.
The spreadsheet is currently with me and on the mid prep room computer. It will be on the intranet on Monday in the folder
\\runnymede\staffdata$\Staff_ftp\Department and Subject information\Subject Teams\Science
Just pick your class and input the data. Add any extra students. The program will work out the totals and there is a grade boundary section for you to work out the grade.
Could you please pass the files back to me so I can add them all together and get an overview of the whole year.
This needs to be done by the 7th of January 2008.
Many Thanks
Peter

Mock exams

The papers for the mock exams are

yr 10 B1,C1,P1 January 2007 paper.
2:00 Monday 10th of December

yr 11 B4,C4,P4 the specimen paper
2:00 Thursday 13th of December

Don't tell the students

Space limit on intranet

Due to reaching my allocation on the intranet (2Gb) I have had to remove 754 MB of video files. If anyone else wants to put items on the intranet I think this is OK as we seem to have individual limits. I will try to find a useful storage space for the videos.

Change of file location on intranet

\\runnymede\staffdata$\Staff_ftp\Department and Subject information\Subject Teams\Science

Yr 11 doing yr 10 coursework

Here are the dates that we decided to do for the coursework catchup sessions. We still need to fill a few sessions. Don't forget to tell your pupils to come.

New resources on the intranet

Please let me know if you want me to add any resources to the intranet. (You can also add them yourself)

Test base 2007/8 has arrived

You can download it from http://www.testbase.co.uk/downloads and use the code I have given you or collect the CD from me and sign your name on the white board if you have borrowed it.
Peter

21st Century June 2007 Grade boundaries (2)

December Calendar

School intranet keeps changing.

Look on the science area

RESOURCES departmental > all the deal sheets etc
TRACKING students > current data and set lists
SOW > some sow with all the resources

Investigations in Core Science

Here are some pdf links
Twenty First Century Science Suite Teacher Support
and amendments
newsletter
Marking Criteria for Case Studies (A219)

21s C specification.

Core Science specification (pdf)
Additional Science specification (pdf)

Department Meeting (Mon 15 October)

1. Coursework for year 10 and 11
1. Questions

i. What skills to be tested?

ii. Exemplar material?

iii. Give more than one opportunity

iv. Options

1. Staff pick experiments from modules > do

2. Identify suitable experiments from modules > everyone does the same

2. Timescales

i. All Coursework

1. Aim to complete by February half term.

ii. yr 11 redoing year 10 coursework

1. Wb 29 October > hand back coursework

2. end of that week each resit either resubmit or new title and start again.

3. Wb 5^th Nov > sessions organised

4. Wb 3^rd Dec > Cousework done

2. H&S
3. Afl
4. Sharing good practice
5. Blog
6. Coming up
1. Mock SAT paper for exam (5^th Nov)
2. Year 7 > Test and regroup > what next?
7. GATE > any comments
8. SEF
9. Next meeting Monday 5th November.
1. Coursework catch up sessions
2. Any extra items?

Formative assesment video from Teachers TV

http://www.teachers.tv/video/565

some formative assesment sites

http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/research/themes/assessment_for_learning/MonSep151522482003/606313
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/assessment.html
http://www.woodhouse.ac.uk/gfx/uploads/pres_14072004091959.pdf

Teaching and learning in the classroom (Dept SEF)

reports

marking rotation

Note week 3 MorE should be replaced by self or peer assesment

Marking policy

A section of the Ofsted lesson criteria

School SEF

• Science is improving (70% level 5+) but level 6+ could be higher (25%)
• Science has the 6+ project to deal with this.
• The use of peer and self-assessment is developing.
• Department SEFs are being developed.
• Target setting in order to raise achievement has been introduced.

Schools 3 priorities 2007/8

• AfL focus on WILFs. Skills, knowledge and understanding; refer back to WILFs in the lesson, use plenaries to asses progress, plan to challenge.
• Formative Marking. Give next steps; plan time for student responses; use marking to give praise encouragement and rewards.
• Student Engagement. Use open questioning; use peer and self assessment; use data to raise expectations; encourage independent learning.

Thanks for your resit information.

This has now been forwarded to Ros who needs to send it to the exam board before half term.

The Science department welcome OFSTED

Next Tuesday and Thursday we welcome OFSTED

Exam information needed.

I have put exam sheets in all your pigeon holes which I need back by Thursday. See notice board in middle prep room for more details. Thanks

Year 11 mock exams 2007

year 11 resits from yr 10 exams needed

Please give me any resits that you and your students need to do by the 10th October.
Peter

Important reminder

I have been informed that Julie has changed the date we change year 7 until after half term.
EVERYONE must have completed 7c and 7d. They must also have done and marked a test on this and handed all the results to Julie so we can reset them.

November Calendar

24th September Meeting notes

Autumn To do list

yr 10 and 11 exam dates 2007/8

Science A: Unit 1 (B1, C1, P1) 15-Jan-08
Science A: Unit 2 (B2, C2, P2) 18-Jan-08
Science A: Unit 3 (B3, C3, P3) 21-Jan-08

Additional Science A: Unit 1 (B4, C4, P4) 23-Jan-08
Aditional Science A: Unit 2 (B5, C5, P5) 25-Jan-08
Additional Science A: Unit 3 (B6, C6, P6) 29-Jan-08

Biology A: Unit 1 (B1, B2, B3) 15-Jan-08
Biology A: Unit 2 (B4, B5, B6) 23-Jan-08

Science A: Unit 4 (Ideas in Context) 12-May-08
Science A: Unit 2 (B2, C2, P2) 05-Jun-08
Science A: Unit 3 (B3, C3, P3) 11-Jun-08
Science A: Unit 1 (B1, C1, P1) 23-Jun-08

Additional Science A: Unit 4 (Ideas in Context) 23-May-08
Additional Science A: Unit 1 (B4, C4, P4) 17-Jun-08
Additional Science A: Unit 2 (B5, C5, P5) 18-Jun-08
Additional Science A: Unit 3 (B6, C6, P6) 20-Jun-08

Biology A: Unit 3 (Ideas in Context plus B7) 21-May-08
Biology A: Unit 2 (B4, B5, B6) Higher 17-Jun-08
Biology A: Unit 1 (B1, B2, B3) 23-Jun-08

To all teachers of year 11

• Have a conversation with each member of the group and identify any module which they wish to resit.
• Make sure that each student has a case study/ Data analysis which is a grade above their target grade. I not they may redo/resubmit work in June 2008.
• Collect work for redoing from U20 anytime (Friday onwards) and give back to students to work on. The absolute deadline for resubmission is 15th of December 2007.
• Give a list of resits/resubmissions to me by Monday 1st October.

Thanks
Peter

school monitoring programme

October Calendar.

New yr 11 rotations

It is difficult to determine the speed that we can move through in year 11. It is essential that all groups have done all module 4s before the January exams. If some groups have done the 5s as well we could enter them also in January. We also need to do some practical coursework. I will talk more about this later.

Yr 7 MAJOR reorganization

Remember that before the 15th of October EVERYONE must have completed 7c and 7d. They must also have done and marked a test on this and handed all the results to Julie so we can reset them.

Class lists please

In order for the electronic registration to work efficiently we need you present class lists. It would be helpful if you indicated which pupils where different from the schools registration system. Could you please give KS3 lists to Julie and KS4 lists to Peter by the end of next week at the latest.

For those using U21

It is important that you do not log onto the computer itself. When that screen comes up press cancel.
If you are having problems with the computers you can shut it down and then restart it remembering not to log on to the computer but log onto the intranet.

Pupil Tracking data

Pupil Tracking data is now on the intranet at \Subject Folders\Science\TRACKING students

This site reminder

http://bccscience.blogspot.com/

do not forget to look at older posts

KS3 rotations

Calendar has been created (September)

This is the calender for September

Year 11 information for September 2007

• all of the groups have completed module B4.
• MUST do C4, P4, and try to do the B5, C5, P5 before the January exams.
• They will also need space before Christmas if at all possible to do their practical coursework.

Year 10 information for September 2007

Year 10 will need

• a few lessons at the start of next year to finish the data analysis.
• to have completed the C1, P2 modules, and possibly B2, C2, P2 before the exams in January.
• this year they need to complete a case study.

Pictures of science outing

on the intranet in the folder \Subject Folders\Science\department info\Pictures

How to access intranet from home

Log onto this site
http:infosystem.bicestercommunitycollege.co.uk
Then log in using your normal username and password.
Note you will probably be asked to do this twice.
Peter

KS3 lesson rotations are ready

These will be pinned up on the science notice board in the middle preproom. The first lesson with year 7 will be on Safety and bubbles then we all do 7c/7d. On the 15th of October we rearrange these groups so we all need to have completed 7c/7d before this date.
These are on the intranet at
Subject Folders\Science\department info
and the file is called Rota and info 20078.
Peter

Intranet update

To get to the intranet at school you now need to go through the desktop icon. Peter

Welcome message

Welcome to the Science Blog. This contains information about the science department that is easy and quick to read. Peter