Background

Manchester Communications Academy (MCA) is a mixed comprehensive school in Harpurhey, Manchester which opened in 2010 and currently has 1,200 pupils.

Providing a rich science curriculum in KS3

At MCA we are proud to offer students a broad and engaging science curriculum enriched in scientific, practical and numeracy skills to best prepare our students for further study at KS4 and beyond.

We adapt the Exploring Science curriculum to ensure that the students experience a curriculum that inspires them to engage in the science that is all around them in the community. Students take part in events such as the RSPB Garden Watch event by making bird feeders to put in their gardens to encourage birds to visit and attend trips to places such as Chester Zoo and Sharston recycling centre.

Exploring Science supports our students in their journey into KS4.

Using the Exploring Science print and digital resources

We’ve been using Exploring Science for 3 years now. As part of our broad and engaging KS3 curriculum we use the lesson schedule and content from the 5-year Pearson Schemes of Work as a basis. We supplement with our own lessons which highlight local and national scientific ideas and issues to ensure our students are offered an engaging experience beyond the science curriculum.

Students have access to the online Exploring Science ActiveLearn to support their learning outside of the classroom and the Exploring Science textbooks to support learning in the classroom.

To assess the students we take questions from the Exploring Science End of Topic Tests to make an end of term test. We use the Pearson steps as a guide to how students are progressing through KS3 into GCSE.

Preparing students for GCSE

As we are an Edexcel GCSE Science department we feel that using the Pearson KS3 Exploring Science supports our students in their journey into KS4.

We aim to introduce key KS4 content at an age appropriate level at KS3 to ensure students have a good basis for KS4. We have increased the number of practical lessons at KS3 to ensure students are prepared for the practical skill aspects of the new GCSE. We aim to ensure students are familiar with scientific apparatus.

We have built more numeracy into our KS3 curriculum so that students are able to perform calculations involving significant figures, standard index form, SI units, percentages, means etc.

As a department we emphasise the importance of tier two vocabulary to ensure students are able to access comprehension tasks and exam questions. We have also embedded extended writing strategies into the KS3 curriculum.