Staff list

• Miss L Winchcombe, Science Associate Senior Leader
• Mrs H Scott, Biology Subject Leader
• Mr S Thompson, Chemistry Subject Leader
• Mrs S Steele, Physics Subject Leader
• Mr A Shields, Deputy Headteacher and Science Teacher
• Miss V Coshall, Teacher of Science
• Miss K Stockwell, Media Subject Leader and Teacher of KS3 Science
• Mr R Hogan, Teacher of Science
• Mr H Cheong Ip, Teacher of Science and Computer Science
• Mrs A Emery, Senior Science Technician
• Mrs T Bloor, Science Technician
• Ms K Gratton Assistant Headteacher / Teacher of Science

Vision

Science ensured that students can critically analyse information to make informed decisions as proactive members of their local community.

Intent

Our intent is to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum that inspires students about Science. It aims to raise awareness of the everyday applications of the subject and the important role it plays in our daily lives.

Implementation

Our course is taught with the theme of ‘science in action’. Rich big questions in lessons, a range of learning tasks and content linked to current world events encourages students to see the relevance of what they are studying to their own lives and wider world problems. The practical element of the courses allows students to be reflective and learn from mistakes.

Impact

Through the taught and super curriculum students develop the skills and knowledge to be academically successful individuals that can play an active role within their local community. Their experience of science will enable them to weigh up evidence to make informed decisions confidently, preparing them effectively for the future. Students will have a reflective and evaluative approach instilled in them to effectively solve problems to overcome obstacles that they may be presented with

Staff list

• Mr K Hussain– Assistant Headteacher
• Mrs S Green – Teacher of Humanities

Vision

RS at Cox Green School is aiming to provide students with opportunities to master the knowledge and skills needed to comprehend their own and others world views. People’s beliefs are the foundation of who they are and therefore what they do. RS lessons aim to give students the knowledge and skills to deal with that knowledge of a range of world views both theist and atheist so that they can understand others and themselves better. RS aims to help students understand and engage with the complex world around them. RS develops many transferrable skills from communication, argumentation, critical thinking, analysis, evaluation and empathy. 

Intent

In line with the latest OFSTED review and the local SACRE, the curriculum will consider the “substantive knowledge” of a range of world views; give an understanding of the different “Ways of knowing” in RS and allow students to build their own “personal knowledge”. The curriculum will take a thematic and critical approach to theist and atheist world views and critically apply them to different practices as well as philosophical and ethical questions. For example, we will look at The Bible and it’s different types of texts, Buddhism and Suffering and Atheist views on medical ethics topics. We therefore cover the Berkshire Agreed Syllabus key areas of Believing, Behaving and Belonging across theist and atheist world views. This builds a KS3 curriculum that equips students to opt to do RS at GCSE level and follow the AQA syllabus. 

The curriculum will highlight current affairs, skills and careers that use what we do in RS lessons to allow students to apply their learning to the wider world. The intent is for students to be more aware of others views and their own and to know where those views come from and the impact they have on people lives. 

Implementation

From September 2022 Y7 and Y8 will cover Christianity in depth whilst also doing units in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism. Hinduism will be looked at as a comparison where appropriate.  This will be done in a critical manner using textual sources as well as other sources of knowledge and wisdom to develop an understanding and ability to apply key concepts to a range of issues both within and beyond the worldview. For example student will look at the issue of sacrifice as part of Judaism and community as part of Sikhism.

In Y9 students will be introduced to key questions around the nature of religion and other philosophical and ethical topics as part of preparation for the GSCE course. These will be looked at through Christianity and other world views including Buddhism and Humanism thus building on skills and knowledge from Y7 and Y8. Students will also look at atheist views including Humanism and Utilitarianism.

At KS4 students can opt to complete a full course GCSE which will look at Christianity, Islam and Philosophical and Ethical issues around crime, punishment, peace and conflict, families and relationships and medical and environmental ethics. All students, in line with statutory guidelines, will have RS delivered as one feature of their PD programme.

Impact

Outcomes will be measured in end of topic assessments which will be a mixture of multiple choice questions to test knowledge and longer answer questions which test  other skills. These will be done in class and in the student’s exercise books.  The exercise books should show evidence of a broad and balanced RS curriculum that demonstrates the students’ acquisition of key knowledge and skills.

Students review the agreed successes at the end of every term and are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas, with support from their teachers.

Homework will be regularly given as online form quizzes to consolidate knowledge and understanding. KS4 students will in addition have GCSE practice questions to complete.  

Staff list

• Mrs M Olmos - Subject Leader Psychology
• Mr D Aston –  Psychology & Criminology Teacher, Head of Year

Vision

Psychology is a subject that is designed to ensure that all GCSE and A -level students feel inspired to ask questions and search for scientific answers about the human brain and behaviour. Students are challenged to seek psychological knowledge remembering that every truth has four corners and their teachers give them only one corner, and it is for the students to find the other three. This design ensures understanding of psychological issues and debates worldwide, provides informed choices to students to encourage them to embrace and challenge the world we live in; developing forward thinking and resilient and curious individuals.

Intent

Psychology is everywhere in every aspect of life: at personal and professional level. Psychology answers the most important questions about human motivation and human behaviour. Mastering of psychological knowledge can unleash the human potential, creativity, solve the problems of mental health and prevent social injustice and wars. Through finding out about how and why human beings behave in the way they do, students can learn how to make this world a better place.

Psychology enables students to develop self -awareness and the awareness of others as well as wider metacognitive skills. Psychological knowledge of theories, studies and concepts builds the bridge between the intellect and emotional and spiritual intelligence. Psychological debates develop students’ understanding of the complex world and social issues around as well as their own choices, attitudes, and values. At Cox Green School, our intent, when teaching Psychology, is to stimulate the students’ curiosity to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding.

Implementation

Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision, which aims to enable all students, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be.

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year-by-year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all students. It is important that the students develop progressive skills of a psychologist throughout their time at Cox Green School and do not just learn a series of facts about the human mind and behaviour.

In Psychology, students at Cox Green School, conduct their own experiments, think critically, find evidence, weigh it up considering its scientific status and reach their own conclusion. To do this successfully, students need to be able to research, interpret evidence, including primary and secondary data, and have the necessary skills to argue for their point of view; skill that will help them in their adult life.

Impact

• Evaluating what knowledge and understanding students have gained against expectations
• A secure knowledge and understanding of human mind and behaviour in the areas such as psychological problems, memory, child’s cognitive and social development, criminology and many more.
• The ability to think critically about the causes of human behaviour and communicate confidently verbally and non-verbally in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
• The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate psychological evidence derived from a range of primary and secondary data.
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the how psychology has changed over time forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
• A passion for psychology and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the causes and effects and complexity of the human motivation.
• A respect for psychological thinking using scientific evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to do ambitious experiments with full awareness of ethical guidelines published by British Psychological Society across a range of topics
• Outcomes in tests and classwork exercise books evidence a broad and balanced psychology curriculum and demonstrate the students’ acquisition of identified key knowledge.
• Students review the agreed successes at the end of every term and are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas, with support from their teachers.
• Students also record what they have learned comparative to their starting points at the end of every topic.

Staff list

Mrs K Thompson - Teacher of History & Deputy Achievement Leader KS5

Vision

Collaboratively creating independent, critical thinkers who enjoy and confidently participate in the world they inhabit

Intent

The Curriculum topics are set by the exam board specification and include the following four topics:

1) Epistemology (i.e. the study of knowledge and how we acquire it),

2) Moral Philosophy (i.e. how we decide what is the right and what is the wrong thing to do in a given situation)

3) Metaphysics of God (i.e. looking at arguments for and against the existence of God)

4) Metaphysics of Mind (i.e. understanding what consciousness is and how it relates to the body)

Emphasis is given to the skills the subject teaches and the value these have in future study and in many different careers. The types of skills stressed include:

a) How one idea can imply another or contradict it

b) The ability to spot flaws in arguments

c) The ability to justify an academic argument

d) Imagination: coming up with novel solutions and novel ideas

e) Communication and conversation: philosophy is done through discussion and debate

Implementation

The aim is to make this complex yet rewarding subject as accessible as possible by delivering the subject in as interactive way as possible. This is achieved by: 

• Frequent use of strong images in explaining new concepts
• Debates held to help students test validity and strengths of arguments and counter arguments studied. These include both binary debates that allow students to evaluate opposing arguments, and multifaceted exploratory debates that allow students to see the complexity of an issue when there emerge more than two opposing arguments. Demonstrates that a debate is not about ‘winning’ an argument, but listening carefully to what others say and adapting own beliefs/material accordingly.
• Students encouraged to re-explain ideas they have studied in order to test clarity of their spoken understanding
• Work frequently self and peer assessed in order to encourage greater clarity and confidence with concepts studied.
• Course supplemented with additional resources such as explanatory You tube clips in order to make ideas clearer than they would be if the textbook alone was used.
• Structured group work used regularly in class – even if teaching remotely/in a blended fashion. Stresses individual responsibility to achieve group goals.
• Clearly structured and explained revision system embedded throughout the course.
• Going above and beyond – encouraging a culture of encouraging students to think, collect and discuss examples of where they have seen the concepts we cover applied in the real world – eg citing films, TV episodes, books, news articles etc where concepts have been used. MS Teams pages used to share this work.

Impact

• Observation of student performance in collaborative and explanatory tasks in class
• Use of self marking to individually assess and monitor own progress
• Use of Peer marking to help and support each other while identifying best practice in other student’s work.
• Electronic marking of student work by teacher once established what IT support students have available.
• Regular use of non threatening summative assessment
• Targeted use of formative assessment when needed, accompanied with transparency of assessment criteria and content covered.