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We note several descriptions of the school science facilities and program. Many nodern prep schools now give considerable attention to science and are anxious to describe the facilities and program to parents and prospective parents. Many of the schools are very proud of their new facilities. Not all of tge schools, however, had first class facilities. We found some schools which had not yet made a major commitment to teaching scienve. This was something they did not emphasize in school publications.
Has it been a good year for science? Yes I think so. We have had some excellent scholarship results from Simon Aitken, John Armitage and Adrian Corbett and many good Common Entrance results -- averaging out at about 56%. Much hard work has gone into the year both from me and from most of the pupils, although some still think they can get away with just a few weeks revision at the beginning of June, but on the whole I have been pleased with the way most of them have worked. Disaster almost struck at the start of the summer term when Mrs Clark was taken ill and had to spend a few weeks in hospital, so we were very grateful when Nrs G Woods was able to come and take the 4th and 5th Forms for those few weeks. Mny thanks to her. We finished the year with the usual construction of hot air balloons, very topical at the time with Richard Branson's record attempt taking place. Our balloons didn't go quite so far but we did have some spectacular flights with only one getting struck in a tree for a few nights. Rachel Buzzard wrote a splendid roject on the history of Ballooning and for that she won the Hildersly Resarch prize. Johb Armitage won the Filner Science Cu and Mark Wilkinson won the Science Prize.
RJK, Great Walstead Magazine 1987.
A new building, constructed as the result of an appeal and opened in February 1979, includes a new science laboratory. The increased importance of Science at the present time is thus reflected in the school's ability to cater for the basic teaching of this subject in up-to-date surroundings. Particular attention is paid to the inclusion of elementary Science in the curriculum of even the youngest boys. Maximum use is also made of the grounds of the school and its immediate neighourhood in which studies of the environment are carried out.
Birchfiekd School Prospectus
Science: knowledge ascertained by observation or experiment. (Chambers' English dictionary) This definition was obviously in the minds of the Nuffield teams when they devised their various schemes for the three sciences. This year saw the introduction of the mew biology syllabus which means that not only can we learn by observation and experiment but that no longer do we have to study African migratory locust, which most of us are unlikely to meet outside science laboatories or zoos. Instead we can study animals which can be found around us in their natural habitats. It is, for example, of far graeter interest to study the lives of aphids and see how it is possible for them to repoduce at such alarming rates. In the winter the science lab was used for a new activity, ome which attracted a great deal of interest -- kitemaking. Dual control models, similar to expensive shop ones, were made; they had on slight drawback in that the fishing lines they were finished with was not strong enough. Apart from thar they are a tremdous success. The common entrance examination produced some very good results \, the best of which was Jonathan Reeves' 83% -- the highest mark ever achieved on a science paper by a Bramcote boy. I would like to thank Nigel Dessau, who has been busyin the dark room keeping it organised and making up olutions.
Kevin Bendell, The Bramcote Magazine, Autumn 1978
