Chemistry

Enthuse and engage each and every student with science and the scientific world.
Students appreciate how the theories and concepts they are studying relate to their everyday life and how science enriches wider society
To equip and develop, within students, a wide variety of transferable skills that meet their whole-life learning needs.

Key knowledge areas in which all pupils are expected to have developed an appreciation are:

• atomic structure; bonding & structure; amount of substance; acids, alkalis and pH; the periodic table; rates; equilibria; energetics; electrochemistry; Transition metal chemistry; organic compounds and their reactions; aromatics; amides; polymers; and chemical analysis.
• Students should, within the context of these areas, be able to:
  • Use conceptual models and theories to make sense of the observed natural phenomena, giving comprehensive explanations of said phenomena using a wide range of appropriate scientific ideas, language, mathematical skills, knowledge and understanding.
  • Plan, carry out, draw conclusions and evaluate the validity of practical laboratory work;
  • Use appropriate mathematics to support problem solving, analysis and the drawing of robust conclusions.
  • Evaluate the impact on the environmental, and society, of chemistry.

The course is set up to teach the fundamental skills required to succeed first and then use them in a wide range of contexts (the unit ‘fundamentals’). There is then a distinct physics/inorganic course and a organic/analysis course. Practical Skills developed throughout the course gradually become more open ended, increasingly involving planning & research elements.

Half Term 1

Fundamental Skills

Half Term 2

Fundamental skills
Periodicity
Hydrocarbons and their reactions

Half Term 3

Periodic table
Alcohols and haloalkanes

Half Term 4

Energy and Rates
Analysis

Half Term 5

Equilibria
Further Rates
Aromatics

Half Term 6

Further Rates
Aromatics

Half Term 1

Further Equilibria
Amines
Carbonyls

Half Term 2

Acids, Alkalis and pH
Polymers

Half Term 3

Energy, Organic synthesis & Electrochemistry

Half Term 4

Transition Metals
Chemical analysis