Physics

Physics explores the fundamental principles governing the behaviour of the universe. It covers a wide range of phenomena, from the cosmic scale, including galaxies, stars, and planets, to the microscopic scale, dealing with particles such as atoms and subatomic particles.

The field of Physics is dynamic, with theories evolving over time as new experimental evidence emerges. It requires a commitment to staying updated on the latest research and discoveries.

A level, BTEC, Apprenticeships, Placements and Internships

Half Term 1 & 2 - Electricity

Leaning on the core knowledge of energy, students now study in depth the transfer of energy in electrical circuits. Again a fundamental topic, electricity requires a raft of new knowledge in order to assimilate the workings of an electrical circuit. The concepts of charge, current, resistance and potential difference are explored in depth and students will need to apply a range of formulae to solve complex problems.

Half term 3 & 4 - Waves

Energy, again, is the setting for the final term in Year 10 and brings the students’ learning full circle. Students will have learnt in Year 9 that energy is transferred via either mechanical work, electrical work, heating or radiation. Electrical work and heating have been covered in depth during Years 9 and 10 to date and now students explore the transfer of energy via radiation or WAVES.

Students will acquire a raft of new language to describe waves and apply this common language to mechanical waves and electromagnetic waves. All students will investigate ways in which measure the ‘speed’ of waves as well explore the phenomenon of refraction.

Half Term 5 &6 - Electromagnetism

Using their core understanding of charges from the Electricity topic in Year 10, students will now study the wonderful world of electromagnetism. The work James Maxwell, over hundred years ago, led to the following interactions:

·         The force of attraction or repulsion between electric charges 

·         Magnetic poles come in pairs that attract and repel each other, much as electric charges do.

·         An electric current in a wire produces a magnetic field 

These interactions will be studied exposing students to phenomena which become increasingly more difficult to model and conceptualise. Although a difficult topic, students will have the opportunity to to build their electric motors!

Half Term 1 & 2 - Forces and Motion

With the fundamentals of energy and particularly the conservation of energy studied in Year 10, students are now able to embark fully on the study of Newton’s laws of motion. These laws govern classical physics and their application is all to see in our everyday lives. There is a lot of new language here for example interia, moments and the resolving of forces. 

Students begin with an overview of forces and the key language to explain them including concepts of scalars and vectors. Students will be using a huge amount of their mathematical skills to solve complex problems including graphical analysis of motion graphs. Students will apply this understanding to the example of terminal velocity before studying further concepts such as momentum and atmospheric pressure. 

Half Term 3, 4 & 5 - Space and Revision

Those students studying Triple Science will now study Space Physics. This topic allows students to draw upon their knowledge of fundamental physics and mathematical skills to describe and explain the life cycle of a star; use the concept of redshift to explain the principle evidence for the big bang theory and to describe the orbits of artificial and natural satellites.

All students will now embark on class led revision to supplement their own ongoing preparation for their exams. Much of the material is interleaved throughout the course, significantly aiding the revision process, but due to intricate spiralling of the curriculum from Year 9 to now, teachers will revise knowledge studied in Year 9 first. Students will be re-taught notable misconceptions as well and practice an extensive range of past paper questions.

Half Term 1

Teacher 1 - Waves

Teacher 2 - Particles

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Waves builds on GCSE content from paper 2 and extends it to encompass a wide variety of real life situations and applications. It is again a fundamental topic that is required to understand simple harmonic motion, radioactivity and nuclear physics.

Particles as the fundamental building blocks of the universe is a whole new topic which is not previously taught at GCSE. It helps students to understand details from the origin of the universe and current cutting edge research from particle accelerators. It builds up maths skills and study skills needed for their Physics A level and is fundamental in understanding the topics of Radioactivity and Nuclear Physics covered in Y13. 

Half Term 2

Teacher 1 - Optics

Teacher 2 - Quantum phenomena

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Optics takes the theory learnt in waves and applies it to the properties of electromagnetic and mechanical waves. Learning about diffraction, reflection and refraction to explain why diamonds sparkle, why bridges might break and the concepts of telecommunication. It is one of the building blocks for Simple harmonic motion and Turning points.

Quantum phenomena and waves overlap when looking at the electromagnetic spectrum and photon emission and ties both topic together so students cover the same ideas from 2 different perspectives which helps cement their learning.

Half Term 3

Teacher 1 - Mechanics

Teacher 2 - Electric current

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Mechanics takes most of the GCSE concepts of forces and applies them into more and more complex situations. Students learn how to tackle multiple dimensional problems and start to bring together theory from more than one concept to explain how situations such as projectile motion and energy transfers work. Practicing bringing theory and topics together is one of the hardest skills to learn so it is introduced here and built upon in Y13 and Mechanics is fundamental for the application of Further mechanics, Simple harmonic motion and all of the topics on Fields.

Electric current forms some of the fundamental understanding of fields and applications such as thermionic emission and mass spectrometers it again takes topics taught at GCSE and applies them to more and more complex situations as a stepping stone to the harder concepts in Y13.

Half Term 4

Teacher 1 - Mechanics

Teacher 2 - DC circuits

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

DC circuits takes the concepts learnt in Electric current and applies them to allow students to analyse electronic circuits and determine the properties of internal resistance, potential dividers and circuit loops.

Half Term 5

Teacher 1 - Materials

Teacher 2 - DC circuits

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Materials is the final part of the Mechanics topic and encompasses stress, strain and ductile properties of materials and is a very important part of anyone thinking of going into engineering.

Half Term 6

Teacher 1 - Circular motion

Teacher 2 - Practical skills

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Circular motion takes concepts learnt in Mechanics and the maths skills built in Waves. Driving, fairground rides and planetary motion are all governed by similar principles and the maths skills learnt are key to understanding Simple harmonic motion, gravitational fields and the application of mass spectrometers.

Students are also assessed on practical skills that they complete throughout the course. We review how they have done and how they can improve to better prepare them to become more independent as required in the harder practicals covered in Y13.

Half Term 1

Teacher 1 - Simple harmonic motion

Teacher 2 - Thermal Physics and Gravitational fields

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Simple harmonic motion applies the theory learnt in waves and circular motion to explain concepts of resonance and damping and how they apply to bridges, pendulums and springs.

Thermal Physics takes the theory of specific heat capacity, specific latent heat and pressure in gases learnt at GCSE and applies them to more complex situations and requires a high degree of maths skills to be able to derive the equations for the ideal gas laws.

Gravitational fields delve into the concepts of uniform and radial fields, satellite motion and equipotentials and covers the fundamentals for all of the fields topics.

Half Term 2

Teacher 1 - Electric fields and Capacitors

Teacher 2 - Radioactivity

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Electric fields overlap with Gravitational fields so are taught from 2 different perspectives at the same time to help cement students' understanding before applying the concepts to the harder fields topics.

Radioactivity builds upon GCSE atomic structure and the particles topic taught in year 12. It covers the stability of the nucleus and radioactive decay chains and the NZ curve.

Half Term 3

Teacher 1 - Magnetic fields

Teacher 2 - Nuclear Physics

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Magnetic fields builds upon the gravitational and electric fields topics and applies them to electron beams and mass spectrometers.

Nuclear Physics builds upon the Radioactivity and particles topics and applies it to the concepts of nuclear fission and fusion and the nuclear reactors

Half Term 4

Teacher 1 - Electromagnetic induction

Teacher 2 - Turning points

Why we sequence the scheme of work this way

Electromagnetic induction is the final topic in the core content which takes the theory from Magnetic fields and applies them to generating electricity and Transformers.

Turning points is our optional topic which we teach as it recaps content from the whole course while providing the historic significance of the major discoveries. It also covers special relativity and time, mass and length are dilated when masses move close to the speed of light.

Half Term 5 - Exam preparation

Half Term 6 - Examination