Clifton College Website

Biology

Biology is a popular subject at Clifton. All students study the subject up to GCSE: most as a separate GCSE subject alongside Chemistry and Physics. Some students study Biology as part of "Dual Award Science".

Head of Biology
Mr Hugo Besterman MA
Teachers
Mr David Barrett BSc CBiol Mrs Lesley Hill BSc Mr Simon Reece MA Mrs Nicola Bright BA PGCE
Chief Biology Technician
Mr Andrew Thomas MIBiol
Technician
Mr Ian Jefferson

We follow the popular new AQA Biology course at GCSE, which is not only exciting and innovative in its approach, but also provides our candidates with a thorough grounding in biological principles, which will stand them in good stead should they wish to take the subject further. The department is very successful at providing a relevant, contemporary, biological education for all of its pupils. Recent university successes include Sarah Spencer, who achieved the highest mark in SNAB in the country, achieving 99% in the whole A-level examination. She recently received a certificate and a cheque from the Salter’s Company in a national ceremony. She is now studying Veterinary Science at Bristol University.

Other Biologists from that year group include Sarah Wynbourne who is studying Physiological Sciences at Oxford University, and Kate West who has been offered a place (as a post A-level applicant) at Oxford University to study Biological Sciences. Her letter from the Oxbridge College (Christchurch) said:

Resources

There are five, recently refurbished, fully equipped modern teaching laboratories and a computer room in the Biology Department. Senior classes also make use of the Kendrew room.

The Salter’s Nuffield Advanced Biology (SNAB) course is accompanied by excellent online tutorials, quizzes and other specific resources. Sixth Form students may access these, and other biology resources on the school’s intranet as they need. This year students will be able to access the excellent SNAB resources from home as well as at school.

Fieldwork

We aim to give our pupils plenty of opportunity to study biology outside the classroom. There are frequent visits across the road to Bristol Zoo, which is one of the county’s leading centres for wildlife conservation. There are also trips further afield, such as the Upper Sixth fieldwork day at Kenfig National Nature Reserve.

In June 2008, we took 16 of our Lower Sixth pupils on an extremely memorable expedition to Tanzania to look at the ecology of the local flora and fauna. Just few of the highlights were the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was a huge success and we hope to be able to offer similar trips in the future, perhaps on an annual basis. Please take a moment to view the photo gallery.

Science Library

Biology clinics take place one evening a week in the Stone Library, where a teacher is on hand to help students with their Biology.

Teaching

We aim to make Biology an exciting and involving subject. Practical work plays an extremely important part of all our Biology courses, from Third Form to Upper Sixth. Students experience a wide range of experimental work including microbiology, physiology, ecology and modern molecular biology throughout their time in the Upper School.

ICT is also used to enhance both practical work and theory and is a key component of teaching and learning in the new Salter’s Nuffield Advanced Biology A-level course, an exciting and up to date A-level Biology course that Clifton has been amongst the first schools in the country to introduce.

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