Professional developmet (staff)

Collaboration between Science School of Clifton College and the Education Faculty of the University of Bristol

Project description

The collaboration is in its fourth year and grew out of the short-term need that the Education Faculty had for laboratory accommodation for their PGCE students. I offered the facilities at Clifton on a Thursday afternoon, which is a games afternoon at Clifton. The technicians provide support (for which they are paid pro-rata at University rates) and some of our teachers work alongside the University teaching staff. This proved so popular with the students, that we have established it as an annual event.

That is, the students come to Clifton for 3 afternoon sessions in the summer term (May) to learn how to teach A-level Chemistry/Biology/Physics. They return for a day in summer half-term holiday for workshops on GCSE teaching. One benefit of this is that the students get to talk with us about issues of education and get to see inside Clifton. I present it to them as a 'working school' and try to explain what we are doing during the weeks in which they visit. There have been real benefits for Clifton, too. The teachers and technicians involved have got a real sense of benefit from taking part in the scheme which has opened our doors to the 'outside world'. It also made it easier for me to establish the prep schools/primary school science open days that are now part of our working lives.

There are up to 70 students on the course each year and there seems to be more biologists than physicists or chemists. The University is unusual in that it attracts significant numbers of students with good quality degrees in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. This goes against the average national trend. For their A-level work the students work in their subject specialism. The GCSE workshops are multidisciplinary and students are deliberately encouraged not to attend those sessions in their degree subject. This helps to develop all round 'science teachers'. This is how science is taught in many schools.

All of the sessions have a significant practical component - we explore techniques, experiments and demonstrations that student teachers can use in their first year of teaching. Clifton teaches project specifications (Salter's Chemistry, Advancing Physics, Salter's Nuffield Biology, 21st Century Science) and we discuss the key features of these courses with the students. To some extent we allow the students the opportunity to shape and develop the sessions according to their needs, especially in the GCSE sessions.

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