Specialist Status
In September, 2004, Brentwood County High School was awarded Science, Maths and Computing School Status by the Department for Education and Skills. The Specialist School Status has allowed us to focus on science, maths and computing both in and outside the formal curriculum. Examples of the kinds of activities we run in school and in the local community follows.
As a specialist school we support the National Science Week and run our own Maths Week. Past presenters have been Johnny Ball and Kjartan Poskitt during Maths Week and Zoo Lab and Glaxo Smith Kline during National Science Week. Post 16 Science lectures are held on a regular basis, as are IT based lectures. The Science department works closely with our partner secondary school.
The Science Bus forges our community links with our partner primary schools. Our Community Science and IT technicians visit primary schools to supply and deliver lessons that have been requested by primary class teachers. At present the Community Science technician delivers up to 20 lessons to groups of between 6 to 20 pupils. The Community IT technician offers ‘Help Desk’ support and also visits the primary schools with Robo Lab. and a selection of lessons. The lessons delivered by the Community Team are continually evolving at the request and support of our primary partners. There is also a loan service for specialist equipment. In addition a member of the maths department takes the Code Breaker Challenge to the primary school pupils.
Saturday Masterclasses in Science, Maths and Computing are offered once a term for Year 6 students. Invitations are sent out to 24 of our local primary schools. These are always well attended and enjoyed by all!