Chemistry

Course summary

If you want to understand and maybe even fix today’s major problems, you need some chemistry. The challenges posed by climate change, energy storage and pandemics affect us all, but people who can understand and practise chemistry can do something about them. There is also deep satisfaction in simply finding out how the physical world works. The department goes a long way towards promoting enrichment within the subject, through wide-ranging digressions from examined material, the inclusion of extensive and rigorous practical work, and perhaps most importantly preparing pupils for later study in many fields, through regular, high-level problem-solving. The effectiveness of the last point is emphasised by the Eighth Formers’ (Year 12 and 13) exceptional results in the RSC Olympiad (Lower and Upper Eighth) and the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge (Lower Eighth only) competitions. Both competitions expose pupils to the type of problem-based work that is the mainstay of any kind of science degree. Pupils are pushed well beyond the familiar, and often beyond where their base of knowledge can help them, to a place where grit and clear thought are the keys to success.