Keeping Science Practical programme – now recruiting
The ASE are pleased to let our secondary schools know that we have secured funding to run our popular ‘Keeping Science Practical’ with a final cohort of fifty schools.
The project was launched in 2021 with our first cohort, and we over 150 schools have signed up for the project in this time. Our evidence-based project draws upon the Gatsby Practical Science report (2017) and our response to this report, with the intention of improving purposeful practical work for our learners.
This fully funded project comprises ASE membership and publications, subsidised attendance at the ASE annual conference (in Nottingham January 2025) and a programme of online CPD delivered by a range of education professionals from the ASE community.
While the project has been running, we have seen the publication of several reports such as OFSTED’s “Finding the optimum” and the Royal Society’s “Science Education Tracker”. These have highlighted the importance of purposeful practical work and its role in progression, attainment, and engagement.
We are looking for schools whose learners are disadvantaged – perhaps schools with high numbers of students with free school meals, high numbers of SEND (SEN/ASN) learners, etc. We would like to work with schools across the whole of the United Kingdom and our CPD programme is also suited to schools in the devolved nations.
Please use the expression of interest form if you are interested in taking part this autumn term.
What teachers from our most recent cohort said about the workshops (which 98% of attendees rated as good or better)
“Accessing the recordings was useful as we could watch back as a department and then go over different sections again. Also allowed us to look at them more than once.”
“Good range of relevant topics, sensible scheduling, "catchup" recordings provided. Often, colleagues attended as a "team" in the same room to promote collaborative discussion.”
“The teachers have enjoyed watching the videos and it did directly link with the faculty development plan so they could see the importance and relevance to them.”
What teachers from our most recent cohort said about the project in general
“Rather than doing practicals that are for practical sake i.e. its in the scheme to do X practical at this stage. Teachers have a much better understanding of why they are doing the practicals, what the outcomes are for specific activities i.e. is it following methods, analysing data etc.”
“As a subject leader with a team of very limited experience, I was able to provide this CPD to them to help deliver areas of pedagogy that were science specific which really help their performance.”
“My ECTs have really engaged with the programme. We currently have 1 ECT2 and 2 ECT1. Even though all three trained after Covid, their training suffered in terms of practicals due to the impact of Covid. One of my ECTs had only carried out four practical activities during the entirety of his training year - this clearly has an issue on his level of knowledge and confidence in conducting both demonstrations and class practicals. I think that all the sessions have helped provide ideas for all the teachers on alternative practicals that they can do.”
“Thinking more widely about the reasons for carrying out practical work has helped to focus what we do during practical lessons - rather than trying to cover everything, focus on different skill elements every time you do a practical/experiment and plan for skill coverage over the course of the curriculum rather than trying to cram everything into each practical/experiment. Also having the sessions after school helped as they could be attended.”
Feedback specific to the technician strand
“Involvement in this project has allowed me to experience online learning, which has been very useful and convenient, especially since I did not have to delegate travel time to move locations and could gain knowledge right there at my workplace.”
“Taught me a great deal, and glad to be able to speak to others as I'm a lone technician.”
“Our technician liked the online sessions for collaborating with other technicians from different schools and gaining different insights and access to a community to share ideas. The physics demo was really useful and has been incorporated already into lessons.”