Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, Canterbury
Science at the Langton
As befits one of the leading Specialist Science Schools in the country, the Langton
prides itself on the high standard of academic achievement of the students and the
innovative opportunities presented to the students to allow them to develop and
extend their studies beyond the confines of the normal curriculum. Success is
measured by the extremely high uptake of the subject post GCSE and the high
percentage of students that go on to read STEM related subjects at University.
Key Stage 3 Science is delivered in years 7 and 8. The boys are taught as tutor groups
of mixed ability. Throughout the year there are a series of opportunities for students
to investigate a topic in greater depth during 3-hour Extended Learning Time sessions.
At Key Stage 4 the students follow the AQA specification A. About 90% of the students
follow the Separate Sciences option; the others study for the Additional Science
qualification. Both courses are taught by 3 subject specialists.
A level sees many students joining from other schools to study science courses. This
year 120 started Physics, 120 Chemistry and 125 Biology. A high percentage of these
students follow the courses through to A2.
Salters’ Chemistry is a very popular course with the students. The Physics Department
follow the AQA specification as do Biology.
The Science Department provides a wide range of extra activities for the students.
Throughout the year there is a range of high-profile lectures aimed at challenging the
students’ knowledge of their subject. Scientific visits both home and abroad are very
popular and students regularly participate in National Science competitions.
What we do that is different may be summed up within the activities of the Langton
Star Centre. Students are given the opportunity to take part in real scientific research
alongside their AS or A2 study.
The Langton Ultimate Cosmic ray Intensity Detector (LUCID) has been designed and
tested by Langton students ready for launch into space in 2012. It will orbit the Earth
sending back data to the school. CERN@school uses a smaller version of the LUCID
technology to set up a grid of cosmic ray detectors, currently between schools in Kent,
but later to be extended further.
Imperial College have provided students with opportunities to investigate plasma
solar flare emissions and the development of the computational analysis of the data.
The latest project is looking at the mass relationships between the leptons.
The school has its own observatory and runs public observing sessions once a month
as well as other sessions for students on a more informal basis. We used to be one of
the biggest school users of the Faulkes telescope when it could be operated by the
students. This gave the students the idea to make our telescope robotic, a project that
is now near completion. We have also recently acquired an old radio telescope from
the University of Kent that the 6th form students are redesigning and refurbishing.
The Myelin Basic Protein Project is an original academic research project investigating
a protein implicated in the development and progression of Multiple Sclerosis. The
work currently involves 95 students working in close collaboration with research
scientists from the University of Kent.
Students regularly meet to discuss their findings, and are frequently asked to present
their work at meetings, conferences and academic seminars.