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It has been widely reported in the media that this year's A Level Physics results continue to show the UK decline in the popularity of this important subject as a mainstream A Level.
The knock-on effect of this decline could damage the UK's long-term economic future, as a good supply of physicists is vital to the heart of science. Physicists are needed for engineering*, electronics and other scientific disciplines, and physics-based industry is said to be worth £130bn in export value to the UK economy each year. An effective education in Physics is also highly valued in key sectors like financial services, where high flyers have strong backgrounds in Maths and the Sciences.
Bucking this trend is the high level of interest in Physics at Merchiston where Physics remains as popular as ever, and is a first choice subject for many of its students. Each year about half the A Level cohort sits A Level Physics and achieve high grades. (2004: 100% pass rate with 56% at A and B).
This level of achievement comes as no surprise when you look at Merchiston's long history of success in Science and Technology.
Ian Craig, Head of Science at Merchiston, says: "Science and Engineering teaching has a high profile within the school and is very much part of Merchiston. This can be attributed to our commitment to the teaching of sciences, making science fun and relevant. Merchiston's boys-only ethos allows students to really immerse themselves in technical subjects. "
"Unlike some schools, we keep all science subjects separate and each one is taught by a specialist from the middle school upwards. For the brighter students, our teaching goes well beyond the syllabus. In fact, we've found that in recent years changes to the A level syllabus have made the subject less attractive to the brightest pupils and this leaves us with a challenge of how to stretch them. "
"We challenge our pupils and inject fun into the sciences by entering a wide range of science-related competitions. Our brightest students also sit the Advanced Extension Award examinations and participate in the Physics Olympiad where we have had many recent successes. In this way the academic rigour of the subject can be maintained. We do not try to pretend that Physics is easy - it is a 'hard' subject, but for us that is all the more reason to do it."
Andrew Hunter, Headmaster of Merchiston, appointed in 1998, says: "We encourage interest in science from the bottom of the school upwards. This extends to teaching Electronics in the junior school from eight years onwards and at GCSE Level. It links closely with the Physics curriculum and demonstrates many of its applications to technology and the modern world."
"Engineering is promoted as a career by entering a variety of National competitions such as the Young Electonics Designer Awards and Young Engineer for Britain. The most recent competition success was last month, with one of our 16-year-old pupils, winning the Young Engineer for Britain with an original design for a manual snowplough. Earlier in the year a team of boys won an award in the Royal Academy of Engineering's Engineering Education Scheme. We are also very proud to have 3 students with us who have been awarded the prestigious Arkwright Scholarships for their achievements in Design and Technology. "
"Furthermore we are always keen for local schools and the community to benefit from our science facilities. Each year we open our doors to around 350 primary and prep school aged children to take part in our 'hands on' Science and Technology workshops run in the school labs."
*Note: Almost 35% of manufacturing employment in Scotland is in engineering and allied industries, 18% in electronics and 16% in other engineering. Source: Scottish Executive Factsheets - Economy August 2004.
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