Blackburn girls buck national trend on physics achievement (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Blackburn girls buck national trend on physics achievement
11:08am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News
GIRLS at an independent Blackburn school are bucking the national trend and excelling at physics.
The Institute of Physics report recently reported that girls are underachieving in this subject.
In 2011, physics was the fourth most popular subject for A-Level among boys in English schools.
But for girls the subject languished in 19th place.
However, school bosses at Westholme Girls’ School in Blackburn said the subject is relished by their female students – and many go on to study engineering courses at university.
Head of physics, Mark Hiller, said girls were almost two and a half times more likely to go on to do A-Level physics if they came from a girls’ school rather than a co-ed school.
He said: “We believe that physics has to be taught by physics specialists, and it has to be taught well.
“Our curriculum is brought to life through experiments such as walking on water in our own swimming pool.
“We expose the students to a range of experiences to ignite their passion and fire their imaginations to the limitless possibilities of physics.”
Comments(12)
midas
says...
3:05pm Tue 9 Oct 12
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it is a rather pleabian outlook to equate money spent on education with exam results. All we need now is an admission you were an immigrant and you would feel right at home.
Graham Hartley
says...
3:58pm Tue 9 Oct 12
Without evolutionary adaptation - waxy secretions from very large feet, 'walking' at superhuman speed - being Jesus Christ, walking upon a very shallow body of water as one does in the rain or adding large amounts of cornstarch it is not possible for humans to walk on water.
Graham Hartley
says...
4:06pm Tue 9 Oct 12
The possibilities of physics are not limitless. How does one say in Welsh 'tomorrow it will be cloudy and raining'? Physics doesn't offer help with questions of that sort. As a man with experience in Welsh and physics I can also claim that Welsh doesn't help with physics.
peely
says...
6:55pm Tue 9 Oct 12
Graham Hartley wrote:What ?
"...the limitless possibilities of physics."
The possibilities of physics are not limitless. How does one say in Welsh 'tomorrow it will be cloudy and raining'? Physics doesn't offer help with questions of that sort. As a man with experience in Welsh and physics I can also claim that Welsh doesn't help with physics.
Graham Hartley
says...
8:45pm Tue 9 Oct 12
peely wrote:It's a poke at the view that physics has limitless possibilities. But one can claim quite correctly that physics (via informing the development of electronics) has helped the development of language translation software to the point that some online tools make a fair job of translating English into Welsh.
Graham Hartley wrote:What ?
"...the limitless possibilities of physics."
The possibilities of physics are not limitless. How does one say in Welsh 'tomorrow it will be cloudy and raining'? Physics doesn't offer help with questions of that sort. As a man with experience in Welsh and physics I can also claim that Welsh doesn't help with physics.
Graham Hartley
says...
9:00pm Tue 9 Oct 12
midas wrote:Midas, the view of education as as a utility to which money can be readily attached goes back at least to Plato, in a remark attributed to Socrates. It's in my mind but not confirmed from my search of internet sources. A pupil asks Socrates what education is worth, and Socrates appeals to the class for a penny to give to him.
Why laugh? its a rather snobby comment you have made presumably knowing nothing about the person involved. Perhaps her family are so rich she will be taking over her own chain of beauty salons or indeed she may never need to work and is doing this course because she enjoys it?
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it is a rather pleabian outlook to equate money spent on education with exam results. All we need now is an admission you were an immigrant and you would feel right at home.
Tried again but no confirmation from internet. I'll lift up a book or two; but must read all of them again. Such pleasure.
Graham Hartley
says...
10:50pm Tue 9 Oct 12
Graham Hartley
says...
12:09am Wed 10 Oct 12
Graham Hartley
says...
12:27am Wed 10 Oct 12
123Jon123
says...
12:30am Wed 10 Oct 12
Graham Hartley
says...
12:42am Wed 10 Oct 12
123Jon123 wrote:Oh, cheeky! Strictly, particle accelerators of a sort exist just about everywhere; think about it, smart girls!
I wonder if they have their own particle accelerator too? They could change the name of the God particle to Higgs Westholme particle as long as they obtain a 5-sigma observation.
Mr Purple says...
12:10pm Tue 9 Oct 12
I was at Westholme a few months ago for a festival and I was looking around at not only the facilities, but the past students work. There was an area with a list of former pupils on the wall along with where they went onto having completed their schooling at Westholme. Most went on to red brick uni's as you'd expect, but I had to laugh at one, who went on to study beauty therapy at Blackburn College. Sixty grand well spent there then eh! hehe!!
Modern Britain, class ridden and full of snobs, plebs and immigrants.