Wellington School Physics Department Pioneers Collaborative Teaching

18 Feb 2017

Wellington School is pioneering new ways of teaching Physics and collaborating with other schools to share best practice.

Physics is continually evolving and teachers need to keep pace with a changing syllabus, so Wellington School hosted a Somerset Physics Partners workshop. All teachers who deliver Physics are subject specialists and this was an opportunity to share ideas and try out new experiments. Teachers from Heathfield, Taunton Academy and King’s College joined the Physics Department at Wellington School for an afternoon looking at waves. There was an exchange of ideas between teachers to further knowledge and practical measurement issues.

They measured the speed of light in liquids, solids and gasses, measured angles of reflection and refraction and used Wellington’s unique giant wave tank to demonstrate wave behaviour.

Andy Phillips, Head of Physics at Wellington School remarked, “teachers are often so busy teaching that they don’t have the time to reflect on their own best practice; the chance to share ideas is invaluable and we hope that more schools will join us in the future.”

Headmaster Henry Price commented, “this is a fantastic collaborative project benefitting all the schools and teachers involved. It has been a pleasure to host and if any other schools wish to be involved, they would be very welcome.”

“It is always positive to see teachers working together in the subject they love,” concluded Henry Price.

Photo: Wellington School’s Head of Physics Andy Phillips, Headmaster Henry Price, with Trevor Huxtable and Stephen Gray from the Somerset Physics Partners