GCSE Chemistry

Exam Board & Specification code: Edexcel (4CH1) The Course Chemistry is the basis of everything. All matter is made up of atoms or molecules and the arrangement of these gives materials their chemical properties. Studying this course will help students to understand why certain processes do or don’t happen and how we can change factors to make reactions happen at different speeds or under different conditions.

During this course, students will also develop their practical skills as well as learning how to express the data they collect in an appropriate fashion using graphs and tables. We are firmly committed to the teaching of separate sciences at this level, and have elected to follow IGCSE (as opposed to GCSE) as we believe it is intellectually more challenging, and gives a more accurate indication of the nature of the subject at AS /A level for students who want to want to continue to study the subject post-16. IGCSE Chemistry is divided into 4 sections.

In Section 1 (Principles of Chemistry) you will learn about the structures of atoms and compounds, how they join together to make chemical bonds, how this process can be reversed using electricity and how to perform various calculations using the chemical unit called ‘the mole’. In Section 2 (Inorganic Chemistry) you will study the behaviour of halogens, alkali metals, transition metals, acids and alkalis and also look at how unknown compounds can be identified. In Section 3 (Physical Chemistry) you will learn about how fa