Science Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the now defunct Specialist Schools Programme in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The system enabled

secondary schools A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

to specialise in certain fields, in this case,

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. Schools that successfully applied to the Specialist Schools Trust and became Science Colleges received extra funding from this joint private sector and government scheme. Science Colleges act as a local point of reference for other schools and businesses in the area, with an emphasis on promoting science within the community. The funding received by such Colleges was dependent on the number of pupils currently attending and was on average approximately £1,600. The funding was often used by schools to upgrade their facilities to a standard befitting a "Specialist" institution. A proportion of the money was used to spread the skills of the school into the local community, often involving outreach centres or adult education schemes. After the Specialist Schools Programme's discontinuation schools can still become Science Colleges through the Dedicated Schools Grant or by becoming an academy.

References

External links

Specialist Schools and Academies Trust
2002 in education 2002 introductions Science education in the United Kingdom Specialist schools programme {{UK-edu-stub