The study of Art offers a unique and personal experience and opportunities for cross-curricular approaches. You will gain the skills required to appreciate and contextualise the visual world and to become an accomplished artist yourself. The department offers expertise in many areas: from painting and photography, to graphics and fashion. Personal development is paramount, so individualism and creative thinking are encouraged.

Have you ever wondered how the human body works or how the heart keeps beating over 100,000 times each day? How do we make more than one million red blood cells a second? What causes disease or just how does water move to the top of a ten-metre tree? If you would like to study the physiology and cell structure of living organisms, anatomy, inheritance and much more, then Biology is for you.

Chemistry is the central science and impacts on all facets of our lives. It is concerned with all aspects of molecules including their physical and chemical properties and their synthesis and uses in the twenty-first century. If you choose to study Chemistry, you will meet intellectually challenging ideas and consider numbers infinitely large and particles infinitesimally small.

A Classic course offers you skills which are very much in demand and will set you up for life. You will learn to think clearly and logically, to analyse, to observe, to research and to present your ideas clearly and convincingly – the key skills for your chosen career, whether it be law, management, research, teaching, banking, journalism, the media, the civil and diplomatic services… the list is endless.

Look around and observe how design touches every aspect of life. From the furnishings of our homes to the mechanisms that close the doors of a spaceship, the product design, engineering, and architecture involved are some of the aspects of design technology that can make our lives comfortable and inspire awe.

Students choosing Drama & Theatre Studies at AS or A Level do so for a variety of reasons. Although it is worthy of academic study in its own right and is a fully recognised qualification for university entrance, it can also be an interesting complement to subjects such as English, History and Modern Languages.

Economics is an exciting and highly topical subject, which examines issues that grab the headlines. How do we measure the cost of Higher Education, how do we measure standards of living, and how can we help the developing world? During the course you will develop an understanding of economic concepts and theories through a critical examination of current economic issues, problems and institutions that affect your everyday life.

Not only does General Studies broaden your mind and widens the scope of your knowledge, but it also teaches you genuinely useful skills that are highly relevant to your other subjects as well as being essential life skills.

Geography examines many of the global issues that are cause for concern in this century, and offers an opportunity to understand them . The government and the media are frequently making us aware of such problems as population growth, urban expansion, climate change and desertification. Geography gives you an opportunity to explore these problems and to understand different types of solutions and management schemes that could be used to overcome them.

History is a people-centred subject. You study how people behaved in the past, discuss how far their actions resulted from their moral or religious beliefs, and see what the pursuit of power did to individuals and nations. You can understand the origins of issues still bedevilling the modern world such as competing nationalisms and religious conflict.

At A and AS Level, Mathematics can be studied in combination with any other subject and is a particularly good complement to the Sciences, Economics or Geography. However, wherever your main interest may lie, if you are good at and enjoy Mathematics, it is worth considering pursing the subject in the Sixth Form. The analytical and problem-solving techniques which are developed at this level are valued in many disciplines and are highly regarded by employers.

At AS or A Level, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish are all available. Languages combine usefully with most subjects, forming a valuable complement to arts and science subjects in a pattern that you may want to continue at University. A modern language combined with a Law, Science, Engineering or Business Management course, for example, will prove an attractive combination to employers both in the UK and in Europe, or indeed in a global employment context.

Many people assume that Music at this level is only for those who intend to become professional musicians. Nothing could be further from the truth. A Level Music develops a broad range of skills, increasingly sought after by employers of all kinds, and promotes independent judgement and thought. It complements Science, Arts or Humanities specialisms, so it is an ideal subject to consider in the Sixth Form.

Studying Physics takes you one step closer to exploring for yourself momentous questions concerning the existence and properties of the Universe. It also gives you the knowledge required to make sense of many environmental and technological issues. Much of the appeal of Physics lies in the beauty of its logic but this does not exclude creativity. Originality and imagination are vital for developing theoretical explanations as well as for finding solutions to problems and for designing experimental approaches.

Psychology applies scientific method to study human behaviour and experience. It is about ‘what makes people tick’. Psychologists study human behaviour from many different angles and rarely agree with one another!

Religious Studies (Philosophy of Religion & Religious Ethics) is a fast-growing subject. It is an excellent choice at AS or A2 for anyone keen to develop skills in argument and in assessment of different points of view. It is popularly combined with English or History but is a successful complement to any A Level choice. Some students choose to combine it with the sciences or Mathematics as a complementary subject.