Post-16 & A-Level

Ectotherms vs endotherms. this is a bearded dragon: he cannot make his own heat, so he must behave his way to the right temperature. Negative feedback, made visible.

A wild galah is pink and grey. Rosie is a lutino: one mutation stops melanin being made, so the grey never appears. Recessive alleles, Punnett squares, genotype vs phenotype.

British hedgehog decline as a real dataset: habitat fragmentation, predation, road mortality. Sampling, abundance and the limits of the evidence.

Gas exchange in a fish, a bird and a mammal — three solutions to the same problem. Surface area, counter-current flow, and why a bird's lung outperforms ours.

Eleven of the animals we keep across five gut designs — hindgut fermenter, foregut, carnivore, and more. Caecotrophy, dentition, poisons and the maths of why big animals eat less than you'd expect. A full self-test with worked long answers.

Why a hedgehog curls without being taught, and why a galah learns to say your name. Reflex, imprinting, conditioning — and the ethics of studying any of it.

Producers, consumers, trophic levels and the 10% rule — built on a real British garden food chain rather than an invented one.

Structural, behavioural and functional adaptations, abiotic vs biotic factors, competition and interdependence — through hedgehogs, bearded dragons and tortoises. 35-mark paper.

The four-step sequence, antibiotic resistance, selective breeding, speciation, evidence and classification — through peppered moths, Aldabra tortoises and Darwin's finches. 45-mark paper.

Genotype vs phenotype, meiosis, Punnett squares, sex determination, inherited disorders and DNA — through hedgehog colour morphs and bearded-dragon sex ratios. 47-mark paper.

Sampling and quadrat calculations, carbon and water cycles, decay, biodiversity, energy transfer and food security — with the turtle sex-ratio climate link. 49-mark paper.

The four reading questions and the 40-mark creative task — language, structure, evaluation and descriptive writing — taught through an original fiction extract set in an animal centre. 80-mark paper.

The paper post-16 students resit most — comparison, language analysis and viewpoint writing, taught through two real tortoise-keeping texts (a modern keeper vs an 1873 gentleman). 80-mark paper.

Around a quarter of a Foundation paper, on every paper at both tiers — sharing in a ratio, percentages, best value, speed and density, exchange rates and proportion. 77-mark paper.

Cell structure and specialisation, microscopy and magnification, cell division, diffusion, osmosis, surface area : volume, photosynthesis and respiration. 81-mark paper.

The nervous and hormonal control systems — reflex arcs, thermoregulation, blood glucose and diabetes, the kidneys and ADH, the endocrine system and the menstrual cycle. 71-mark paper.

Communicable and non-communicable disease, pathogens, the immune system, vaccination, antibiotics and drug development — from Fleming's penicillin to the foxglove. 81-mark paper.

The atom, the history of the model, electronic structure, the periodic table and its groups, ionic, covalent and metallic bonding, and giant structures. 70-mark paper.

Energy stores and transfers, forces and free-body diagrams, F = ma, motion graphs, kinetic energy, momentum and terminal velocity — through real collisions and a skydiver. 76-mark paper.

Sixteen on-screen vocational units — species and husbandry, working safely, and the careers side: CVs, interviews, revision skills and pricing a round.

Five full revision units: conservation and zoo management, first aid and health checks, health and parasites, nutrition and digestion, reproduction and behaviour.

Labelled diagrams you work through system by system — skeletal, muscular, digestive, respiratory, circulatory.

Cell structure and tissue types, with the pass / merit / distinction criteria written out.

A searchable library of diseases by type, species and zoonotic risk.

Direct and indirect life cycles, animated stage by stage.

Run a structured examination against a checklist and record what you found.

Plan enrichment by species and behavioural need, then evidence whether it worked.

Hazard, who is at risk, control measures, residual risk — the document every setting is asked for.

Health, transport and the paperwork that goes with moving farm animals.

Working in an animal setting: teams, communication and professional conduct.

How an animal business or collection presents itself, and to whom.

The Animal Welfare Act, the five welfare needs, and the ethical arguments you are expected to weigh.

Husbandry plans, welfare assessment and the evidence a moderator actually wants to see.

Track assignments against criteria, and keep the evidence in one place rather than in six folders and a phone camera roll.

Run a structured examination, record findings, decide a plan and sign it. The habit that every welfare qualification is really assessing.

Species-appropriate handling, stress signals, and knowing when the right decision is to put the animal down and walk away.

Veterinary nursing, zookeeping, welfare officer, behaviourist, wildlife rehab — what each one actually pays and what it actually asks of you.

Which qualification leads where, and the honest answer about which ones employers value.

A full Level 2 teaching unit — the five welfare needs, housing, feeding, handling, health checks and behaviour — with a 79-mark assessment paper and mark scheme. Teaching free.

A full Level 3 teaching unit — body systems, thermoregulation, nutrition and rationing, ecdysis, UVB and advanced welfare — with a 90-mark assessment and mark scheme. Teaching free.

A 48-mark paper: setting up and feeding a hedgehog, boarding costs and pricing a party — money, means, area and multi-step reasoning, with the rounding decisions the exam really tests.

A 52-mark paper: read a hoglet advert against an honest care guide — fact vs opinion, purpose, what's been left out — then write an email and a magazine article.