The GCSE course is pursued as an additional subject during an extra-curricular Lower School Activity (LSA) session on a Friday afternoon in the Fifth Form (Year 9) and Lower Shell (Year 10). For the Upper Shell (Year 11), the session moves to Monday.
The GCSE includes the completion of two practical projects, selected from a list of suggestions that encompasses a large variety of interests including the design and construction of a sundial, the monitoring of sunspots to determine the rotation of the sun and the use of circumpolar photography to measure the length of the sidereal day.
Inevitably there is overlap with other subjects, especially Physics, where topics appear at both GCSE and A Level, including Gravitation, Cosmology and Orbital Mechanics.