Intent: In science, we will inspire our children by giving them the opportunities to pursue their natural curiosity, awe and wonder of the world in which we live in. Our teaching will promote the experience of exploring and investigating scientific phenomena, in a range of contexts, to ensure a continually evolving knowledge and understanding of the world around them. We recognize that our children live in an increasingly scientific and technological age and that they need to acquire scientific knowledge, skills and attitudes to better prepare them for modern life. Our children will be encouraged to ask questions, take risks, experiment, reflect, make and learn from mistakes, in a safe environment; whereby they are able to build upon and apply their core skills and knowledge which will equip them for an ever-changing world.
In order to ensure that our children ‘know more, remember more and do more’ our lessons have a focus on key questions, which we work together to investigate and answer throughout the unit of work. We also ensure a high focus on vocabulary and use weekly exit tickets to assess pupil’s knowledge and address misconceptions and recap key facts the following week. We have a focus on ‘making connections’ through our lesson planning format, which includes clear and focussed retrieval activities. We also ensure that in KS2, there is a skill of finding links and evaluating findings both within science and across the curriculum.
We use a two-year cycle with clearly sequenced plans that build on prior knowledge with some repetition of key themes to ensure that all pupils in every year group can fully access the curriculum and are able to retain the information. We have a thorough skills progression for scientific enquiry that ensures pupils are challenged and able to make progress, particularly within our mixed ages classes.
Our science curriculum has clear links with maths and this allows for the ongoing focus of ‘knowing more, remembering more and doing more’. Our science curriculum has clear links with English too, particularly with our reading and writing curricula where a range of high-quality reading texts engage pupils, develop their understanding of scientific concepts and develops pupils’ ‘Cultural Capital’. Writing opportunities are planned in to our curriculum including learning about people who have shaped the world we live in through biographical writing. Examples of the coverage of maths and English within our science are outlined below:
We deliver a broad and balanced science curriculum which stimulates and maintains children’s natural curiosity. Key scientists, significant discoveries and theories are studied, to give the children a real-life understanding of concepts taught. Where possible, real-life examples are used in lessons to give our children a deeper understanding of these concepts
We realise that young children are naturally curious and passionate about learning and believe that all children can be scientists by following their own natural curiosity. A scientist observes, questions, creates, hypotheses, experiments, records data, and then analyses that data. Our teachers help to facilitate these skills in order for our children to be ‘Courageous, Strong and Loving’ in line with our Christian vision.