Science leader - Mrs L Lashford
Our Science curriculum has been designed with three key drivers - Physics, Chemistry and Biology that is continually developed over time, through the teaching of subject knowledge and development of skills through working scientifically - from EYFS through to Year 6.
Intent
Science teaches an understanding of natural phenomena. It aims to stimulate a child’s curiosity in finding out why things happen in the way they do. It teaches methods of enquiry and investigation to stimulate creative thought. Science changes as human understanding and experience changes. It is an ongoing process as our ideas about the world around us are constantly developed and revised. Children learn to ask scientific questions and begin to appreciate the way science will affect their future on a personal, national, and global level.
.The overall curriculum intent for science is to enable children to:
• ask and answer scientific questions;
• develop skills, which may not be developed to the same degree in other areas of the curriculum;
• plan and carry out scientific investigations, using equipment correctly;
• know and understand the life processes of living things;
• know and understand the physical processes of materials, electricity, light, sound and natural forces;
• know about the nature of the solar system, including the earth;
• evaluate evidence and present their conclusions clearly and accurately.
Essential Knowledge for a Scientist:
Knowledge of the seasons.
Knowledge of all living things (plants, animals and humans) and their habitats.
Knowledge of evolution and inheritance.
Knowledge of materials, including every day materials, states and changes of matter.
Knowledge of light and sound.
Knowledge of the earth and space.
Knowledge of forces and magnets.
Knowledge of electricity.
Essential Skills for a Scientist:
The ability to ask relevant questions.
The ability to plan and set up different types of scientific enquiries and fair tests to answer questions.
To be able to take accurate measurements using a range of equipment.
To be able to make predictions and suggest improvements.
To be able to record and present data in a variety of ways (using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, charts etc.)
To be able to reporting on findings from enquiries using oral and written explanation.
To be able to use results to draw simple conclusions.
Science Implementation
We assess pupils' knowledge in geography after each unit. This is then used to inform future teaching and any gaps in knowledge are addressed in future lessons.
We plan for science using the National Curriculum objectives to ensure a robust and thorough approach. In addition to this, we also use the science scheme from "Grammarsaurus" as a basis for our lessons and intelligently adapt this to ensure progression through each knowledge block. At the start of each new unit of work teachers produce a knowledge organiser that is shared with pupils to help them make links to knowledge that has been taught before and ensure a sequential approach to the teaching of technical vocabulary.