Science

A high-quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science. Through building up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts, pupils should be encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. They should be encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.

Aims

The national curriculum for science aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
• develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
• are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Learning Foci for Science

1. To learn how to work scientifically (across all three areas: Biology, Chemistry and Physics).
2. To learn about life processes and living things (i.e. Biology).
3. To learn about materials and their properties (i.e. Chemistry).
4. To learn about physical processes (i.e. Physics).

Our science curriculum has a two-year rolling programme. The children are taught in mixed age groups of EYFS, Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6. We use Curriculum Maestro as a starting point to deliver the curriculum. This ensures we have coverage of the national curriculum objectives and children can build their knowledge and understanding gradually. The children are taught how to work scientifically through different enquiry types. To help the children develop their use of questioning, prediction, discussion and vocabulary, we use Explorify as a starter to each science lesson. Each week, Explorify activities are linked to the theme of the lesson, or they reinforce prior learning. 

Recently, staff and children have developed science principles for the effective teaching of science.