Science

“Science is a way of life. It is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive, and reliable – a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.”

Why we teach your child science

Science helps us understand how the world works – it helps us answer and consider some of life’s greatest questions. We want your child to develop a secure understanding of biology, physics and chemistry as well as how to work and think scientifically. By teaching your child science in primary school, we inspire them to continue enjoying these subjects as they enter KS3 and hope many of them see an element of science in a future career.

What our curriculum looks like

Our science curriculum is ambitious and this starts right from Nursery. Using the content from the National Curriculum and the Early Years Framework we have carefully sequenced our science curriculum so children learn in a logical step by step manner.

In science, we have carefully considered our macro concepts and our curriculum is sequenced so children’s schemata grows through the connection of new knowledge with previous knowledge. We have mapped our curriculum, carefully considering some of the following:

• What scientific experiences to children have in EYFS that we can build on?
• How are the components of physics, chemistry and biology developed overtime?
• How do our children become better at working scientifically?
• Is the curriculum planned in accessible step-by-step manner so all children can build on previous learning?
• What misconceptions might children have?
• Are we enabling children to remember what is most important?
• How do trips help enhance science learning?

This is underpinned by a medium-term plan which set out the core knowledge and skills children will be learning in their learning.

Each unit of learning begins with a ‘thinking square’ which assesses the existing knowledge and misconceptions children may have against the core knowledge they need to learn and informs the teaching of that unit. At the end of each unit children will revisit this thinking square to build on existing knowledge and apply what they have learnt. Additionally, children will complete a ‘conceptual’ question which challenges them to apply their new learning in a more open geographical context – this supports children to retain what they have learnt.

How we teach science

As with every subject, we recognise what makes science unique and as a result make pedagogical choices to ensure teaching is the best it can possibly be. We use a range of different resources to support the effective teaching of science and encourage our pupils to develop their scientific thinking. We have captured our pedagogical choice for science in our science principles which can be seen below: