Science
Intent
Our Science curriculum intends to enable children to learn about and understand the world that they live in so that they can flourish and reach their potential. This includes real life science, as well as the careers that surround science as a subject.
We empower children with a variety of scientific and enquiry skills which enable them to live effectively and safely in our ever-changing world.
Our Science lessons are developed to build knowledge, skills, confidence and independence, giving children the opportunity to explore in every area of the science curriculum.
Each child’s unique potential is considered through careful planning and differentiation, within a secure and caring environment.
We strive to help children develop a thirst for knowledge and foster a love of science particular in the world around us.
Our lessons offer rich and vibrant opportunities, including allowing children to explore their own ideas, ask and answer their own questions, and build on knowledge year on year, as well as inviting expert visitors to the school to provide the children with a wide range or opportunities and experiences that could not be offered by teaching staff.
We draw upon meaningful real-life experiences with a science curriculum that is designed so that it is ambitious and progressive for all learners through the use of differentiation, depth stickers and quality first teaching.
The science curriculum is designed and taught with an understanding that the working memory is limited and that we can aid learning and the acquisition of the long term memory with regular repeated learning experiences over time.
Implementation
Our long term science planning has been created to ensure that children have progression throughout their 4 years at Park whilst revisiting their learning throughout their school year. Planning is divided into 6 topics, each with a range of science curriculum areas within. Children build on prior knowledge on different units, repeating areas, and developing their understanding further as they progress throughout their school year and the school. Progression is clear across the year groups, and the pitch is appropriate for each year group. As a result, learning is then revisited and embedded, and ensures that learners are being provided the opportunity to learn more. Our curriculum, whilst covering the statutory and non-statutory requirements, is student led.
The Threshold Concepts in Science are:
- Work scientifically
- Biology
- Understand plants
- Understand animals and humans
- Investigate living things
- Understand evolution and inheritance
- Chemistry
- Investigate materials
- Physics
- Understand movement, forces and magnets
- Understand the Earth’s movement in space
- Investigate light and seeing
- Investigate sound and hearing
- Understand electrical circuits
Short term planning is developed to incorporate a variety of different areas of the science curriculum, not one block at a time. As a result, this means that children are revisiting learning more frequently throughout the school year and subsequently remembering more.
Hands on investigation, are children led are also at the heart of our planning and lessons. We ensure that children are not simply being told what to investigate, and instead are given resources and encouraged to devise their own investigation.
Careful differentiation ensures that all children are able to partake, understand, and develop the required skills to succeed in the science curriculum, and along with depth challenges, all children are provided with the opportunity to think further than simple the end of the session.
Teachers use a variety of resources both physical and online based, which provide children with a wide variety of different approaches to lessons. We have a wealth of visitors and trips linked to science, from trips the Natural History Museum, to visits to and from the local secondary school, to planetariums coming into the school hall which enable to children to experience science in a way that they may never have experience before.
Impact
Teacher assessments are made throughout lesson and then again at the end by marking books. Marking is for the purpose of moving learning forwards and this is reflected in marking strategies used. (see the Marking Policy). To ensure next steps are encouraged in the marking, teachers use highlighters to signal where an improvement is needed by the child. Marking stickers also provide children the opportunity to apply deeper understanding of their lesson and allows teachers to assess whether they have fully understood the objectives.
Pupils themselves can also be involved with the assessing of their own work; each lesson has a clear learning objective to support learning expectations along with clear success criteria which explains the small steps which need to be taken and children then self-assess based on these criteria.
The use of teaching assistants with a planned group or individuals is encouraged to deal with previously identified misconceptions, to scaffold learning or to challenge children’s thinking; they are important to support all children’s learning and not just the basic children.
We use teacher assessments at the end of each unit where children are assessed on their understanding. These assessments are done based on Symphony, specifically tailored to each individual unit, where children are considered emerging, expected and exceeding.
Learning walks and book scrutiny are also conducted, with key foci to ensure that areas of development are constantly being tackled and that we are forever building to provide children with the best possible opportunities to learn.
Useful Links
We love to use interactive resources within school.
You can check out these sites at home which have some nifty experiments you can try!