SCIENCE
Subject Co-ordinator: Miss C Swayne & Mrs N Fadden
Link Governor: Mrs D Lorec
Check out what the children will be learning in our Science curriculum, term by term:
|
|
|
|
Intent
Our five drivers underpin our Science curriculum:
Throughout the school we teach science to inspire children, facilitate their acquisition of scientific knowledge and develop their curiosity whilst building a rich scientific vocabulary.
It is our intention that pupils become more expert as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating and connecting substantive and disciplinary scientific knowledge.
- Substantive knowledge- this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used to learn about the content
- Disciplinary knowledge– this considers how scientific knowledge originates and is revised. It is through disciplinary knowledge that children gradually become more expert by thinking like a scientist. The National Curriculum for science details this through the Working Scientifically objectives.
This ensures that pupils develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics and the understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through working scientifically. This ensures that they achieve/exceed the aims of the National Curriculum for Science – Key Stages 1 and 2 (DfE, 2013)
We understand the importance of giving children the time to explore and to ask questions. We believe that children should be taking part in practical investigations during each topic and these should include a variety of enquiry types.
In conjunction with the aims of the National Curriculum, our science curriculum offers opportunities for children to:
- build upon their ‘science capital’ (likeliness of pursuing a career in science) through visits from real life scientists;
- actively further their own learning and understanding of the world;
- be equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future;
- use a range of methods to communicate their scientific information and present it in a systematic, scientific manner, including I.C.T., diagrams, graphs, charts, and Purple mash;
- develop a respect for the materials and equipment they handle with regard to their own, and other children’s safety (supported by CLEAPSS).
Our curriculum is sequenced in line with the EYFS Statutory Framework (2021), Development Matters (2021) and the National Curriculum for Science (2013).
Implementation
|
Scientific knowledge is taught explicitly in science lessons so that children know more, remember more and can do more. Substantive knowledge is organised into key blocks as follows: plants; animals, including humans; living things and their habitats; materials (incl. properties and changes); state of matter; rocks; light; sound; forces; magnets; electricity, Earth and space; and evolution and inheritance. We follow the Curriculum with Unity Schools Partnership (CUSP) Science scheme of work to support all levels of planning and teaching. This scheme has enabled a strategic sequence of study that builds content and concepts over time, with vocabulary comprehensively structured and thoughtfully sequenced across year groups with progression in knowledge. It ensures that pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding are built upon through successive years towards clearly identified year group learning outcomes. Wherever possible learning in science is linked to overall topics to enable children to add new learning to increasingly complex schemata that demonstrate the inter-relatedness of curriculum content. To ensure our curriculum is taught to develop cumulatively sufficient knowledge by the end of each Key Stage we follow the stages outlined below: 1.) Substantive knowledge for each subject is mapped from EYFS to Year 6 to ensure our children learn cumulatively sufficient knowledge by the end of each Key Stage. 2.) Disciplinary knowledge from the ‘working scientifically’ strand is mapped from EYFS to Year 6 to enable children to apply their knowledge as skills. 3.) Explicit teaching of vocabulary is central to children’s ability to connect new knowledge with prior learning. Teaching identifies Tier 2 words, high frequency words used across content e.g. verify, and Tier 3 words, specific to subject domains e.g. biome 4.) Spaced retrieval practice, through questioning, quizzes and peer-explanations, further consolidates the transfer of information from working memory to long-term memory. Quizzing etc are primarily learning strategies to improve retrieval practice – the bringing of information to mind. 5.) The use of knowledge organisers and knowledge notes for some subjects keeps essential information together to guard against split-attention effect. Children are taught to forge connections between their current learning and the ‘big picture’ of subject content. Our Early Years Curriculum is carefully planned and implemented to enable children to achieve the Early Learning Goals (ELGs). Through the Understanding the World goal children explore and describe the world around through their senses. They observe/sense and interact with natural processes such as ice melting, a boat floating or a magnet attracting an object. ELG objectives with science content are mapped against Key Stage 1 objectives to ensure teaching is sequential throughout the school, building upon the children’s prior learning. Teachers create a positive attitude to science learning and support our children’s understanding of their surroundings by accessing outdoor learning and outdoor workshops with experts. Children complete investigations and hands-on activities whilst gaining the expected scientific knowledge. The sequence of lessons helps to embed scientific knowledge and skills, with each lesson building on previous learning. There is also the opportunity to regularly review and evaluate children's understanding. Throughout the school, we create extra opportunities for our children to complete and consider science related concepts through our playground science, science question of the week and mini scientist bags. Engagement with our “Coldean 50” ensure children achieve from a wider curriculum offer, for example, how to grow food. Children also participate in programmes such as, Eco Schools’ Green Flag Award and Grounds Week that help provide rich experiences to connect their scientific knowledge and understanding to tangible outcomes. Formative assessments against our Progression Map objectives ensure teachers know what the children know. Where gaps in understanding are identified, lessons are adapted to address this. Science CPD is run by the subject leader and also by the PSTT. The subject lead attends science conferences and is a member of online science clusters. The school holds the Primary Science Quality Mark. |
Click here to see a copy of our Science Policy.
Impact
By the time they leave Coldean, our children:
- Are confident and knowledgeable learners, excited about science.
- Pupils able to demonstrate their new scientific knowledge, skills and understanding through their ‘Double-Page Spreads’
- Knowledgeable and skilful teachers able to assess pupils’ learning against our Progression Map objectives.
- Use scientific vocabulary to describe and explain the world around them.
- Can show that they are actively curious to learn more and are able to see the relevance of what they learn in science lessons.
- Are able to apply learning to real-life situations and recognise the importance of science in the real world.
Training, planning and teaching our Science curriculum should ensure:
Knowledgeable and skilful teachers able to formatively evaluate pupils’ learning against our Progression Map objectives.
Science Week
Check out the document below to see what we got up to in Science Week.