Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

At Selling Church of England  Primary School, we aim to equip the children with the knowledge, understanding, experiences and skills to become super Scientists! We offer a Science Curriculum that evokes the children’s curiosity, excitement and understanding about the world around them.  The curriculum aims for pupils to develop a complex knowledge of biology, chemistry and physics but also adopt a broad range of skills in working scientifically and beyond. We encourage the children to ask questions to develop their naturally inquisitive minds so that they further their analytical thinking as they progress though Selling Church of England  Primary.

By offering first-hand scientific experiences that reflect the children’s interests from the beginning of their learning journey in EYFS, the children are able to develop their enquiry skills alongside challenging opportunities in KS1 and KS2. Studying science allows pupils to appreciate how new knowledge and skills can be fundamental to solving arising global challenges. The curriculum aims to encourage critical thinking and empower pupils to question the hows and whys of the world around them.

The scheme encourages:

● A strong focus on developing knowledge alongside scientific skills across biology, chemistry and physics.

● Curiosity and excitement about familiar and unknown observations.

● Challenging misconceptions and demystifying truths.

● Continuous progression by building on practical and investigative skills across all units.

● Critical thinking, with the ability to ask perceptive questions and explain and analyse evidence.

● Development of scientific literacy using wide-ranging, specialist vocabulary.

We intend the children to experience vocabulary rich teaching. We believe this allows them to be equipped with the communication and discussion skills to explore how, why and in addition, understand the uses and implications for Science; from the past, today and in the future. The classroom Science displays reflect the vocabulary for the current topic and are interactive to encourage the correct spelling and use within science work.

Implementation

Teachers at Selling Church of England  Primary School create a positive attitude to Science learning within their classrooms and reinforce the expectation that all pupils are capable of achieving high standards in Science. Our whole school approach to teaching and learning in Science is as follows:

Early Years Foundation Stage

Children are taught Science through the key areas set out within the Development Matters document under the strand 'Understanding the World'; following the guidance from the Early Year Statutory Framework. Through a broad range of teacher-led activities, child-initiated activities and continuous provision children will be guided to make sense of their physical world:

• Understand ‘why’ questions, like: “Why do you think the caterpillar got so big?” 
• Make healthy choices about food, drink, activity and toothbrushing. 
• Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials.
• Describe what they can feel, hear and see whilst outside. 
• Explore collections of materials with similar and/or different properties.
• Talk about what they see, using a wide vocabulary.
• Explore how things work.
• Explore the natural world around them.
• Plant seeds and care for growing plants.
• Understand the key features of the life cycle of a plant and an animal.
• Begin to understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things.
• Explore and talk about different forces they can feel.
• Talk about the differences between materials and changes they notice.
• Recognise some environments that are different to the one in which they live.
• Understand the effect of the changing seasons on the natural world around them.

Key Stage 1 and 2

In Key Stage 1 and 2, Science is taught from the Kapow Scheme with supporting resources, in alignment with the guidelines set out in the National Curriculum. It is planned and arranged in Science blocks as a two year rolling programme. Children have weekly Science lessons, with teachers following the scheme of work, but adapting lessons where necessary to suit the needs of their class.

Substantive Science (Scientific Knowledge):

Existing knowledge is checked at the beginning of each topic to identify misconceptions and gaps from previous learning. In KS1 and KS2 teachers use Knowledge Organisers to aid pre-learning to enable the children to become familiar with the Key Vocabulary and concepts which will be taught. 

Disciplinary Science (Working Scientifically):

Children at Selling Church of England Primary enjoy working scientifically, experiencing the five enquiry types. as set out below.

Impact

With the implementation of the children’s scientific journey being well established and taught thoroughly throughout the school, children are becoming more knowledgeable and confident scientists. They gain confidence with their collaborative and independent enquiry skills; articulating their scientific questions, predictions, observations, conclusions, reflections and reasoning clearly; based upon the scientific knowledge that they have gained.

We hope that as children move on from Selling Church of England  to further their education and learning, their passion for Science and high aspirations travels with them and continues to grow and develop as they do.