Science

Science

Intent

At Bosley St. Mary’s CE Primary School, Science should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Science; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of knowledge and skills and for the children to develop a love of Science. Furthermore, we aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the natural and man-made world that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. A high-quality Science education will help pupils gain all of that.

The aims of teaching Science in our school are:

• 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,
• to equip children with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future.

In following the National Curriculum, we recognise that the programmes of study describe a sequence of knowledge and concepts. While it is important that pupils make progress, it is also vitally important that they develop secure understanding of each key block of knowledge and concepts to progress to the next stage. Insecure, superficial understanding will not allow genuine progression: pupils may struggle at key points of transition (such as between primary and secondary school), build up serious misconceptions, and/or have significant difficulties in understanding higher-order content. Pupils should be able to describe associated processes and key characteristics in common language, but they should also be familiar with, and use, technical terminology accurately and precisely. They should build up an extended specialist vocabulary. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge to their understanding of Science, including collecting, presenting and analysing data.

Underpinning this is the concept of ‘working scientifically’, which is woven into every topic, and specifies the understanding of the nature, processes and methods of Science.  Indeed, as far as possible, ‘working scientifically’ should form the basis of every lesson.

Implementation

Teachers are provided with an additional management time per year on top of their PPA, to plan their curriculum. As part of this planning process, teachers need to plan a cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth in the different subject areas. 

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in Science, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Science teaching at Bosley St. Mary’s CE Primary School involves adapting and extending the curriculum to match all pupils’ needs. Where possible, Science is linked to class topics, but we also recognised that it is not always possible to do that. Science is taught as discrete units and lessons where needed to ensure coverage. Due our unique structure and mixed age classes, Science units are taught on a two-year rolling programme and class 2 are split in to lower and upper Key Stage 2. This ensures progression between Key Stages and guarantees topics are covered. Teachers plan to suit their children’s interests, current events, their own teaching style and the use of any support staff.

We ensure that all children are provided with rich learning experiences that aim to:

• Prepare our children for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world today and in the future,
• Help our children acquire a growing understanding of the nature, processes and methods of scientific ideas,
• Help develop and extend our children’s scientific concept of their world,
• Build on our children’s natural curiosity and developing a scientific approach to problems,
• Encouraging open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance and developing the skills of investigation – including: observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating,
• Develop the use of scientific language, recording and techniques,
• Develop the use of computing in investigating and recording,
• Make links between Science and other subjects.

Science is taught consistently, once a week for up to two hours, but can also be discretely taught in many different contexts throughout other areas of the curriculum. For example, through English, i.e. writing a letter to a local politician regarding the closure of a park/biography of a famous scientist’s life, etc.

Science and Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND)

All children will have Quality First Teaching. Any children with identified SEND may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum.

Impact

Our Science Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in the different areas and alike other subjects discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.

If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes,
• Observation and discussion of lessons,
• Scrutiny and discussion about work in books,
• Pupil discussions about their learning.

Whilst work produced in lessons is a useful indicator of progression, we recognise that the true impact goes well beyond that.  Our aim is that all children will have:

• A wider variety of skills linked to both scientific knowledge and understanding, and scientific enquiry/investigative skills,
• A richer vocabulary which will enable to articulate their understanding of taught concepts,
• High aspirations, which will see them through to further study, work and a successful adult life.