Science

Science is all about children learning to understand the world around them.  Our science curriculum breaks the National Curriculum into six ‘big ideas of science’.  These are:

• Living things do things to keep themselves alive.
  Children learn about the processes plants and animals do to stay alive and healthy, such as learning about nutrition, staying healthy, digestion, evolution, and reproduction.
• Living things exist on different scales from the cellular to the species level, with each part having a function.
  Children learn all about the different parts of plants and animals and what their function is, such as the role of flowers in plant reproduction, or the stomach in digestion.  They also learn about classification and diversity.
• Everything in the universe is made of ‘stuff’ and different ‘stuff’ has different properties.
  The children’s understanding of chemistry is developed through exploring different types of materials and their properties with increasing sophistication.  As children reach Year 5, they  begin to understand how materials can change their state, and how materials can be mixed together to form new materials.
• Objects can affect other objects at a distance or by touching them.
  Children learn about different forces such as friction, gravity and water resistance.  They evaluate the effect of these forces and how they can be helpful or a hindrance to humans.
• Light, sound and electricity are all forms of energy.
  Children learn about different forms of energy and the many phenomena associated with them.
• The Earth is made of different materials and is affected by other things in the solar system.
  Children learn about the Earth’s composition and how different rocks are formed.  They also learn about the other bodies in the solar system and how the positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon can be explained.

As they progress through school, children learn the key knowledge and understanding which underpin these ideas, in addition to developing their working scientifically skills.  Children learn the scientific method of how to ask and answer questions, make predictions, carry out investigations, gather data, and use evidence to make conclusions.

Our lesson sequences have been carefully designed to enable children to build on previously taught concepts and their existing understanding.  Teachers then cater lessons to respond to children’s ideas.  Each lesson contains demonstrations or practical activities linked to the concept being taught, so that children can explore and experiment with the challenging ideas contained in the curriculum.  We place a great emphasis on children learning and using correct scientific vocabulary and terminology and we encourage children to speak like scientists by modelling high-quality exploratory language.

In addition to teaching the core substantive ideas of science, children also learn about key scientists from around the world, who have made discoveries and contributed to our current understanding of the ‘big ideas’.  We place a great emphasis on the diversity of scientists as we want all of our children to see themselves in our curriculum and believe that they are capable of great scientific discoveries too.

Science is taught weekly across the year.