Science

Intent
At St James’ Primary School, we recognise the importance of Science in every aspect of daily life. As one of the core subjects taught in Primary Schools, we give the teaching and learning of Science the prominence it requires.

The Scientific area of learning is concerned with increasing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of our world, and with developing skills associated with Science as a process of enquiry. It will develop the natural curiosity of the child, encourage respect for living organisms and the physical environment and provide opportunities for critical evaluation of evidence.

We intend to encourage children to ask questions about the world around them and find answers through conducting scientific enquiries.

At St James, in conjunction with the aims of the National Curriculum, our Science teaching offers opportunities for children to:

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;
Be equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future.
Develop the essential scientific enquiry skills to deepen their scientific knowledge.
Use a range of methods to communicate their scientific information and present it in a systematic, scientific manner, including I.C.T., diagrams, graphs and charts.
Develop a respect for the materials and equipment they handle with regard to their own, and other children’s safety.
Develop an enthusiasm and enjoyment of scientific learning and discovery.
Discover the life and works of scientists from diverse backgrounds and to increase their awareness of the pathways to a future career in science.

At St James’ Primary School:

Children have weekly lessons in Science throughout Key Stage 1 and 2, using various programmes of study and resources. In Early years, science is taught through the children learning about the world around them in their learning through play. Additional opportunities are provided in Science, such as Mad Science Whole School Days, British Science Week Whole School Scientific Enquiries and educational visits linked to the science curriculum, such as trips to MOSI and visits from Zoo Lab and WonderDome.

We endeavour to ensure that the Science curriculum we provide will give children the confidence and motivation to continue to further develop their skills into the next stage of their education and life experiences.

Science Gallery

2022 Pupil Voice

What amazes you about Science?

Forest School

Every class in St James takes part in a sequence of at least 6 forest school sessions every year. Forest School has strong cross curricular links and it has a special relationship with science. The environment lends itself to exploring seasonal change, using and discovering properties of materials, plants, habitats, birds and animals and much more! Although Forest School is not an outdoor science lesson, it can act as a retrieval task for children as they recall knowledge and skills learned in their science lessons.

Implementation
Teachers create a positive attitude to science learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in science. Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of science involves the following;

Science will be taught in planned and arranged topic blocks by the class teacher. This is a strategy to enable the achievement of a greater depth of knowledge.
Through our planning, we involve enquiry based learning so that within every lesson, at least one scientific question is asked and answered. This gives children regular opportunities to use their scientific skills and research to discover the answers.
Planning involves teachers creating engaging lessons, often involving high-quality resources to aid understanding of conceptual knowledge. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual knowledge and skills, and assess children regularly to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all children keep up.
We build upon the learning and skill development of the previous years. As the children’s knowledge and understanding increases, and they become more proficient in selecting, using scientific equipment, collating and interpreting results, they become increasingly confident in their growing ability to come to conclusions based on real evidence.
Working Scientifically skills are embedded into lessons to ensure these skills are being developed throughout the children’s school career and new vocabulary and challenging concepts are introduced through direct teaching. This is developed through the years, in-keeping with the topics.
Teachers demonstrate how to use scientific equipment, and the various Working Scientifically skills in order to embed scientific understanding. Teachers find opportunities to develop children’s understanding of their surroundings by accessing outdoor learning and workshops with experts.

Assessment
We assess science using Primary Assertive Mentoring to ensure consistent recording, reporting and tracking of pupil progress in science across the whole school.
Primary Assertive Mentoring organises the National Curriculum Programme of Study for science into clear assessment criteria for every year group (stage) across the school. We consistently track pupil progress against the relevant criteria for individuals and year groups. The ‘one sheet to view’ overview of children's performance across all areas which informs teaching, targets and interventions.

Impact
Science Subject Leaders, have created science progression documents which map our school’s curriculum coverage across EYFS, KS1 and KS2. The clear structure and incremental nature of these documents is designed to provide guidance as to what teaching and learning will be covered within particular year groups and key stages.

Teaching is organised in a way that considers;
•             that some topics and statements require coverage throughout the year
•             the complexity of concepts involved
•             the relationship between topics and their related statements within a year
•             if a topic be revisited in different contexts.
•             if some topics require more time than others.

In science, the curriculum programme of study is broken up into discrete areas:

Plants
Animals including humans
Earth and space
Electricity
Rocks
Evolution and inheritance
Materials
Sound
Forces
Living things and their habitats
Light
States of matter
Seasonal changes

Children’s understanding, capability within and mastery of science will be supported through this progressive curriculum by:

Using continuous opportunities to retrieve previous knowledge
Providing opportunities for pupils to apply and secure existing skills and understanding.
Building new learning onto pupils existing subject knowledge, by highlighting and making links to core threads – key concepts and learning – which run across science modules and the wider curriculum.

By implementing this progressive curriculum for science, we will equip pupils with the key subject knowledge needed to meet the end of Key Stage Attainment Targets of the National Curriculum.

St James Whole School Science Long Term Plan 2023-24.pdf
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