Intent – what do we expect our children to learn?

Our Science curriculum aims to provide children with confidence and competence in the full range of practical skills, excellent scientific knowledge and understanding of the essential skills, and a passion for science and its application in the past, present and future technologies.

Essential Skills

• Work scientifically

learning the methodologies of the discipline of science.

Children develop their ‘Working scientifically’ skills which are taught through biology, chemistry and physics, and include:

• Identifying and classifying
• Observing over time
• Fair testing
• Pattern seeking

Biology:

• Understand plants

becoming familiar with different types of plants, their structure and reproduction.

• Understand animals and humans

becoming familiar with different types of animals, humans and the life processes they share.

• Investigate living things

becoming familiar with a wider range of living things, including insects and understanding life processes.

• Understand evolution and inheritance

 understanding that organisms come into existence, adapt, change and evolve and become extinct.

Chemistry:

• Investigate materials

becoming familiar with a range of materials, their properties, uses and how they may be altered or changed.

Physics:

• Understand movement, forces and magnets

understanding what causes motion.

• Understand the Earth’s movement in space

understanding what causes seasonal changes, day and night.

• Investigate light and seeing

understanding how light and reflection affect sight.

• Investigate sound and hearing

understanding how sound is produced, how it travels and how they are heard.

• Understand electrical circuits

understanding circuits and their role in electrical applications.

You can view the subject content that your child will be taught each term by viewing each classes curriculum overview.

Implementation – how do we expect them to learn?

Science at North Scarle starts with children in the foundation stage being taught the science elements as indicated in the development matters curriculum through: Knowledge and Understanding of the World. This foundation of learning is then built upon as they move through the school, through a sequence of carefully planned milestones for each class within our 3-year cycle.

Prior to a topic children will complete a pre learning task to see what they already know and remember; this will act as a baseline, but teachers must consider the previously taught knowledge and skills already taught in the curriculum.

During a topic children will consider and recap where the science that they are learning fits into their prior knowledge. In each lesson children will be reminded of the key knowledge that they learnt previously and how this links to current learning. Specialist key vocabulary will be explicitly taught at the beginning and throughout a topic. Children will be encouraged to ask their own questions and follow their own lines of enquiry and investigations. Children will take part in field work and outdoor opportunities to develop skills. Trips and visitors will be used to enhance learning experiences. Cross Curricular Connections are made explicit, and these are shown through Pop Quizzes, Science working walls, outdoor learning environments and Proof of Progress tasks.

Impact:

We monitor the impact of children’s learning through:

• A reflection and evaluation of standards against the learning outcomes
• Tracking pupil knowledge in pre- and post-assessments, including use of low stakes testing.
• Children will self-assess against the key knowledge that they have been taught. 
• Teachers will assess against the key knowledge and skills, which creates an overview of whether the children are working at age related expectations or not. 
• Pupil discussions
• Monitoring books