Science     

“A scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, but one who asks the right questions.”  

-Claude Levi-Strauss-

Intent

At the Highway, children are encouraged to think “like a scientist” by building on their natural curiosity for the world around them. Children are equipped to develop their own scientific questions and explore these through scientific inquiry: predicting, investigating and drawing conclusions. Oracy, precision of language and unpicking vocabulary is vital to every lesson as we want to equip the children with the tools to question what’s around them and explain their thinking. We pay attention to changes facing our world and the children’s future. By developing scientific knowledge, inquiry and skills throughout our school, we are ensuring they are ready to progress to the challenges of the secondary curriculum in addition to holding a confidence that will make them life-time explorers.

Implementation

In EYFS Science is taught as a part of the Understanding the World area of the curriculum. Children are provided with hands-on opportunities to investigate, observe and to ask and answer questions. All of these skills help to prepare them for Science in KS1. Our science curriculum is treated as a core subject and as such, we follow CUSP Science which uses the National Curriculum as a basis to build on for our teaching and learning in KS1 and KS2. National Curriculum objectives are organised into meaningful and connected ‘chunks’ of content. This reduces the load on the working memory as well as creating strong long-term memories. Children experience and engage with the breadth of the subject and develop deep understanding. Through CUSP, we have carefully structured our topics and investigations to ensure that the children build on prior learning and experiences in addition to widening their understanding and appreciation of the wider world. We view Science as a predominantly ‘active’ subject and aim to strike an appropriate balance between the practical experience of experimentation, and the necessity to carefully record observations and draw conclusions. Working scientifically is far more than just discussing fair testing!

Impact

At the end of each year, children will have gained a deeper understanding of the scientific core concepts. Their understanding will be cumulative and connected allowing them to make links between themes within science and across the curriculum.

Children will:

• have an increasing curiosity which allows them to communicate and reflect on their own learning.     
• demonstrate progress in relation to the success criteria outlined at the beginning of the unit of work (set out on the CUSP knowledge organiser).
• be able to explain scientific vocabulary appropriate to their age and make connections with this vocabulary.
• be able to talk confidently about science, showing an understanding that Biology, Chemistry and Physics are all different areas of Science.
• show an understanding of different skills they have learnt through scientific inquiry.
• have confidence and be inspired to further their knowledge and scientific journey in school and the next stage of their education.

This will be evident through pupil voice, evidence of knowledge and skills and the monitoring of the ambition behind the curriculum.