Science Curriculum Intent

Our Science curriculum provides the foundations for pupils’ conceptual understanding of the world around them. Through building up a body of key knowledge, investigative skills and precise vocabulary, pupils should be empowered to ask relevant questions and seek the answers by setting up and carrying out enquiries and making systematic observations to draw out their conclusions. Scientific concepts should be easy to learn and difficult to forget, sparking pupils’ curiosity so that they engage with natural phenomena. This will help pupils to understand that they can have a positive impact on the world around them.

At Wellstead, we use Plymouth Science Planning, a curriculum designed around the National Curriculum statements for Knowledge, Working Scientifically and Scientific Enquiry. It has a clear progression of skills from the EYFS through to Year 6 and the scheme of work includes:

●     Pre learning, from previous year groups and lessons

●     Cross curricular links across modules

●     Hands on learning in each lesson

●     Metacognitive approaches which include mini quizzes, recapping, revisiting

knowledge.

●     Embedded working scientifically assessment.

●     Knowledge quizzes at the end of each unit.

●     All lessons are carefully scaffolded using SOLO to enable all pupils to access the

learning and to provide further challenge where needed.

Year R makes links to the science curriculum by having continuous provision that invokes curiosity and helps them understand the world around them such as ‘Curiosity Corner’. A love of science is sparked in the Early Years through knowledge and understanding of the world and spending a great deal of time outside exploring, observing and asking questions about the natural world. Year R also have clear science units to implement from the Plymouth Science Scheme of Work with overarching key questions throughout the year. These units are launched using key text drivers, which spark a curiosity within the children about a particular science theme or idea, which they can then go off and explore during their discovery time. A class floor book is used to showcase science learning in Year R. Yr R also complete a longitudinal study, focusing on the natural world and changes in the seasons, with an overarching key question: ‘What are seasons?’

The National Curriculum for science aims to ensure that all pupils:

●   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

●   are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

New Science Disciplinary Knowledge/ Working Scientifically KPI Assessment tasks will be undertaken by Year 2 and Year 6 pupils. They are designed to provide evidence to support assessment against the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in the end of KS1 and statutory end of KS2 assessment Framework. The assessment activities will present pupils with a scenario where they will have to use their disciplinary knowledge, which has been developed and mastered over the previous years, to solve a problem or answer a question. This, combined with information gathered through day-to-day assessment, will provide teachers with all the required information and evidence needed to accurately assess pupils in science at the end of each key stage.

Our science curriculum is ambitious. Each unit has an overarching question for children to find out about and each unit is 6 weeks long. The units have fun learning hooks to engage the children, e.g. a spacecraft crash landing on the school field and a message from Tim Peake asking the children to sort the materials and send them back to NASA, and other exciting learning opportunities, including completing an investigation to find the most absorbent (but also comfortable) material to make a new MAG (maximum absorbency garment - aka an adult nappy) for astronauts. As a school we are also completing work within our science curriculum to make it more inclusive and diverse. As part of this initiative we aim to include diverse representation within texts, videos or website links being shared of diverse role models, as part of Wellstead’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) initiatives and we aim to highlight scientific contributions of under-represented groups throughout the year. At Wellstead, we are currently working in partnership with two organisations: Focus4TAPS and the Ogden Trust, to try and  break the link between family income and educational achievement in science.

Trips and visits are valued experiences across our school, offering enrichment, hands-on learning experiences, awe and wonder. Examples of some of the trips and visits we offer the children include a trip to Longdown Dairy Farm in Year R, ZooLab bringing animals into the classrooms in Year One to support learning about different animal groups, and a trip to Winchester Science Centre in Year Five to support their learning about space and gravity. We have also arranged for the science lead from Deer Park, one of our feeder secondary schools, to deliver science workshops on electricity and forces to our Year 4 and 5 pupils.