Intent
At Coalbrookdale & Ironbridge CE Primary School, we understand the crucial role we have in teaching children about the world in which they live. It is our intent that this learning will equip children for life beyond the classroom and as global citizens. As science links directly to practical experience with ideas, it engages learners at many levels. It stimulates a child’s curiosity and awe in finding out why things happen in the way they do. It teaches methods of enquiry and investigation to stimulate creative thought and knowledge. Children at Coalbrookdale, learn to ask scientific questions and develop an understanding of natural phenomena. Through science, pupils understand how major scientific ideas contribute to our lives. The development of scientific knowledge and skills is important in preparing all pupils for citizenship in a technological world where they can question and discuss science-based issues that may affect their lives, the direction of society and the future of the world.
The intent of our science curriculum is to enable children to:
• Develop an everyday application of scientific knowledge in the world around them.
• Develop compassion, respect and responsibility for all living things and the environment and develop an understanding of their interdependence.
• Promote the learning of knowledge and skills, understanding and key vocabulary through a scientific attitude to the solving of problems.
• Develop the skills of experimenting, devising and carrying out investigations and testing hypotheses by means of fair tests.
• Communicate and record information following practical observations.
• Promote confidence in the safe use of appropriate scientific equipment.
• Use computing skills to collect, display and analyse data.
• Encourage the ability to make predictions and suggest explanations based on an understanding of the world around them and scientific knowledge.
• To persevere when tackling tricky investigations and to trust their capabilities as young scientists
• Develop an ability to understand and interpret scientific information presented in verbal, mathematical, diagrammatic or graphic form.
Implementation
Our principal aim is to develop pupil’s knowledge, understanding and skills. We achieve this by providing the children with a broad, balanced and creative curriculum. In addition, we employ a variety of teaching strategies to allow our pupils to develop their scientific understanding and skills.
Sometimes we do this through whole-class teaching, group or partner work, and at other times, we engage the children in enquiry-based research activities. We encourage the children to ask, as well as answer, scientific questions. They have the opportunity to use a variety of data, such as statistics, graphs, pictures, and photographs. They use computing skills in science lessons where it enhances their learning.
We recognise that pupils have different learning styles, and we take this into account when planning and delivering a creative science curriculum.
Pupils will therefore experience a range of learning activities including
• Questioning
• Role-play
• Discussion
• Experimentation
• Model making
• Writing
• Drawing
• Problem solving activities
• On and Off – Site activities lead by experts
Wherever possible, we try to make the learning of science realistic and incorporate it into our topic work. This gives the learning a clear context and purpose enabling the knowledge to be transferred into the long-term memory, thus avoiding simply memorising facts. We recognise that there are children of widely different scientific abilities in all classes, and we ensure that we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this in a variety of ways by:
• Teaching science as creatively as possible so the use of colour, texture and visual material enhances learning.
• Setting common tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses.
• Setting tasks of increasing difficulty (we do not expect all children to complete all tasks).
• Grouping children by ability or mixed ability for support depending on the task.
• Providing resources of different complexity, matched to the ability of the child.
• Using teaching assistants to support the work of individual children or groups of children.
Evidence of the children’s learning experiences is captured using photographic evidence. Children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 use individual science books. Science displays are created throughout the year in each classroom, showcasing children’s work and providing key knowledge and topic vocabulary.
Science curriculum planning:
The school uses the National Curriculum 2014 for science as the basis of its curriculum planning. The curriculum is rooted in knowledge and skills, planned carefully to ensure coherence and sequence so that new knowledge is built upon previous knowledge and there are clear end points. We plan our curriculum in three phases. We agree a long-term plan for each year group; this indicates what topics are to be taught in each term. We review our long-term plan on an annual basis; the long-term plan maps the scientific topics studied in each term during the key stage. To support the long-term plan and provide knowledge and skills progression throughout the school. Our medium-term plans, provide clear guidance on the knowledge, skills, teaching strategies and assessment for learning that we use when teaching each area and lesson of the curriculum. Science planning, both whole school and year group specific, is all held in a designated folder on the Common Staff network and in a hard copy file.
We plan the topics in science so that they build upon prior learning. We ensure that there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each unit and we also build progression into the science scheme of work, so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school.
Foundation Stage
We teach science in reception as an integral part of the topic work covered during the year. As the reception class is part of the Early Years Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, we relate the scientific aspects of the children’s work to the EYFS objectives which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. Science makes a significant contribution to the objectives in the EYFS of developing a child’s knowledge of the world.
At this phase children are:
• Developing the crucial knowledge, skills and understanding that help them make sense of the world
• Involved in activities based on first-hand experiences that encourage exploration, observation, problem solving, prediction, critical thinking and decision-making and discussion
• Experiencing a wide range of activities, indoors and outdoors, including adult focused, child-initiated and independent play
• Stimulated, interested and curious
• Observed by adults and learning is recorded in a variety of ways
In Key Stage 1 and 2, children are:
• Learning through a science process knowledge-based approach
• Undertaking practical enquiries
• Working collaboratively and independently
• Developing high quality, purposeful talk for science; Recording findings in a variety of stimulating and purposeful ways
• Building upon prior science learning, both skill and knowledge based
• Beginning to think about the positive and negative effects of scientific and technological developments on the environment and in other contexts
• Evaluating their own scientific learning
• Using ICT to support and extend their learning in science
• Making links across subjects
• Experiencing a variety of teaching styles and strategies that promote positive science learning
• Learning that science promotes the concept of positive citizenship
• Learning through science, to raise social and moral questions, to understand differences between people and to have respect for others including those with disabilities.
Impact
Our science curriculum facilitates sequential learning and long-term progression of knowledge and skills. Teaching and learning methods provide regular opportunities to recap acquired knowledge through high quality questioning, discussion, modelling and explaining, to aid retrieval at the beginning and end of a lesson or unit. This will enable all children to alter their long-term memory and know more, remember more and be able to do more as scientists.
Assessment and recording
We assess children’s work in science by making informal judgments through observation against lesson objectives. At the end of a unit of work, the teacher uses a science quiz, based on the Knowledge Organiser (located in the children’s books), to make a summary judgment about the knowledge of each pupil in relation to the expectations and National Curriculum objectives stated in the medium-term planning. Children’s progress in each class is also monitored by the subject leader by completing learning walks, lesson observations, teacher discussions, pupil voice and book scrutiny. Children are judged by the criteria, ‘Knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more.’ Teachers then plan according to the needs of the children to ensure progression identifying next steps in their learning. Formative assessment enables teachers at the end of units of work to make a judgment against age related expectations (ARE) – above ARE, at ARE or below ARE – this judgment is recorded on a subject specific excel spread sheet on common staff.
Monitoring and review
It is the responsibility of the science subject leader to monitor the standards of children’s work and the quality of teaching in science through the monitoring of planning, book trawls, lesson observations and learning walks. This enables the science leader to ensure that children are achieving their full potential at each key stage and that attainment is as expected. The science subject leader is also responsible for supporting colleagues in the teaching of science, for being informed about current developments in the subject and for providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school.