Science
Why Science matters:
Science sparks pupils’ natural curiosity and encourages them to confidently explore, discover, and make sense of the world around them. The teaching of science also equips pupils with the scientific skills required to understand the rules and implications of science both now and in their futures.
The study of Science in our school enables us to realise our vision of life in all its fullness by:
Growth - Children are regularly given the opportunities for ‘open ended’ scientific investigations. Discussing, learning from and accepting their mistakes following these investigations, and describing how to improve on them helps to build their resilience. Where applicable, children are also taught about ‘scientific failures’ and how scientific theories have changed over time, fostering the idea that mistakes are a natural part of science
Kindness - Teachers set up a ‘safe’ classroom environment, meaning children feel able to express their scientific thoughts, ideas and theories without the fear of judgement or shame. Children understand that we don’t know everything within science and a culture of learning is fostered.
Joy - Children are regularly given opportunities to explore the outside environment (making particular use of the wilderness) to make meaningful, real-life links, foster emotional connections with the natural world. The teaching of science promotes a sense of ‘awe and wonder’ and children are encouraged to think carefully about the world and their responsibility in nurturing all living things.
Growth - Teachers look to engage children in each science topic by making them aware of the relevant contributions of a diverse range of scientists, particularly females and those from black and ethnic minorities thus raising their own aspirations and expectations of what they can achieve now and in the future.
Integrity - A key aim of primary science is for children to think and work like scientists, therefore children are given an appropriate level of responsibility for science resources. They are encouraged to take care of resources and to use them appropriately, developing their personal capabilities. Teachers give children the opportunity to work both collaboratively and independently with their peers to find the answers to scientific questions.
How we deliver it:
Curriculum design: Our Science Subject Overview provides teachers with the key knowledge, skills and understanding children must have by the end of each topic. These overviews include a key focus question to be revisited and built on throughout the topic, key vocabulary to be explicitly taught and wider enrichment opportunities. Each topic has a small number of keywords that will be explicitly taught in context to ensure all children are able to access the foundational understanding of a topic. These vocabulary lists are sequenced across the year groups. Class teachers use the subject overview to see what has been taught in previous years when planning lessons, so that these links to prior learning are made explicit to the children.
Retrieval starters are embedded in our planning to ensure that key knowledge and understanding is remembered and built on over time. These starters are consistently used every lesson; so that children are confident in recalling prior learning. We use the structure, ‘one question from the previous lesson, one from a previous topic taught that year and one from a previous topic from a previous year’ to plan these. These are also a powerful tool to correct misconceptions as they arise, following both formative and summative assessment tasks.
Inclusion: To support all children to show their understanding, we ensure that they are given the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding in a range of ways which don’t always rely on writing out their answers. These could include; group presentations, photographing experiments, teacher scribing, diagrams, mind maps and knowledge organisers with visuals.
Science forms a central part of our STEM weeks, which take place every 2 years, ensuring that children experience this twice in their time at St. John’s.
Science topics are taught weekly. There is flexibility for some sessions to be extended where needed, particularly in the case of more complex science experiments.
Teachers plan for science through a variety of different mediums including the national curriculum guidance, 'Headstart Primary', 'Switched on Science' and 'BBC Bitesize'. This allows teachers to ‘cherry pick’ the most effective resources and adapt teaching to the individual needs of their classes.
How we know we are doing it well:
Assessment: Children are assessed formatively in a range of ways, for example through our retrieval starters, teacher questioning, class discussions and knowledge organisers.
Knowledge Organisers are designed by teachers to be used throughout every topic and include: the topic’s key learning question, vocabulary, supporting diagrams/images and tasks designed to highlight misconceptions. These are an important part of how we assess children in Science and are designed to be inclusive for all learners; including those who struggle with written work.
Children are also assessed summatively at the end of science topics against the National Curriculum objectives using Headstart Primary assessment materials and our Working Scientifically Skills Progression document. This data is reported to the science subject leader via Pupil Asset. Reasonable adjustments are put in place for children with additional needs to access this, including through scribes, readers or small group support.
The Science Subject leader regularly monitors the teaching of science across the school via book looks, learning walks, planning scrutinies and staff/pupil voice. The expectation is that written work within science books should be at the same standard as english and maths. Feedback from subject leader monitoring is regularly given to teachers. Pupil voice is important within science. Children are regularly asked about their experiences of science, both in terms of what they enjoy and what could be improved.
The Science Subject Leader attends Subject Network Meetings to ensure they have expert knowledge of best practice and delivers training to staff as and when priorities are identified through monitoring.
