Intent

At St Leonard’s, science is an inspiring and practical subject where children are encouraged to develop their natural curiosity: to ask questions and find answers. Our progressive curriculum, which encourages the children to question the world around them, enables each child to develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.

As they progress through our curriculum, children will develop disciplinary knowledge (scientific skills) to enable them to work scientifically. Essential to this process is the development of scientific vocabulary. They will be encouraged to use appropriate vocabulary accurately, both when speaking and in their writing. As they progress through school, they will be able to recognise different types of scientific enquiry and plan when to use them. At every stage, children will be encouraged to communicate scientific concepts clearly and accurately, linking their understanding to the world around them.

Implementation

Each lesson begins with a quiz on prior learning to ensure that children continue to retain knowledge they have been taught.

Lessons are based on our key principles for science.

• We become curious about the world asking questions and answering our own questions.
• Our lessons are practical.
• We learn scientific vocabulary and can use it in our work.
• We get to make our own decisions during investigations.
• We are challenged to solve problems.
• We take our learning outside the classroom.
• Real scientists, mathematicians and engineers will inspire us
• We practise and develop our skills and know how and when these are used in the ‘real’ world of science.

Curriculum planning

We use the National Curriculum as the basis for our curriculum planning in science.  We have adapted this where possible to the local circumstances of our school, in that we regularly use the local environment and school grounds for aspects of our work. We carry out the curriculum planning in Science in two phases: long and medium-term. Our long-term plans identify the skills and content to be covered within each class (5 units over the year).

We plan the activities in science so that they build upon the prior learning of the children. While we give children of all abilities opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding, we also build planned progression into the scheme of work, so that there is an increasing challenge for the children as they move up through the school. Our lessons are skills based and independent investigation and exploration is encouraged where possible.