Science Curriculum Overview
Science is an important core subject in our school as it provides the foundations for understanding the world. Through building key knowledge, concepts and skills, pupils are encouraged to develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. Our aim is to enthuse, develop and challenge pupils with an engaging and progressively structured science curriculum They are encouraged to explain what is occurring through conceptual models and practical activities that progressively build a deep understanding of the science curriculum and ‘Working Scientifically’. Our Science curriculum does this by working within the Foundation Stage Curriculum using the Early Learning Goals, and from Year 1 to Year 6 within the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum objectives, which can be found here
Children will study a number of different scientific topics; science will often take them outdoors into the local environment where they will be able to develop and practice investigational and observational skills. They will record and interpret findings and form and test hypotheses, and throughout their time at our school, pupils will acquire knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
Curriculum Drivers
The School’s Curriculum Drivers are reflected in our Science education:
Learning from the past
Science has shaped our understanding of the world from the beginning of time, from simple observations of the environments and natural phenomena by early people, to the experimental investigations of pioneering minds. Indeed, it has shaped the world itself, as scientific discoveries have driven technological advances that continue to make a difference to our lives. It is important that children appreciate the wealth of scientific thought and knowledge that has gone before, and that the modern world that they live in has been shaped by the scientists of the past.
Living in the Present
Science for the children in our school is rooted in enquiry: asking questions, exploring ideas, seeing results and making conclusions about what is happening around them now. Learning about the materials, processes and systems that they see and experience, helps the children to make sense of their world. This, in turn, helps them to draw their own conclusions and develop enquiring minds - qualities that gives our pupils the resilience, enthusiasm and determination to achieve and take pride in what they do.
Preparing for the Future
In the teaching of science, we aim to encourage our children to develop inquisitive and enquiring minds through the use of scientific investigations. We want the children to understand how science enriches our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity. We aim to develop ‘Science Capital’ within the school – the measure of the school’s engagement with science; how much we value it and how much it connects to our lives. This in turn supports our ‘STEM Capital’, and how our children will engage with, and aspire to careers within, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths as they grow older. This, of course, directly helps to build our ‘Cultural Capital’, giving our children the greatest possible knowledge, experiences and aspirations within the world around them as they make their own way in it.