Science

National Curriculum aims

A high-quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should e taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science. Through building up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts, pupils should be encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. They should be encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes. 

Aims:

• 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 

equip pupils with the knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future 

School curriculum aims

We want our children to have an interest in science and how it impacts our daily lives. We want them to constantly be asking questions, both ‘big’ and ‘small’, as they seek to better understand the world they live in and the fundamental scientific laws that govern it, from gravity to evolution to the way light travels. Moreover, we want to ensure that they understand the role that science (and scientists) has played in our past and how it will continue to play a vital role in our future, especially in the areas of healthcare and the environment. By the time that they leave education, we want all children to have become informed, curious, scientifically literate citizens, and our science curriculum is designed to build the broad foundations of that goal. 

During science lessons, we will ensure that children are given the opportunity to ask ambitious questions and then plan and conduct investigations with the aim of answering these questions. In Years 1 and 2 their natural curiosity should be encouraged and they will be given the opportunity to talk about what they have found out. In Years 3 and 4, children will explore, talk about, test and develop ideas and begin to make some decisions about which types of scientific enquiry would be most effective. In Years 5 and 6, they will encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise that scientific ideas change and develop over time. Children will draw conclusions, use evidence to justify their ideas and use their understanding to explain their findings.  

It is key that knowledge content and practical skills are taught hand-in-hand, with children developing and building on their factual knowledge as they journey through the school, making links between topics applying skills and understanding from previous learning to new areas as they are met. As part of this it is also vital that they are exposed to and specifically taught the essential scientific vocabulary related to each topic in order to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding effectively.