Locking Primary School Science Rationale
The Science Curriculum |
Our Vision At Locking Primary School our science curriculum is rooted in exploration, enquiry and investigation, fostering a healthy curiosity of our universe and stimulating creative thought. Exploring everyday phenomena, will provide children with the foundations for understanding the world around them and an appreciation for the awe and wonder that science holds. They will understand the fundamental importance of science: how science has changed our lives and our world, and how it is essential to our future prosperity. |
The Science curriculum at Locking Primary School will: |
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Science teaching at Locking Primary School will: |
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Assessment of Science at Locking Primary School will: |
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Curriculum Rationale: Science |
The choices we have made within our science curriculum will allow children to explore everyday phenomena so that they lay the foundations for understanding the world around them and an appreciation for the fascination that science holds.
Children will know science (biology, chemistry and physics) both as a discipline to be studied and as a field of knowledge that can shape their outlook now and in the future. In addition, they will understand the role of scientists (biologists, chemists and physicists), appreciating their contributions, knowing that they could, should they wish to, have a career as either in the future. They will recognise and appreciate how science will affect the future on a personal, national and global level.
The sequencing of the curriculum has been specifically designed to build upon previous knowledge. Links between subjects and across year groups have been made explicit and will be referred to with the children.
Programme: We follow the National Curriculum and have sequenced the subject content meticulously to best suit the needs of our children and to compliment effective learning strategies. Alongside this, we have developed a progression of skills to support teaching and learning
Timetabling: each unit lasts 6 weeks at the most (regardless of the length of the term); double units last a maximum of 12 weeks. Lessons may be blocked with one longer session in a week or with several shorter sessions across a week, as needed. In addition, specific ‘sticky tasks’ are planned throughout the learning sequence to promote retrieval of important, useful and powerful knowledge. |
Science Rationale |
The focus of our science curriculum is to provide the foundations for understanding the world (the essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science) through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics as well as an appreciation for how science has and will continue to change our lives. Children will reason, predict and think logically, working systematically and with increasing accuracy. They will be encouraged to recognise the power of evidence-based explanation and develop curiosity and excitement about natural phenomena.
Our science curriculum begins with concepts that will be most familiar to the child and become increasingly abstract as the child becomes more confident and competent in scientific knowledge, concepts and skills.
The science coverage at Locking Primary School covers all of the primary National Curriculum, without straying into the Key Stage 3 programme of study. It develops a solid understanding of the key scientific concepts as well as progressively building on fundamental scientific skills. The progressive development of subject specific skills e.g. enquire, analyse, evaluate within the context of the subject will hold them in good stead as they move on to secondary school and the next step in their education. The children will leave Locking Primary School with the knowledge of science as a discipline (including the difference between biology, chemistry and physics) and what it means to be a scientist (biologist, chemist physicist).
Our curriculum progression begins in EYFS with a focus on exploration through play and the development of effective learning characteristics. Activities in EYFS will provide opportunities for children to begin to make predictions, make predictions, test out ideas, and persist with an activity when challenges arise, as well as many other skills that are the very first steps in working scientifically. In the ELGs, science makes a significant contribution to developing a child’s knowledge and understanding of the world and children will be begin to ask and answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions. Scientific knowledge will be centred upon the child and what they observe in their immediate surroundings: they will make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes; they will know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe.
In Key Stage 1, children will continue to focus on environments, organisms and materials that are most familiar to them or part of their everyday world. Teaching will promote respect for the natural world, living and non-living. They will begin to recognise the relationships between living things and familiar environments. Spoken language will be fundamental in children to communicating their ideas, wondering and posing questions. There will be a focus on children beginning to use scientific terminology and articulating their ideas with increasing clarity. In Year 1, when children first meet science as a ‘subject’ the curriculum has been organised to allow for plenty of revisiting.
In Lower Key Stage 2 children will begin to broaden their scientific view of the world around them. Through exploring, natural curiosity, observation and discussion, children will test and develop ideas about everyday, natural phenomena and the relationships between living things and familiar environments. They will also begin to develop their ideas about functions, relationships and interactions.
In Upper Key Stage 2, children will develop deeper knowledge and understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas and an appreciation for the accomplishments within the field of science. They will achieve this through exploring and talking about their ideas, posing their own questions about scientific phenomena and analysing functions, relationships and interactions more systematically. In years 5 and 6, the children will encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the world operates.
Specific choices: Units of study are placed within certain periods of the year to support children’s understanding and aid them in making links across subjects. In Year 1, Everyday Materials is studied alongside the history unit ‘Toys’ to allow children the opportunity to apply their knowledge of the names of different materials. In Year 3, Forces are studied alongside ‘The Ancient Egyptians’ as connections can be made for how forces were used to construct the pyramids and collect water from the Nile. Units are spaced alongside the humanities curriculum and this is considered within the planning. In Year 4, the Water Cycle is taught in the autumn term. This follows the Year 3 geography summer unit ‘The World of Water’ and is taught alongside the Year 4 geography unit ‘Extreme Weather’. This progression supports children’s long term understanding of these concepts and give children the opportunity to explore how they are connected.
Seasonal Changes:
Plants:
Sound:
Evolution and Inheritance
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