At St Sidwell’s, we have designed our science curriculum with the intent that our children will develop an in-depth understanding of the world around them and an understanding of how major scientific ideas and discoveries have played a vital role in the progress of society, to prepare them for life in an increasingly scientific world.
Scientific learning is concerned with increasing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of our world, and with developing skills associated with Science as a process of enquiry. Our engaging curriculum will nurture children’s natural curiosity, encourage respect for living organisms and the physical environment and it will provide opportunities for critical evaluation of evidence.
We endeavour to build science capital for all our children so that they are inspired to continue to use science in their everyday life, future education, and careers. As part of this, we have an exciting STEM presentation programme whereby parents and friends of the school visit to talk about their science-based careers in a way that is linked to current science learning.
At St Sidwell’s Primary School, in conjunction with the aims of the National Curriculum, our Science curriculum offers opportunities for children to:
Implementation
Our science curriculum is based on a scheme of work devised by school science leaders, school improvement leaders from within St Christopher’s trust and a science specialist. The scheme facilitates the acquisition of science knowledge through the use and development of scientific enquiry skills. The scheme was launched in January 2022 and replaces the previous knowledge organisers.
Based on this, teachers create engaging lessons, often involving high-quality resources to aid understanding of conceptual knowledge. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual knowledge and skills and assess children regularly to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all children keep up.
The whole school overview shows the progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary covering the fields of biology, chemistry and physics. This underpins a spiral approach to learning whereby children will revisit similar areas of science but in a deeper way as they progress through the school.
Science knowledge and skills are assessed at different points throughout each unit using investigations and an independent science skills lesson from TAPs.
Children are made aware of where Science fits as a subject within the STEM fields and are inspired to consider careers in Science through our rolling programme of STEM based professionals, mainly parents, who deliver presentations about their job to classes at school.
Science is taught discreetly across the school through weekly sessions although some units may be blocked and applied in theme weeks. Science learning will be on display within rooms, in learning journey books and in floor books where relevant (KS1).
The coordination and planning of the science curriculum are the responsibility of the Science Lead who takes responsibility for the following:
Science Progression Map EYFS - Year 6