Subject Overview
The 3 key drivers for our curriculum at Clover Hill are fully integrated within our science curriculum.
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Long Term Memory |
Skills specific to each key stage are revisited during each topic to give children the opportunity to develop their expertise and then practise and enjoy using these skills competently. Children build up a familiarity with the key scientific vocabulary associated with these skills which leads to confident and capable scientists. |
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Enquiry Based Curriculum |
Our science topics are enquiry question led. Each new topic has an overriding Big Question to act as a stimulus. At the start of each science topic, a list of key questions to be explored and answered will be stuck into the pupils’ science books so they are able to see how the topic is growing and developing and what they need to find out in order for that to happen. Children will be able to track their own progress through a topic and can highlight the key questions as they find answers to them. |
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Real Life Relevance |
Science is everywhere in our lives, enhancing and providing answers wherever we look. Children need to see the relevance of our work in the classroom to the life outside. How the lesson they are taking part in affects our own life is made explicit and the key messages reinforced through discussion and debate. Year groups try wherever they can to investigate the work of ‘real scientists’ and how their work has impacted on the topics being studied. Children need to see that science offers an abundance of exciting and vocational employment opportunities too and that aspiring youngsters have the chance to work within the subject in later life. |
Intent
We want our pupils at Clover Hill to:
* experience scientific ideas through first-hand experience and exploration.
* be inquisitive and strive to understand the world around them.
* Develop a range of scientific skills as well as a depth of knowledge.
* Broaden scientific vocabulary to enrich their explanations of scientific concepts.
How is science taught at Clover Hill
The National Curriculum provides us with guidelines that must be followed with the aim of increasing the children’s knowledge and understanding of the scientific world through a process of enquiry that can be developed across the curriculum.
As the topics are already outlined in the NC for each year group, we ensure the relevant skills to be taught are carefully planned for, throughout each year group’s curriculum.
These key scientific skills are referred to each lesson and children are involved in a discussion about the acquisition of these skills and what they are aiming to achieve.
Science teaching is flexible, in that, if teachers prefer to block sessions or create ‘whole day’ projects, this is planned for where appropriate.
We aim to make science as practical as possible to give children to opportunity to investigate and explore for themselves.
Implementation
How is the science curriculum delivered?
Each year group follows the NC topic guidelines to create a plan for each half termly science theme. Skills and content to be taught are carefully planned by all staff and this planning is monitored on a termly basis by the science coordinator who ensures work planned matches lessons delivered. A book scrutiny on a termly basis helps inform this.
Science is mainly delivered during a weekly science session, though there is a flexibility in our approach to allow for topics to be blocked if this is appropriate.
We want our children to experience practical, investigative exploration wherever possible. This involves the children in a great deal of group work and team building, as they need to perfect the art of working together to achieve a goal as well as sharing equipment and resources fairly. More able children may be encouraged to take the lead, whilst less confident children enjoy the reassurance of working within a supportive team.
We recognise the importance of recording our scientific findings and have agreed on a ‘format’ for creating a record for more formal scientific experiments. This is uniform throughout the school but also shows progression as the children move up through school. However, we also fully recognise that children’s ‘hands on experimentation and investigation’ is more important to the acquisition of knowledge than any pencil and paper exercise. We therefore encourage a whole range of recording procedures to allow children the freedom of expressing their ideas and concepts as they are learnt.
We place questioning and discussion at the heart of our science lessons. Children are encouraged to use the best scientific vocabulary they can to explain their thinking and ideas. Teachers have excellent subject knowledge and ask probing questions to constantly further children’s understanding. Teachers use and model the necessary scientific language throughout science lessons.
We also want our children to keep up to date with issues that relate to the world around us. For example, when talking about plastic as a material, children are involved in the debate concerning the problem of plastic in our oceans and landfill sites.
Impact
Children make very good progress in science throughout the school. Pupils can talk about and explain their working using appropriate scientific language and are inspired to learn within lessons. End of unit evaluations inform fututre planning and standards within each class.
Standards in science are reported in Years 2 and 6.
SEND/Inclusion
All provision for pupils with SEND is in line with the school’s SEND Policy.
Equal Opportunities
At Clover Hill Primary School, the curriculum for Science will develop enjoyment of and commitment to stimulating the best possible progress and the highest attainment for all our pupils irrespective of social background, culture, race, gender, differences in ability and disabilities. All of our pupils have a secured entitlement to participate in the Science Curriculum and our teaching approaches ensure the avoidance of stereotyping when planning work or organising groups. All the teaching staff agree that when using reference materials, they should reflect social and cultural diversity and provide positive images of race, gender and disability.
Curriculum Map