Science

"The whole of Science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

Albert Einstein

Subject Leader: Mrs C Lightowler

Subject Governor: Mr S Heptinstall

Science Statement of Intent

At Pinders Primary School, our children are SCIENTISTS!

Our intent is to give every child a broad and balanced Science curriculum which enables them to confidently explore and discover what is around them, so that they have a deeper understanding of nature, the processes and methods of science, and the world we live in for now and the future.

We want our children to love science!

To achieve this, our bespoke curriculum has been carefully planned and sequenced.  It involves exciting, practical hands on investigation, experiences and disciplinary knowledge that encourages curiosity and questioning to help every child secure and extend their scientific knowledge and vocabulary, as well as promoting a love and thirst for questioning the world.

Aims in teaching Science at Pinders Primary School:

We aim to:

• Encourage the development of positive attitudes to science.

• Deliver the National Curriculum Science in ways that are imaginative, purposeful, well controlled and enjoyable.

• Help in developing and extending the children’s scientific concept of their world and encouraging them to ask deeper questions about the world around them.

• Deliver clear and accurate teacher explanations and skilful questioning. Provide guidance but at the same time allowing children the freedom to explore as independently as possible.

• Make strong, purposeful links between science and other subjects.

• Use ICT in a meaningful way to extend learning.

• Develop the use of scientific language, recording and techniques. Enable children to become effective communicators of scientific ideas, facts and data whilst becoming experts at analysing the data they collect.

• Develop the following skills of investigation – observation, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating and interpreting. 

How is the content chosen?

Whenever possible, we teach through a topic based approach, to enable children to embed and make connections, which leads to a greater depth of understanding within the subject. The content is therefore chosen in order to make effective links with key cross-curricular themes, reflect expectations in the National Curriculum programmes of study and Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, and engage and inspire children’s curiosity and interest in Science.

The content may be adapted to meet the needs or interests of specific cohorts or link to specific events, which are taking place in the community or wider world at the time.

National Curriculum Programme

How is Science taught?

At Pinders Primary School a clear and comprehensive scheme of work, in line with the National Curriculum is in place. 

A two year, long term,  rolling programme maps out the coverage of the discrete teaching and learning opportunities for children to develop, use and embed specific skills. Our lessons are carefully planned through our themes, so that valuable links can be made across other subjects. 

There is a strong focus on developing the scientific vocabulary and science enquiry skills through practical learning opportunities.

How do we ensure progression of knowledge and skills within Science?

At Pinders Primary School we have a comprehensive knowledge and skills progression document in place for the teaching of Science. This is used for planning, to ensure a sequenced and appropriate content for specific year groups, as well as a build up of knowledge and skills. 

Within these documents there are also opportunities for differentiation, in order to meet the needs of all learners.

Becoming a Scientist

When children are learning about a subject through a discrete teaching session, they are explicitly told that today they are going to be 'Scientists'. They are then reminded of the key skills that they will learn, use and develop within that subject. 

In Science these are:

We are learning to:

• use our five senses
• ask and answer questions
• make predictions
• plan and investigate
• say why and how things happen
• record our ideas and findings

Teaching Science in EYFS

Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.

Throughout their time in EYFS, the children begin to gain some early scientific knowledge and skills through focused topic teaching sessions and accessing high quality provision. The children engage in hands on experiences which promote social and cultural understanding and allow for detailed discussions reflecting the world around them at present and in the past. To develop children’s enquiry skills we use a range of engaging stimulus to promote questioning and develop their scientific understanding, including a range of fiction and non-fiction texts, i-Pads, visitors and educational visits. We provide the children with an interactive and hands on learning environment and high quality adult interactions to support and further learning, whilst fostering a love of Science and encourage open questioning. Some of the topics that focus on developing scientific understanding and skills include ‘Seasons’ where we talk about natural changes over time and ‘Minibeasts’ where we explore life cycles and habitat.

Science and British Values

Reading in Science

Books are a central part of our science curriculum and most new topics start with a book. Below is an overview of the books embedded within our science curriculum and a rational about they they were chosen. 

Reading in Science

How do we develop cultural capital in science?

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a pupil will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.

In science we aim to provide children with various opportunities develop their culture capital by going on various school visits and have topic based experiences in school. Many of these are new experiences for most of the children and provide them with hands on experiences to help them to fully immerse themselves in science topics and become enthusiastic, engaged and independent learners.

Significant people in Science

When planning our curriculum we highlighted some key significant Scientists for the children to learn about. These people were chosen for various reasons but are all known for their tremendous impact on Science over time!

What does science look like at Pinders Primary School?

Curriculum documentation

Relevant Science research links

Parent support/links