Mrs Stott - Science Lead

"Science is a part of everyone's everyday life" - Bill Nye

Science makes an increasing contribution to all aspects of life. Children are naturally fascinated by everything in the world around them and Science makes a valuable contribution to their understanding. By talking together children can be encouraged to explore and observe so that they can group objects and events and look for similarities and differences. They will need to measure and record the things they have found out in ways that make sense to them so that later they can talk to other people about what they have discovered. They should be encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.

The national curriculum for science aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop lively, enquiring minds and the ability to question.
• learn scientific skills and knowledge.
• build on their natural curiosity and enable them to understand and care for the world in which they live.
• are provided with an environment where they can work in an investigative way and can communicate their findings in a variety of ways.
• Can use equipment safely and sensibly.
• develop the potential scientific links with all other areas of the curriculum.
• 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.
• are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

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 be 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. -National Curriculum 2014

EYFS 

Within the EYFS, Science is integral to the Early Learning Goal of Understanding the World. Through Carefully planned lessons and resourced provision, the Early Year Curriculum develops the foundations of what it means to be a scientist. Activities are carefully planned to meet the Early Learning Goals and develop characteristics of effective learning which underpin all of the skills and knowledge needed to ensure our pupils are next stage ready.  

Early Learning Goals The Natural World Children:

• Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants;
• Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
• Understand the effect of the changing seasons on the natural world around them.

KS1 

Within key stage 1, we ensure that our expectations enable all pupils to establish and begin to develop the key skills, knowledge and principals of working as a Scientist and the content outlined in the National Curriculum. Developing on the outcomes achieved by the EYFS, the children extend their knowledge of seasons and use their observation skills and experiences to date to embark on their journey as young scientists. In Key Stage one there is a stronger emphasis on the teaching of knowledge and vocabulary. 

The principal focus of science teaching in key stage 1 is to enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly-constructed world around them. They are encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what they notice. They are helped to develop their understanding of scientific ideas by using different types of scientific enquiry to answer their own questions, including observing changes over a period of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple comparative tests, and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They begin to use simple scientific language to talk about what they have found out and communicate their ideas to a range of audiences in a variety of ways. Most of the learning about science is done through the use of first-hand practical experiences with the additional use of appropriate secondary sources, such as books, photographs and videos to deepen pupils’ knowledge.

KS2 

The curriculum enables pupils to broaden their scientific view of the world around them. They do this through exploring, talking about, testing and developing ideas about everyday phenomena and the relationships between living things and familiar environments, and by beginning to develop their ideas about functions, relationships and interactions. They ask their own questions about what they observe and make some decisions about which types of scientific enquiry are likely to be the best ways of answering them, including observing changes over time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple comparative and fair tests and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They draw simple conclusions and use some scientific language, first, to talk about and, later, to write about what they have found out.  At upper key stage 2, they encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the world operates.  Pupils draw conclusions based on their data and observations, use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings.