Science

Curriculum Intent

Science teaching at St Peter and St Paul aims to give all children a strong understanding of the world around them whilst acquiring specific skills and knowledge to help them to think scientifically, to gain an understanding of scientific processes and also an understanding of the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future.

At St Peter and St Paul, scientific enquiry skills are embedded in each topic the children study and these topics are revisited and developed throughout their time at school. Topics, such as Plants, are taught in Key Stage One and studied again in further detail throughout Key Stage Two. This model allows children to build upon their prior knowledge and increases their enthusiasm for the topics whilst embedding this procedural knowledge into the long-term memory.

All children are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including observations, planning and investigations, as well as being encouraged to question the world around them and become independent learners in exploring possible answers for their scientific based questions. Specialist vocabulary for topics is taught and built up, and effective questioning to communicate ideas is encouraged. Concepts taught should be reinforced by focusing on the key features of scientific enquiry, so that pupils learn to use a variety of approaches to answer relevant scientific questions



Implementation

Teachers are provided with an additional three planning days per year in addition to their PPA, to plan their curriculum. As part of this planning process, teachers need to plan the following:

• A knowledge organiser which outlines knowledge (including vocabulary) all children must master;
• A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth;
• A low stakes quiz which is tested regularly to support learners’ ability to block learning and increase space in the working memory;
• Challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning in a philosophical/open manner;
• Trips and visits from experts who will enhance the learning experience;



Impact

Our Science Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes (KPI’s);
• A celebration of learning for each term which demonstrates progression across the school;
• Tracking of knowledge in pre and post learning quizzes;
• Pupil discussions about their learning