Robert Piggott Subject Overview: Science

Curriculum Intent:

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

• 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.

Implementation:

Our pedological approach to teaching this subject in the Robert Piggott CE Schools:

At Robert Piggott Schools wherever possible, Science links to topic work or other areas of the curriculum. Teachers have the professional flexibility to plan from a variety of resources, including Hamilton Trust, Developing Experts, etc, to ensure that the 2014 NC objectives are met and to maximise the learning experience for their class.  Our Long Term Plans, demonstrate how we have organised the Programmes of Study across the year groups.

Our organisation of children when teaching Science depends on a wide variety of factors including the lesson objective, situation, differentiation or matching and additional adults in the room etc. Best practice, encouraging high standards in teaching and learning, is explained in our Teaching and Learning Policy and is also advised by government guidelines within the NC document as well as ASE H&S guidance.

All science teaching will involve plenty of “hands on”: finding out from first-hand experience and testing hypotheses, in line with “working scientifically” from the NC document.

Full scientific enquiry, involving the concept of fair testing, will occur in each unit of work where appropriate. There will be many other lessons where aspects of investigations are reinforced. As the children progress through the school a greater emphasis is placed on investigative work. Scientific ideas should be developed through practical investigation wherever possible.

Investigations will always be followed by thorough reinforcement of the knowledge and understanding gained from the experience. Children will be given the opportunity to devise and implement their own investigations.

Impact:

At Robert Piggott Schools, we aspire for our children to not only acquire the appropriate age-related substantive knowledge, but also to understand the fundamentals of biology, chemistry and physics within the understanding of the wider world. There are assessment frameworks in place at the beginning and end of each unit to fully understand the knowledge and skills attained by all students, this information will be used as the children pass through to the next cohort so that future teachers are aware of the strengths and weaknesses and can plan accordingly when units are revisited before new knowledge is built upon.

We expect our children to have:

• A breadth of skills linked to scientific knowledge and understanding, including scientific enquiry and investigative skills.
• Children can articulate their previous learning to support new knowledge and can apply this to scientific enquiry and investigation.
• A rich vocabulary to support their learning of concepts, skills and knowledge.
• A love of science, ignited through extra opportunities, for example STEM week with workshops and investigations, and encouragement through to further study and career opportunities.

By the end of year 2, we expect our pupils to:

• Have a developing understanding of the world around them, finding curiosities in the way living things around them develop and survive, the materials around them, their properties and uses, learning about the changing seasons and how they affect the environment.
• Be able to articulate their learning using age-related appropriate vocabulary that has been modelled to them.
• Have a budding interest in scientific enquiry through questioning and exploration in to how and why things work.
• Have an understanding on how to conduct basic investigations through questions, observation and use of equipment.

By the end of year 6, we expect our pupils to:

• Have a good understanding of the world around them, with a deepening knowledge about the classifications of living things and non-living things (including rocks) and the place they have in our wider eco system, including understanding evolution and inheritance, the purpose of light, sound, electricity, forces and magnets, the changing states of matter, earth and space.
• Be able to articulate their learning using age-related appropriate vocabulary that has been modelled to them and pose their own discussions following a stimulus within a unit, have some freedom in how to explore that concept for themselves.
• Build on their previous learning to progress in scientific enquiry through questioning and exploration.
• Have an understanding on how to conduct fair and complex investigations, understanding the need for repeat testing, predictions and collecting data for conclusions through observations and use of specialist equipment.