Our Science Subject Leadership is shared
Intent
At West Coker Primary School Primary School we believe that a quality Science curriculum should develop children’s love of exploration and investigation and should provide the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of Biology, Chemistry and Physics as detailed in the National Curriculum Programme of Study 2014.
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. They should be encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.
We are also, as a response to the ‘fake news’ agenda and dismissive attitude towards those who are experts in their fields, ensuring children understand the importance of evidence based research, peer review and naming sources.
Implementation
Teachers create a positive attitude to science learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in science. Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of science involves the following;
- All science teaching is linked to the National Curriculum objectives for each Key Stage.
- Year 1 and 2 are taught on a two-year rolling programme and Years 3 to 6 on a four-year rolling programme that ensure that, by the end of Year 6, children will have covered all the National Curriculum objectives for Science.
- Science is taught weekly across all year groups.
- The Cornerstones Maestro Curriculum 22 provides planning, resources and objectives, sourced from the National Curriculum, that teachers can modify to suit the school’s context and the children they are teaching.
- Staff are made aware of CPD opportunities to enhance subject knowledge
- Children are encouraged to ask their own questions and be given opportunities to use their scientific skills and research to discover the answers. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual knowledge and skills, and assess children regularly to identify those children with gaps in learning.
- Learning and skill development is built on each year.
- Working Scientifically skills are embedded into lessons to ensure these skills are being developed throughout the children’s school career and new vocabulary and challenging concepts are introduced through direct teaching. This is developed through the years, in-keeping with the topics.
- A hands-on approach to children’s learning is used as often as possible to help develop skilld and ensure ‘sticky’ learning.
- A display of children’s work, alongside relevant supporting information, is displayed in the classroom.
- Teachers demonstrate how to use scientific equipment, and the various Working Scientifically skills in order to embed scientific understanding. They stress the need to work safely and teach children how to use and look after equipment.
- Teachers find opportunities to develop children’s understanding of their surroundings by accessing outdoor learning.
Impact
Within science, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing opportunities for children to question and investigate to discover answers for themselves and take their learning in a direction that interests them.
Our science curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and the use of key scientific vocabulary.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Marking of written work in books and verbal feedback
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning and knowledge retrieval quizzes
- Images of the children’s practical learning
- Formal reporting of standards at the end of each Key Stage
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum to parents