Our Science Subject Leader is

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 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.

Subject Content

Key Stage One

Working Scientifically

During years 1 and 2, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:

• asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways
• observing closely, using simple equipment
• performing simple tests
• identifying and classifying
• using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions
• gathering and recording data to help in answering questions.

Year 1

Pupils should be taught to:

Plants

• identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees
• identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees.

Animals including humans

• identify and name a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals
• identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores
• describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including pets)
• identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense.

Everyday materials

• distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made
• identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, and rock
• describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials
• compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of their simple physical properties.

Seasonal changes

• observe changes across the four seasons
• observe and describe weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies.

Year 2

Pupils should be taught to:

Living things and their habitats

• explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive
• identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other
• identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats
• describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food.

Plants

• observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants
• find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy.

Animals including humans

• notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults
• find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air)
• describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene.

Uses of everyday materials

• identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses
• find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

Lower Key Stage 2

Working Scientifically

During years 3 and 4, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:

• asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them
• setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
• making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers
• gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions
• recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables
• reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions
• using results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions
• identifying differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes
• using straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings.

Year 3

Pupils should be taught to:

Plants

• identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers
• explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant
• investigate the way in which water is transported within plants
• explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.

Animals, including humans

• identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat
• identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.

Rocks

• compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties
• describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock
• recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.

Light

• recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light
• notice that light is reflected from surfaces
• recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes
• recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object
• find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.

Forces and magnets

• compare how things move on different surfaces
• notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance
• observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others
• compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials
• describe magnets as having two poles
• predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.

Year 4

Pupils should be taught to:

Living things and their habitats

• recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
• explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment
• recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Animals, including humans

• describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans
• identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions
• construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey.

States of matter

• compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases
• observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C)
• identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.

Sound

• identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating
• recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear
• find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it
• find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it
• recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases.

Electricity

• identify common appliances that run on electricity
• construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers
• identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery
• recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit
• recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.

Upper Key Stage 2 to follow soon.

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
• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• 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

Content Coming Soon!