Our intent is to give every child a broad and balanced Science curriculum which enables them to understand, through specific, clear-focused lessons, the material world around them, so that they have a deeper, holistic understanding of the world we live in.
It is our intent to encourage children to be inquisitive about the world, nurturing their innate curiosity and enabling them to develop a range of scientific and collaborative skills that are useful across the whole curriculum.
Science is put into historical and contemporary contexts by studying a diverse range of significant scientists relevant to each topic.
Implementation
In our Science there are two types of knowledge: Substantive knowledge (sum total of everything that is known – facts/figures – laws of nature etc) and Disciplinary knowledge (formally called ‘working scientifically’ – teaching skills of ‘how do we know’ eg. Knowledge of scientific methods – models/classification/patterns/fair testing, knowledge of apparatus – apparatus/safety/procedures, knowledge of data analysis – graphs/tables, knowledge of how science uses evidence to help develop explanations/evidence/conclusions.
Substantive knowledge + disciplinary knowledge = powerful scientific knowledge and a holistic and deeper understanding of the material world.
Our weekly science lessons now consist of 4 different components:
1. Recall – perhaps of previous years' vocabulary e.g. sedimentary rocks
2. Recap – previous lessons on this topic’s vocabulary/key ideas
3. Substantive knowledge - be taught key concepts/ideas (this will be teacher assessed with the support of HIAS assessments and exemplification judgements)
4. Do an investigation to learn/show disciplinary knowledge (this will be tracked)
Our sequence of learning:
Progression map:
Impact:
The back of Science books are being used as glossaries. Year 6The back of Science books are being used as glossaries. Year 2
Science books are to record new information/learning.Display boards are used to reinforce vocabulary, show current key-ideas and allow children (using a post-it notes) to ask questions about the topic.
Science in EYFS
Forest school enables every year group to support their scientific understanding; from Year R minibeasts to Habitats in Year 1, How light travels/behaves in Year 6, Food chains in Year 4, animal timelines in Year 2, to name just a few. The children learn respect and caring for the environment.
We teach explicit disciplinary skills
SEND, inclusion & adaption in Science
Resources for disciplinary (easy grip pipettes) and substantive (photocopies assessment grid)
Adult/peer help
Expectation of presentation
Pictures to support processes and language e.g. evaporation/condensation
Mixed ability groups
Science club - to add to children's cultural capital
Capture modelled examples of investigations/processes e.g LSA to video – children can re-watch to aid memory, print out screenshots and use to help own sequencing of investigations/processes
Knowledge organisers & glossaries in different formats
Yellow paper used for key ideas (dyslexia friendly)
Personalised learning interventions
Wide range of teaching and learning styles used to appeal to kinaesthetic, auditory and visual learners.
Science visitors to our classes
We recognise the importance of visitors from our community and from STEM ambassadors who come to talk to the children about Science in the 'real world'.
Thank you Mr Pelling who came to talk to Year 2s about forces
