Science
Intent
Science teaching at West Ashton Primary School 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 consideration of the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future.
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 use a range of schemes and resources to plan for Science, ensuring we deliver the full range of the Primary National Curriculum.
Differentiation is achieved through careful planning and organisation and enables all students to engage in the curriculum by providing learning tasks and activities that are tailored to their needs and abilities.
West Ashton Primary School looks to integrate practical science in almost every lesson, making learning engaging and fun. Children should be encouraged to predict, hypothesise, collect evidence, analyse and question the results they gather and evaluate what they have learnt.
Impact
Children live in an age of fast-moving science and this area of learning is fundamental to exploring, understanding and influencing the natural and made worlds in which we live. Our aim is to build on the children’s natural enthusiasm and curiosity to find out about phenomena and events in the world around them and make better sense of their environment. Science is taught both as a discreet subject and as a part of the creative curriculum depending on the focus of the unit.
In the Foundation stage, children begin to develop an understanding of science through the broad area ‘Understanding the World’. Children explore and find out about the world around them and begin to ask questions about it. As children progress through the school they are given a wide range of scientific experiences as they are introduced to more complex scientific ideas.
Children learn to ask scientific questions and begin to appreciate the way science is an integral part of our everyday modern life and will affect the future and present on a personal, national and global level. The curriculum develops scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through a range of topics from the disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
Children work scientifically and develop their understanding of scientific enquiry by establishing and evaluating explanations through experimental evidence and modelling. Children apply their mathematical knowledge to their understanding of science, including collecting, presenting and analysing data.
