Intent

At Clipstone Brook Lower School, we aim to ensure that our children have a secure understanding of the world in which they live. We want them to develop a curiosity and a fascination about the world and its people, which will remain with them for the rest of their lives. At Clipstone Brook Lower School, we aim to deliver a Science curriculum that is hands on, practical and investigative. All learning will be linked to the National Curriculum and there will be cross-curricular links made across the school. All teachers will provide a wealth of subject specific skills to the children that they are teaching by asking higher order thinking questions and providing time for good quality learning. (see the curriculum map)

Implementation

What approach do we take to teaching Science?

Our aim is to ignite this curiosity at an early age in EYFS, through Understanding the World, where children begin learning about the world and their environment. We use the milestones created by Chris Quigley Education, in conjunction with our thematic planning to ensure the children develop their knowledge and skills as they move from Early Years through to Key Stage 1 and 2.

When the children leave and embark upon their middle school education, our aim is to have developed young scientists who are able to:

• Ask relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiry to answer them
  • Set up simple practical enquiries using comparative and fair tests
  • Make careful observations
  • Gather, record, classify and present data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions
  • Report findings from enquiries
  • Use results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions
  • Identify differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes

Within each Key Stage, references will be made to prior learning so that children understand the purpose of each activity. Where possible, the children will utilise the school grounds to meet the desired outcomes. Within the children’s books, there will be evidence of supporting children with SEND and by providing challenges which deepen children’s learning. Tasks will be scaffolded and resources will be provided to aid the children in their learning.

In each classroom in Key Stage 1 and 2 there will be a ‘Topic,’ display board. This will include: children’s work, pictures of any Wow Starts, trips or special organised days that have been organised to capture and inspire the children’s interest in the new topic and factual information displayed at a reading level appropriate to the age and ability of the children so that it is useful for them to access within their own learning. Knowledge organisers will be shared with children and used to re-cap on learning.

Impact

The children will develop a secure understanding of the world that we live in. The children will be able to speak about places that are of interest to them. The outcomes in children’s books will provide evidence of a broad and balanced science curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. The majority of children will achieve age related expectations in science and clear progress will be evident in their books.