Science

  Intent – What we are trying to achieve?

• To ensure all children experience a high-quality curriculum which is enjoyable whilst also provoking enquiry into the world around them through scientific methods.

 

• To provide the children with many opportunities to pose their own questions, investigate methodically and to increase their understanding of biology, chemistry and physics.

 

• To ensure the children are confident with scientific methods and are capable of using them to answer their own questions through investigations which are increasingly more independent.

 

 Implementation – How will we achieve this?

• Pre-assessments: Teachers use these to identify different children’s knowledge of a new topic and, when appropriate, their retention of concepts from previous years. This information is used to direct where extra help might be needed in class and where individual extension work might be possible.
• Knowledge Organisers: These are provided for children to refer to as a topic progresses. They set out all the content of each topic and provide definitions of key vocabulary which the children will be expected to start using.

 

• Whole class teaching: Children work towards the same common objectives and the goal that most will meet age-related expectations, some through an increased level of support from the teacher. Lessons include revisiting and embedding vocabulary built up from previous learning.

 

• Investigations: Children are introduced to practical scientific skills through half-termly investigations. These progress from teacher-led sessions to more independent activities, building over the four years to investigations in which children take ownership of the whole process, from forming a hypothesis to assessing results and making suggestions for further possible directions of study.

 

• Marking and feedback: The purpose of marking and feedback is to identify children’s understanding of a topic’s concepts and to inform the planning or need for extra support from the teacher in the next lesson.

 

• Post-assessments: Demonstrate children’s learning at the end of a topic and the progress they have made from their knowledge and understanding at its start.

 Impact – What difference will this make?

• We aim to equip the children with the necessary scientific knowledge, vocabulary and enquiring attitude in order to suggest both answers and new questions as they improve their understanding of the subject and achieve the curriculum objectives.

 

• Children will be able to demonstrate their retention of knowledge in assessments after each topic and their scientific skills as they progress towards increasingly more independent investigations.

 

• We believe that, when children leave Clowne Junior School, they will be equipped with the necessary skills and confidence to effectively continue their scientific education at Secondary School.