Our St Swithun's curriculum for Science

The Subject Leader for Science is Mrs Ogden. 

The Scientific area of learning is concerned with increasing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of our world, and with developing skills associated with Science as a process of enquiry. 

Intent

At St Swithun’s, We recognise the importance of Science in every aspect of daily life. As one of the core subjects taught in Primary Schools, we give the teaching and learning of Science the priority it requires.we aim to inspire our children by: Giving them the opportunities to pursue their natural curiosity;  Promoting the experience of exploring and Investigating scientific phenomena, in a range of contexts,  and to ensure a continually evolving knowledge and understanding of the world around them. 

Through Science we will develop the natural curiosity of the child, encourage respect for living organisms and the physical environment and provide opportunities for critical evaluation of evidence.

Our children are encouraged to ask questions, experiment, reflect and make (and learn from) mistakes in a safe environment. Through this they will acquire and apply core skills which will equip them for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world, today and in the future.

Implementation

The National Curriculum focuses on two dimensions for teaching science:

• Developing scientific knowledge 
• Developing scientific skills

At St Swithun’s, science is taught as a discrete subject and focuses on developing pupils’ competence in both dimensions. Our scientific teaching is concerned with increasing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of our world, and with developing skills associated with Science as a process of enquiry. 

Science lessons are taught in a variety of ways ensuring that all children can access and participate in lessons. Interactive, practical activities encourage the children to discuss their ideas and extend their understanding of difficult concepts and challenging questions. The use of knowledge organisers and subject specific vocabulary displays in classrooms ensure that children can engage with new concepts and skills.

Science in the curriculum

1. We plan using the National Curriculum.
2. Key Learning and Progression in Skills grids are used to develop long term planning.
3. Teachers use the long term planning to plan units of work and deliver individual lessons.

Science teaching ensures that: 

• All pupils are given the opportunity to develop scientific knowledge and acquire scientific skills in a science lesson. 
• Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
• Each topic is bult on in a spiral curriculum, allowing children to learn more and remember more as they progress as scientists through school
• Children are given opportunities to explore, question, predict, research, plan, carry out investigations and observations as well as conclude their findings.
• Children present their findings and learning using science specific language, observations, diagrams, graphs and charts to enable our children to become effective communicators of scientific ideas, facts and data.

Impact

By the time children leave St Swithun’s, they will have acquired age related knowledge and skills linked to the science curriculum. They will pursue their natural curiosity in a safe environment, developing an understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through scientific enquiries and can answer scientific questions about the world around them. They are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.