Our vision
 

Our vision for Science at St Francis CE Primary School is to ensure that all learners have a secure foundation in the knowledge and skills that they will need for the future; both at secondary school and in their lives beyond education. They will have also developed a passion for Science, with a curiosity and skill that gives them the confidence to ask questions, understand the rapidly changing world around them, and engage in current scientific news and debate.

How we teach Science

At St Francis CE Primary School, our Science teaching is based around enquiry-led learning.  Enquiry-led learning focuses on the development of cognitively challenging, practical, and interactive primary Science lessons.  Teachers enable their pupils to think and talk about scientific concepts through dedicated discussion time; they provide pupils with a wide range of opportunities for creative investigations and problem solving; and they focus the pupils’ recording so that there is always time for practical Science.

Investigations are designed to create awe and wonder and to instil a curiosity for Science, whilst being engaging and informative.  Real world links help to show how the skill being learned is also relevant e.g.

• Identify whether the strongest legs can jump the highest (healthy bodies).
• Find out whether expensive kitchen paper is worth the extra money (materials).

Children have lots of questions about the world around us and we aim to provide them with the necessary core scientific knowledge and investigative skills to answer their questions about those processes. At present, our curriculum provides a rich variety of topics that cover all the core scientific disciplines and contexts that the children can relate to their everyday lives.  At the start of each topic, the children are posed with a key question or context from which they generate their own scientific lines of enquiry.  They will then explore this question using a variety of investigative skills, engaging and becoming more familiar with each of the elements of the scientific method as they progress through the school.  At the end of the topic, children will be able to answer the question using a range of skills that they have developed.  These include skills such as generating their own lines of enquiry, making predictions, analysing results, observing changes over time, collecting results in a variety of ways, drawing conclusions from their observations and evaluating their own method and the reliability of their results.  Underpinning this is an emphasis on children actively participating in their own practical investigations and experiments, utilizing the classroom, wider school environment and the local environment and community.

Health and Safety

In key stage 1, and key stage 2 all pupils study Science within their own classroom environments, with the occasional visit to outside areas when appropriate to the lesson, there are some small risks which need to be monitored.  The risk of harm is low, as the experiments/investigations tend to be on a smaller scale.  However, it is vital that children and staff follow the key principals of Health and Safety during a Science lesson. In upper Key Stage 2, in order to support transition, children are actively encouraged to use CLEAPPS to risk assess their own enquiries where appropriate.

It is our aim to ensure that all pupils feel safe and secure in Science lessons and do not come to any harm.  Children are actively encouraged to be sensible at all times during a Science lesson and to carefully follow the teacher’s instructions and the following basic laboratory rules:

• Never run during a practical activity
• Always stand for practical activities
• Have hair tied back during a practical activity
• Ensure chairs are fully tucked under tables during a practical activity
• Ensure hands are washed thoroughly after practical activity
• Clean equipment correctly after practical
• Follow instructions/guidance carefully during practical activity
• Report accidents to teacher immediately
• Never leave equipment unattended during a practical activity
• Keep work area clear and tidy (minimal possessions on table)

How we assess learning in Science

Within each academic year, children will study a range of scientific topics.  In both Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Key Stage 2 (KS2), children are taught Science as a freestanding subject, covering a specific topic each half term. Each Science topic is primarily based around one of the three core disciplines (Biology, Physics and Chemistry) with the aim that children are exposed to different methods of working scientifically throughout all topic areas. Teachers will assess different National Curriculum learning objectives which link to the topic on the school’s online data tracking system Insight.

How we plan learning in Science

Lessons are planned to ensure an enquiry-led approach is undertaken, with a mixture of creative investigations and experiments, as well as focussed recording and opportunities for problem solving.  Teachers also encourage children to make real world links within science, so the topic is always relevant, engaging and most importantly, informative.

Firstly, teachers will focus on the prior learning and recap any knowledge necessary for the topic.  Teachers will use this to guide their planning and match the different points of the curriculum to the learning intentions of each session so that the question is easily answered at the end of the topic and the children are following the correct knowledge progression necessary to their learning. Children will also be encouraged to use the topic specific vocabulary throughout their work.  Teachers will do ‘checks on learning’ regularly, to ensure that the correct level of detail and skill is being used by the children, and that the children are grasping the key principals of the topic in Science that they are focussing on.