Science

At Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School, science should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum programmes of study for Science. By doing this we endeavour to provide our pupils with a coherently planned and sequenced science curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners, no matter their abilities, the knowledge and skills that will help them as they progress in science from Early Years onwards. At Our Lady’s, we also 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 prominence it requires. 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. It 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.

We ensure that all children are provided with rich learning experiences that aim to:

Be equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future
Build on our children’s natural curiosity by encouraging them to critically question the world around them and develop a scientific approach to solving problems.
Develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of Science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them.
Learn about scientists who have made a difference in society and think about the role they play in the real world. This could be taught through guided reading within science lessons.
Encourage rich questioning which stimulates thinking and makes children want to find out the answers to these ‘real life’ problems.
Encourage open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance and develop the skills of investigations – including: observing, measuring, predicting, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating.
Make appropriate links between science and other subjects.
Inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the natural and man-made world and a respect for the environment and living things that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
Equip children with the language to be able to discuss their learning and confidently explain their understanding using a range of scientific vocabulary, facts and data.
Develop our children’s science capital through their lessons as well as through the other experiences they are offered, such as educational visits, STEM visitors and enrichment days.

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Science, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. The Science curriculum at Our Lady’s is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. To achieve this, we do the following:

Children begin their science education in Reception. This involves them learning foundational knowledge mainly through the ‘understanding the world’ area of learning. We ensure that children are provided with a range of opportunities and contexts for them to start to learn a range of scientific vocabulary.
Before teaching a unit of work, teachers assess children’s prior knowledge and understanding and use this as the starting point from which to move forward, ensuring that connections are made, and previous knowledge is built upon.
An adapted Kent Scheme of work is used to ensure consistency across all year groups and to build progression throughout the school.
Knowledge organisers have been created for each topic. These are shared with the children and used as a point of reference throughout the topic to support the children’s learning.
Teachers in all classes use ‘Explorify’ as a starting point for most science lessons in order to inspire curiosity, encourage all pupils to engage in scientific discussions, support the development of scientific vocabulary, make links with previous lessons, identify misconceptions and to assess learning.
Staff take part in CPD to develop and extend subject knowledge.
The use of retrieval questions are encouraged in science lessons to allow the children to develop their recall of science knowledge and vocabulary, making changes to long term memory.
Where appropriate, teachers should plan opportunities to learn science outside the classroom.
Regular monitoring of science provision across the school by the science subject leader.

Please click on the link below to view our science long term overview.