Intent
In our holy family, we all thrive socially, academically and spiritually to our fullest potential.
We teach Science to develop in children a curiosity about the natural world and a desire to ask and discover the answers to why? what? and how? We want our children to develop a lifelong love of learning and look after the world around them through our school’s enquiry concepts: Questioning, planning, collecting and evaluating.
Implementation
Science is taught through a range of enquiry-based teaching and learning methods which include practical activities, out-of-classroom learning, independent and group work, problem solving, and digital technologies.
Teachers have the flexibility to teach the subject area in a way that suits their timetable and the needs of the class, whether through individual lessons each week or blocked into longer sessions, particularly where enquiry is the focus. Links will be made with other subjects to help make the use of science purposeful and to help revisit knowledge to develop long term learning.
A set of knowledge organisers for each area have been developed. These outline what the children should already be able to do and any new learning such as important diagrams and key vocabulary. These are to be glued into books at the start of each new topic area and they are progressive for each year group.
The Science skills progression document has been formed to help teachers ensure that new learning builds upon previously taught knowledge or skills. The teacher assessment documents are there to support teachers with their judgements and give statements, enquiry objectives or learning intentions to act as a guide.
At the start of each lesson, teachers should be revisiting prior knowledge by hosting mini quizzes or memory meetings. These will be used to support retrieval, mirroring work in Maths and other subjects. This may revisit previous or current vocabulary. These include standardised definitions to maintain consistent meaning and support teacher knowledge.
The Holy Family investigation format ensures that children are familiar with the process of investigation as they progress through school and the documents progress in terms of terminology and depth. There is a minimum expectation of 1 formal investigation a term in KS1 and 2 in UKS2.
We have a dedicated science area in school to promote the love and learning of Science outside of the classroom and to help children make connections between learning as they progress through school.
Outdoor education sessions with Mr Parker (EYFS-Y6) further provide opportunity to question and explore the world around them and learn science in different environments.
