Intent
At Spring Gardens, our vision is to give children a science curriculum which enables them to confidently explore and discover the world around them, so that they have a deeper understanding of the world we live in. We aim to create fun and stimulating science lessons that nurture children’s natural curiosity and their on-going development.
The intention is to teach a hands-on, enquiry-based curriculum which promotes questioning, challenge, working practically, investigating, evaluating, making choices, working independently and using scientific vocabulary. Children will also develop an understanding of how important and relevant science is to their lives, now and in the future, by exploring the world around them. We want our children to be able to relate all science work to their own experiences and ideas. In this way, we hope that science can encourage children to become analytical with developed reasoning and problem-solving skills, as well as effective communicators.
Science Curriculum Overview 2024-2025
Implementation
At Spring Gardens we ensure high standards of teaching and learning in science, by implementing a curriculum that is progressive throughout the school. We use a cross-curricular approach to Science in Key Stage1, where learning is linked around a main theme, and ‘Switched on Science’ in Key Stage 2. Switched on Science is organised into topics and year groups and designed around the statutory requirements for Primary Science and gives full coverage of the National Curriculum.
At the beginning of each topic, teachers take time to find out what our children already understand and want to find out. Through teacher modelling and questioning, we want our children to wonder and be amazed by the world around them as we recognise that some of our children sometimes lack experiences. Key scientific language is modelled and taught throughout lessons enabling our children to be familiar with and use vocabulary accurately. We are committed to providing exciting, hands on and practical experiences for all children at Spring Gardens. In turn this will help promote independent learning, curiosity and a love for enquiry and knowledge.
We aim to provide a clear progression of children’s work and teachers’ expectations. As a school, we recognise that the teaching of all subjects, including Science, is inclusive and promotes equality of opportunity for all children. Teaching and learning is adapted, where needed, in order to meet the needs of all children so that every child has access to the curriculum and can achieve success.
Impact
At Spring Gardens, children:
* enjoy Science and are enthusiastic about it.
* grow in confidence using and explaining scientific vocabulary.
* ask increasingly more sophisticated questions about their scientific learning and reflect with greater depth on their knowledge.
* become increasingly independent in science, and are able to complete pupil lead investigations.
* ask questions to ensure any misconceptions of a topic are addressed.
* complete post-assessment questions to enable teachers and pupils to assess their learning.
* are challenged and supported in science with high expectations made of them.