SCIENCE

"The important thing is to never stop questioning." 

Albert Einstein

At Todwick, we recognise how science impacts every aspect of daily life, and without science humankind would not have made progress throughout history.

Learning science is concerned with increasing pupils’ knowledge of our world, and with developing skills associated with science as a process of enquiry. Our science curriculum develops the natural curiosity of each child no matter their demographic, encourages them to have respect for living organisms, and instil in pupils the importance of caring for the natural environment.

Science Lessons

Using the requirements of the Science National Curriculum as our guide, our Science lessons offer opportunities for children to:

• Develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding of the disciplines of Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
• Formulate their own questions about the natural world.
• Foster the confidence to ‘be wrong’ when it comes to making predictions and postulating their own theories.
• Promote an awareness of the importance of teamwork in scientific experimentation.
• Practically investigate their questions using various methods of enquiry.
• Gain competence in the science skills of planning scientific investigations, gathering and analysing data and critical evaluation of investigations across the disciplines.
• Use a range of methods to gather data from investigations and secondary sources including I.C.T., drawings, diagrams, videos and photographs.
• Present data in a variety of methods including tables, bar charts, line graphs, pictograms and pie charts.
• Have care for the safety of all individuals in lessons by developing knowledge of the hazards of the materials and equipment they handle, along with mitigating these hazards.
• Develop an enthusiasm and enjoyment of scientific learning and discovery.

Children have weekly lessons in Science throughout the school. In Early years, science is taught through the children learning by play. We endeavour to ensure that the Science curriculum we provide will give children the confidence and motivation to continue to further develop their skills into the next stage of their education and life experiences.

Implementation

Teachers create a positive attitude to science learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all children can achieve high standards in science. Teaching is set out thus:

• Science will be taught as set out by the year group requirements of the National Curriculum. This is a strategy to enable the accumulation of knowledge and allows progress in repeated topics through the years.
• Pupils will concentrate on one science skill per term. Term 1 will be dedicated to planning investigations, Term 2 to results gathering and analysis, and Term 3 will be spent evaluating practical work.
• Through our planning, we involve problem-solving opportunities, allowing children to find out for themselves how to answer questions through a variety of practical means. Children are encouraged to ask their own questions and be given appropriate equipment to use their scientific skills to discover the answers.
• Engaging lessons are created with each lesson having both practical and knowledge elements.
• Working Scientifically skills are explicit in lessons to ensure these skills are being developed throughout the children’s school career and new vocabulary and challenging concepts are introduced through direct teaching. This is developed through the years, in keeping with the theme of the lesson.
• Teachers demonstrate how to use scientific equipment and the various Working Scientifically skills in order to embed scientific understanding.

Impact

• Children will have clear enjoyment and confidence in science that they will then apply to other areas of the National Curriculum.

• Children will show greater confidence and be more consistent in their use of scientific vocabulary.
• The impact can also be measured through key questioning within lessons to determine children’s understanding.
• Children will ultimately know more, remember more and understand more about science, demonstrating this knowledge when using tools or skills in other areas of the curriculum and in opportunities out of school.
• The vast majority of children will achieve age-related expectations in science.
• Pupil voice will be carried out to assess children’s views on the subject.

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