Science

Intent

To support our whole school curriculum intent in Science, we aim to give all children a strong understanding of the world around them whilst acquiring specific skills and knowledge to help them to think scientifically, to gain an understanding of scientific processes and also an understanding of the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future.

At Charles Saer Community Primary School, children are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including observations, planning and investigations, as well as being encouraged to question the world around them and become independent learners in exploring possible answers for their scientific based questions. We ensure that Working Scientifically skills are built on and developed throughout children’s time at school so that they can apply their knowledge of Science when using equipment, conducting experiments, building arguments and explaining concepts confidently and continue to ask questions and be curious about their surroundings.

We want our children to have a broad vocabulary and we work hard to narrow the vocabulary gap. Scientific language is to be taught and built upon as topics are revisited in different year groups across key stages. In every classroom, ten new words are introduced and displayed each week, which often link to their current Science topic. Children become confident in using this new vocabulary and these words are then revisited throughout their time at school.

The staff at Charles Saer Community Primary School ensure that all children are exposed to high quality teaching and learning experiences, which allow children to explore their outdoor environment and locality, thus developing their scientific and investigation skills. We believe that first hand experiences are crucial in developing the whole child and children are offered a wide range of extra curricular activities, visits, trips and visitors to complement and broaden the Science curriculum. These are purposeful and link with the knowledge being taught in class. Children gain a lot from these experiences and they develop a sense of pride in self, school and community. Our Science curriculum enables children to develop their skills of cooperation and commitment through working with others, and to encourage where possible, ways for children to explore Science in forms which are relevant and meaningful to them.

At Charles Saer Community Primary School, we have developed a creative approach to our curriculum using ‘Maestro’ units over a two-year cycle. Through this, Science is taught either as a cross-curricular link or as a focus topic, following the National Curriculum programmes of study.

Whole School Overview 2019-2021: