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Science:
Science is a dominant part of Rillington Primary School's curriculum offer, we ensure that pupils work scientifically as well as gain scientific knowledge and understanding throughout their time in our school.
Our high-quality science education provides our children with the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science.
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Intent:
One of the main aims is to improve pupils’ knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts.
The aim is to support pupils’ long term memory and to help them to ‘know more and remember more’.
To ask questions and be curious about the world around them in order to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.
Implementation:
Our curriculum:
The starting point for our science curriculum is excellent quality literature to link the English learning with a specific science unit. For example, ‘The man who walked between the towers’ helps us focus on ‘Forces’ in science and show children that reading can be cross curricular.
The knowledge, skills and understanding of science is of paramount importance as is the pedagogy that underpins the suggested activities.
The curriculum is designed in such a way it ensures that the integrity science remains, whilst providing natural links between science and reading.
The school’s curriculum is planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before, and towards defined end points.
Science in the Early Years is mainly taught through ‘Understanding the World’.
The EYFS Framework states:
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
The table below outlines the aspects of the EYFS Curriculum that feed into our Science curriculum progression:
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Nursery (3 - 4 year olds) |
Reception (4-5 year olds) |
Early Learning Goals |
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The Natural World Comments and asks questions about what aspects of their familiar world such as the place where they live or the natural world
Talks about why things happen and how things work.
Developing understanding of growth, decay and changes over time.
Shows care and concern for living things and the environment.
Begin to understand the effect of their behaviour can have on the environment. |
The Natural World Talk about and investigate the immediate natural environment and material.
Compare, describe and investigate materials i.e leaves, plants, rocks, bark.
Explore new vocabulary.
Develop an understanding of the effect of human impact and their own behaviour on the environment.
Show care and concern for livings things and the environment.
Describe what they can see, hear and feel outside.
Develop an understanding and investigate growth, decay, changes over time. Name and describe the different seasons and their weather.
Asks questions about the natural world and where they live.
Use appropriate vocabulary to express ideas and observations.
Understand the importance of caring for the environment and natural world.
Talk about how their environment and another might differ.
Observe and interact with natural processes – ice melting, sound vibration, shadows, floating.
Observe and discuss similarities, changes and patterns in seasons, weather, growth.
Compare own environment and experience of the natural world to others.
Observe plants and animals and explain what changes occur and why.
Using a magnifying glass to observe
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ELG: The Natural World
Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants
Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
Understand some of the important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter. |
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Vocabulary Seasons/weather – Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer, freeze, melt, weather, storm, rain, snow, hail, lightning, thunder, volcano, tornados Environment – pollution, waste, recycle, reuse, sustainable, damage, destroy, deforestation, effect, decay Life cycles/plants/animals – grow develop, stem, roots, petals, pollen, pollinator, species, hibernate, mammals, reptiles, insects, wings, antennae, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore Identification – observe, identify, describe, details, features Forces – pull, push, attract, repel, magnetic |
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Planning is on a 4 year rolling programme for KS2 and a 2 year rolling programme for KS1
Curriculum long term plan science
Science - biology physics and chemistry progression of skills, knowledge and vocabulary
At both key stages, the sticky knowledge takes full account of the national curriculum’s main characteristics of:
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Working scientifically
Our science lessons:
We base our lessons on the EBIPA model of teaching science
Engage:
The engage part of the lesson motivate children by providing them with an opportunity to succeed as soon as they enter the classroom and recapping/consolidating key knowledge from the previous lesson.
Prior learning:
Children arrive into our lessons with an enormous amount of prior knowledge that we need to take account of. Some of this prior knowledge is right and some of this is wrong; and for many concepts in science, children have had time to develop some pretty deeply held misconceptions, therefore prior knowledge is incredibly important as it provided the framework for learning new knowledge. As well as this we ensure that we link new learning to something children already know, have heard about or have experienced, this means that an existing neuron in the brain is firing along with the one about the new learning. This creates a stronger pathway in the brain and makes it more likely that information will be retained. This means the knowledge is more likely to ‘stick’.
Introduce:
In this part we introduce new knowledge to the children, we begin with a concrete idea or simple context so that as teachers we start the learning from what our children already know. Modelling concepts to our children is important and we always ensure this occurs. What we deal with in science cannot be seen and so models are a powerful tool in the science classroom that help us represent, describe, explain and reason about the material world.
Build:
Children have the opportunity to practice what they have learnt in the introduce section to consolidate learning and develop understanding.
Apply:
Children have the opportunity to apply what they have learnt to new situations. This will assess understanding and consolidate understanding.
We also use knowledge organisers to support children's recall of knowledge:
Impact:
Children have a deep knowledge of scientific theories and how this can impact in the wider world
Children can demonstrate their scientific knowledge and skills through written and practical resources
Children are curious to find out how and why
