Science

The Curriculum Gift that we give to our children...

To be surprised by what happens and excited about what they discover when working practically and to ask ambitious questions.

More Information about Science

Intent

At the Limestone Peak Federation, we want our children to have an interest in science and how it impacts our daily lives. We want them to constantly be asking questions, both ‘big’ and ‘small’, as they seek to better understand the world they live in and the fundamental scientific laws that govern it, from gravity to evolution to the way light travels. Moreover, we want to ensure that they understand the role that science (and scientists) has played in our past and how it will continue to play a vital role in our future, especially in the areas of healthcare and the environment. By the time that they leave education, we want all children to have become informed, curious, scientifically literate citizens, and our science curriculum is designed to build the broad foundations of that goal. We recognise that science plays a vital role within our school community, with many parents and carers having careers as farmers, engineers and work within the manufacturing industry.

We will deliver a Science Curriculum that:  

Builds upon prior knowledge and a progression of skills to ensure all children have a secure understanding and knowledge of key science concepts  
Develops creativity and challenges all of our learners through outstanding and inclusive teaching practice 
Inspires and excites our children through engaging practical sessions which are enriched with visits and visitors

Will develop aspirational learners with an awareness of the key role that science plays within our community and the world and the opportunities that this creates for future careers  
Encourages our children to be self-motivated, independent, curious and resilient learners by developing inquiry based skills and sessions 
Encompasses outdoor learning to create meaningful experiences within their natural environment

Implementation

The curriculum is led and overseen by the science curriculum leader, who will regularly monitor, evaluate and review science teaching and learning, celebrating and sharing good practice. As with all subjects, the leader facilitates an in-depth subject inquiry with pupils, parents and staff. The outcome report can be found at the top of this page. Formative assessments will be integrated into every day science teaching to ensure teachers have an in depth knowledge of the children’s learning and inform their next steps. Low stakes testing of science will also inform termly assessments and allow for long term memory development and secure understanding of skills. Retrieval practice on a weekly basis also enables scientific concepts and vocabulary to be frequently revisited .

The National Curriculum 2014 and the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework 2017 provide the basis for our science curriculum, which is then tailored to meet the learning and developmental needs of the children in our school. 

Teachers will plan science using the newly developed progression of knowledge and skills documents which will allow children to build upon prior knowledge and understanding. All schools within the Federation use the Cornerstones Curriculum to ensure that planning both in terms of sequencing and progression in Science is appropriately challenging and robust. Scientific concepts and areas of learning are both integrated across topics and taught as discrete projects to ensure that disciplinary knowledge is central.

NB: The Science at Taddington and Priestcliffe Primary school is also supported by some discrete blocks within the Kent Science Scheme for Learning as the school closes a previous rolling programme. This will ensure that children completing the previous cycle at Taddington to not miss or repeat key units.

As Cornerstones states:

“The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the new 2014 Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. Our new curriculum will be delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) which will provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of our children’s learning.

The teaching, learning and sequencing of science will follow a blocked curriculum and thematic approach. The blocked approach has been implemented to ensure coverage and progression in all subject areas. Thematic planning has been implemented to ensure children experience science in a meaningful way as part of their broader learning journey. Science will be also be taught discretely through science weeks, culminating in a 5-week STEM project for all year groups in the summer term. The objectives of the STEM week are planned in the spring term, taking into account pupil learning gaps.

Knowledge organisers will be developed and introduced for teachers and pupils to use for each topic for reference and assessment purposes. This will map out the knowledge, vocabulary and skills needed to master the concepts as well as including suggestions for links to outdoor learning and enquiry-based sessions linking with the schools 'Big Ideas' ( more information can be found on the main curriculum page)

CPD and teaching resources are offered to the science leaders yearly, based upon one area of science. This CPD will be disseminated to staff through a workshop and staff meetings to establish up-to-date staff subject-knowledge. The resources, including the topic-specific enquiry book will be shared to further develop inclusive, challenging and outstanding teaching.

What will pupils know?

Our curriculum intent; what children in all ages across school will know is guided by the National Curriculum. Going further, knowledge and skills are sequenced and linked with other areas of learning to provide children with what we believe to be a spectacular science curriculum. Our progression documents can be found below. Our 'Big Ideas' across the curriculum are lenses in which we see and study each National Curriculum subject . Within each subject, each Big Idea is mapped to a more precise aspect. These aspects provide the necessary disciplinary knowledge for each subject. By organising learning in this way we are able to plan for deeper learning within each subject discipline whilst linking all learning in school to broader categories or Big Ideas. This also enables knowledge, skills and concepts to be constantly revisited, helping children to know more and remember more.

By the end of Y6 we want children to know about:

Impact

Children will learn when they connect new knowledge with what they know already.

During science lessons, we will ensure that children are given the opportunity to ask ambitious questions and then plan and conduct investigations with the aim of answering these questions. In Years 1 and 2 their natural curiosity should be encouraged and they will be given the opportunity to talk about what they have found out.
In Years 3 and 4, children will explore, talk about, test and develop ideas and begin to make some decisions about which types of scientific enquiry would be most effective.
In Years 5 and 6, they will encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise that scientific ideas change and develop over time. Children will draw conclusions, use evidence to justify their ideas and use their understanding to explain their findings
Children will have an awareness of the full range of scientific careers and pathways available to them and will be keen to pursue STEM subjects at secondary school.

Children will leave for secondary school equipped with the science knowledge and skills needed to succeed in their further education.
Key performance indicators within each unit of science are identified and assessed ( formatively - low stakes quizzing, retrieval practice) and through summative tests.

Would you like to know more about Science at our Schools?

If you would like to see how National Curriculum science content is covered within our rolling programme you may find this document useful. For how the curriculum is organised and for more details including how science links with and builds on prior learning , please visit class pages for topic overviews.

You can find out more about the specific way provision in Foundation Stage 2 links into the subject by reading about objectives that children access in Science in the Foundation Stage.

You may also wish to find out more about how children make progress across the school by reading our Science Progression Grid which explains the knowledge and skills we expect a typical child to demonstrate at the end of each year. The document outlines the academic year in which each knowledge statement is covered so that we can be sure that learning is progressive whilst the skills are used to support differentiation in our mixed age classes.

Cornerstones Curriculum 22 Science overview

Science programmes of study in the national curriculum are assigned to year groups. However, this is not compulsory and they must be covered before the end of the phase. Physics is not formally introduced until Key Stage 2. However, in Key Stage 1, children have opportunities to explore natural phenomena, such as shadows.

In Curriculum 22, the names of the science projects are matched to the national curriculum aspects, for example, Living things and their habitats and Earth and space. However, in Key Stage 1, the aspect of Animals, including humans has been separated so that children study humans before expanding to explore animals.

The science projects are sequenced to develop both children’s substantive and declarative knowledge, and if possible, make meaningful links to other projects. For example, in Year 3, the projects Plant Nutrition and Reproduction and Light and Shadows are taught alongside the design and technology project Greenhouse and the art and design project Beautiful Botanicals. These links allow for children to embed their substantive knowledge in new and often real-life contexts.

The sequencing of projects ensures that children have the substantive knowledge and vocabulary to comprehend subsequent projects fully. Each project’s place in the year has also been carefully considered. For example, projects that involve growing plants or observing animals are positioned at a suitable time of year to give children the best possible opportunity to make first-hand observations. Within all the science projects, disciplinary knowledge is embedded within substantive content.

Key Stage 1

In Year 1, children start the autumn term with Everyday Materials, linking this learning to the design and technology project Shade and Shelter. In the Human Senses project, they learn about parts of the human body and those associated with the senses. In the spring project Seasonal Changes, they learn broadly about seasonal changes linked to weather, living things and day length. They revisit some of this learning in the following summer term project Plant Parts. They finish with the project Animal Parts, linking back to their knowledge about body parts and senses and identifying commonalities.

In Year 2, children begin the autumn term with the project Human Survival, learning about the survival needs of humans, before expanding to study animals within their habitats in the project Habitats. Building on learning from Year 1, children learn about the uses of materials in the spring project Uses of Materials and begin to understand changes of materials through simple physical manipulation, such as bending and twisting. The spring Plant Survival project also explores survival, with children observing what plants need to grow and stay healthy. Finally, in the project Animal Survival, children bring together learning from the autumn term, thinking about what animals need to survive.

Lower Key Stage 2

Having learned about human body parts, the senses and survival in Key Stage 1, children now focus on specific body systems and nutrition in Key Stage 2. In the autumn term of Year 3, they learn about the skeletal and muscular system in the project Skeletal and Muscular Systems. This learning again links to other animals, with children identifying similarities and differences. Children also learn about healthy diets alongside the autumn term design and technology project Cook Well, Eatwell. In the spring term, properties of materials are revisited in the project Forces and Magnets, with children identifying magnetic materials and learning about the non-contact force of magnetism. They also begin to learn about contact forces, investigating how things move over surfaces. Science learning about rocks and soils is delivered through the geography project Rocks, Relics and Rumbles. Children begin to link structure to function in the summer Plant Nutrition and Reproduction project, identifying the plant parts associated with reproduction and water transport. Children finish the
year with the project Light and Shadows, where they are explicitly introduced to the subject of light, with children learning about shadows and reflections, revisiting language from Key Stage 1, including opaque and transparent.

In the autumn term of Year 4, children learn about the digestive system, again making comparisons to other animals, in the project Digestive System. The second autumn term project Sound introduces the concept of sound, with children identifying how sounds are made and travel. They learn and use new vocabulary, such as pitch and volume, and identify properties of materials associated with these concepts. In the spring term project States of Matter, children learn about solids, liquids and gases and their characteristics. They understand how temperature drives change of state and link this learning to the project Misty Mountain, Winding River, in which children learn about the water cycle. Up to this point, children have had many opportunities for grouping and sorting living things. In the spring project Grouping and Classifying, children recognise this as ‘classification’ and explore classification keys. Finally, in the summer term, children study electricity by creating and recording simple circuits in the project Electrical Circuits and Conductors. They also build on their knowledge of the properties of materials, identifying electrical conductors and insulators.

Upper Key Stage 2

In the autumn term of Year 5, children broaden their knowledge of forces, including gravity and air and water resistance, in the project Forces and Mechanisms. They revisit learning from design and technology projects, including Making It Move and Moving Mechanisms, to explore various mechanisms and their uses. Their knowledge of gravity supports the autumn term project Earth and Space, so they can understand the forces that shape planets and our solar system. They also develop their understanding of day and night, first explored in the Year 1 project Seasonal Changes. Having learned that animals and plants produce offspring in earlier projects and studied plant and animal life cycles in Sow, Grow and Farm, children now focus on the human

life cycle and sexual reproduction in the spring term project Human Reproduction and Ageing. In the summer term project Properties and Changes of Materials, children revisit much of their prior learning about materials’ properties and learn new properties, including thermal conductivity and solubility. To this point, children have learned much about reversible changes, such as melting and freezing, but now extend their learning to irreversible changes, including chemical changes.

In Year 6, the final body system children learn about is the circulatory system and its roles in transporting water, nutrients and gases in the autumn term project Circulatory System. Science learning about classification is delivered through the spring term geography project Frozen Kingdoms. In the spring term, children also build on their knowledge about electrical circuits from Year 4, now learning and recording standard symbols for circuit components and investigating the function of components and the effects of voltage on a circuit in the project Electrical Circuits and Components. In the summer project Light Theory, children recognise that light travels in straight lines from a source or reflector to the eye and explain the shape of shadows. Finally, in the project Evolution and Inheritance, children learn about inheritance and understand why offspring are not identical to their parents. They also learn about natural selection and how this can lead to the evolution of a species.

Throughout the science scheme, there is complete coverage of all national curriculum programmes of study.

Subject Leadership Snap Shot

Pedagogy

What do the Four Cornerstones look like?

Each stage of learning has its own characteristics promoting high quality teaching, built upon children's natural learning methods.

Engage

A stage of learning that provides children with an inspiring and thought provoking starting point that stirs curiosity and initiates interest. Children engage in purposeful and contextualised learning experiences; in and outside the classroom, making best use of partners, experts and the community to provide the stimulus to learn. To ensure that children are immediately ‘engaged’, teachers provide a range of memorable experiences and starting points that stimulate children's interests in a particular theme or concept.

Develop
A stage of learning that provides children with an opportunity to develop and master key skills, subject knowledge, research techniques and independence. Children become industrious learners making sense of information and experiences, leading to sound understanding and progress. Children DEVELOP their knowledge, understanding, key and subject skills required to progress their learning and attainment through quality differentiation, focused learning tasks and high quality relevant learning experiences.

Innovate
A stage of learning that challenges children’s ability to work creatively, exploring possibilities and

finding solutions. Using and applying previously learned skills, knowledge and understanding children work collaboratively to innovate, managing their own learning to achieve given success criteria. Teachers provide an imaginative and relevant provocation or scenario that provides opportunities to observe how successfully children can use, apply and problem solve in creative and imaginative ways.

Express
A stage of learning that empowers children to share, celebrate and reflect with a range of partners and audiences. Children cement their learning through shared reflection with peers and other adults and are able to suggest next steps of learning. Teachers discuss, review and support individual and group evaluations using their observations and evidence to make summative assessments.

Assessment

Knowledge and skills are linked to aspects and Big Ideas ( see above) this allows us to ensure that the component parts of what it is to be a scientist are explicitly clear. Formative Assessment is core in all sessions across school and we invest heavily in professional development including additional release time for peer review and lesson observations. Knowledge organisers as well as progression documents outline what pupils beed to know, and in addition to formative assessment , summative tests help us to make valid and reliable judgements. Any misconnects are addressed through marking and formative action takes place in the following lesson. Further, whole school theme weeks adress common areas of weakness so that we can be sure pupils gaps are not left to widen. Assessment data is used to drive developments across the curriculum including resourcing and CPD.

Culture

Our planned theme weeks ensure pupils appreciate the ways in which science underpins advances in technology and maths . Further, science is also studied both thematically and discretely. The thematic science allows children to appreciate the awe and wonder of science in many contexts for learning and in relation to the wider world.

Systems

Regular pupil progress meetings and the monitoring of lessons and outcomes enables leaders to support teachers to further improve.

Through Professional Development Meetings and in class coaching and mentoring, staff are supported in developing their own subject and subject-specific pedagogical knowledge. Science is lead by one teacher across the Federation and they have access to regular subject specific CPD and additional release time to monitor and evaluate the subject. Insights are disseminated to all other teaching staff half termly.

Retrieval practice grids are sent home for home learning as well as knowledge organisers. Together with consultation evenings, detailed reports, lesson drop in events, and theme weeks parents are kept well informed of their child’s proficiency in science.