Science at Hensall Community Primary

Science in our school is a popular area of the curriculum with as many practical opportunities for learning built in as possible. We focus both on knowledge acquisition and skills development particularly through "working scientifically." There is an emphasis on making cross-curricular links.

Intent

Through Science, it is our intention that all children develop a lifelong curiosity and interest in the world around them. Children should have the opportunity, wherever possible, to learn through varied systematic investigations, leading to them being equipped for life to ask and answer scientific questions about the world around them. As children progress through the year groups, they build on their skills in working scientifically, as well as on their scientific knowledge, as they develop greater independence in planning and carrying out fair and comparative tests to answer a range of scientific questions.  Our Science curriculum aims to ensure that children have varied, progressive and well-mapped-out experiences that provide the opportunity for progression.

Implementation

The acquisition of key scientific knowledge is just one part of our science lessons. Children learn and retain the important, useful and powerful vocabulary and knowledge contained within each unit. The progression of skills for working scientifically are developed through the year groups and these scientific enquiry skills are also of key importance within lessons. Each lesson has a clear focus. Scientific knowledge and enquiry skills are developed with increasing depth and challenge as children move through the year groups. They complete investigations and hands-on activities while gaining the scientific knowledge for each unit. Scientific knowledge and skills are embedded, with each lesson building on previous learning.  Activities are effectively differentiated so that all children have an appropriate level of support and challenge. Children are not only taught knowledge but they are also supported in planning their own investigations, predicting the outcomes and communicating their findings in a variety of ways. Science is usually taught as part of a wider topic or theme for each half term although sometimes it is taught as a stand-alone subject if this is more appropriate. We endeavour to make positive links particularly with ICT, DT and Maths. Please click below to see our 2022-2023 Science coverage for the whole school.

Impact

Progress is measured through a child’s ability to know more, remember more and explain more. Opportunities are built into each Science lesson for ongoing assessment. Interwoven into the teaching sequence, and at the end of each unit, are key assessment questions. We assess children's levels of understanding at various points in the lesson and the unit. They also enable opportunities to recap concepts where necessary.  At the end of each year, attainment is passed on to the next teacher so they can continue to build on the child’s progress. Children who feel confident in their science knowledge and enquiry skills will be excited about science, show that they are actively curious to learn more and will see the relevance of what they learn in science lessons to real-life situations and also the importance of science in the real world.

Here's what some of our pupils think about Science at Hensall:

"I really like Science because you get to learn about lots of different things." (Gabriella)

"My favourite thing in Science was when we learned about Digestion." (Imogen)

Curriculum Progression Documents 

The curriculum progression document for science shows how we map subject knowledge and skills sequentially from EYFS to Year 6. In each year group, we know the order of what our pupils have learnt, what they are learning and what they will need to learn in the future. This document enables us to identify any gaps in learning that need to be addressed to ensure that new learning makes sense to our pupils.

In addition to this we also map out subject specific vocabulary across school and examples of texts that may be used in different year groups.