At Woodsetts Primary School, we recognise the importance of Science in every aspect of daily life. As one of the core subjects taught in primary schools, we give the teaching and learning of Science the prominence it requires.

The Scientific area of learning is concerned with increasing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of our world, and with developing skills associated with Science as a process of enquiry. It will develop the natural curiosity of the child, encourage respect for living organisms and the physical environment and provide opportunities for critical evaluation of evidence. As we place such an importance on enquiry, each of our science units of work starts with a key question.

At Woodsetts Primary School, in conjunction with the aims of the National Curriculum, our Science teaching offers opportunities for children to:

• Develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of Biology, Chemistry and Physics;
• Develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of Science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them;
• Be equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future.
• Develop the essential scientific enquiry skills to deepen their scientific knowledge.
• Use a range of methods to communicate their scientific information and present it in a systematic, scientific manner, including I.C.T., diagrams, graphs and charts.
• Develop a respect for the materials and equipment they handle with regard to their own, and other children’s safety.
• Develop an enthusiasm and enjoyment of scientific learning and discovery.

Teachers create a positive attitude to science learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in science. Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of science involves the following:

• Key concepts and knowledge have been carefully mapped out across year groups.
• Science will be taught in planned and arranged topic blocks by the class teacher. This is a strategy to enable the achievement of a greater depth of knowledge. Working scientifically skills are mastered over a two year cycle and each year group has specific content domain units with skills and knowledge to be covered.
• Our science curriculum key questions are mapped out along our science road maps (see below). We ensure that skills and knowledge are taught sequentially as children move through school through the use of our progression grids. Key 'sticky knowledge' and vocabulary are also shared and taught through the Knowledge Grids.
• Through our planning, we involve problem solving opportunities that allow children to find out for themselves. Children are encouraged to ask their own questions and be given opportunities to use their scientific skills and research to discover the answers. This curiosity is celebrated within the classroom.
• Planning involves teachers creating engaging lessons, often involving high-quality resources to aid understanding of conceptual knowledge.
• Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual knowledge and skills, and assess children regularly to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all children keep up.
• We build upon the learning and skill development of the previous years. As the children’s knowledge and understanding increases, and they become more proficient in selecting, using scientific equipment, collating and interpreting results, they become increasingly confident in their growing ability to come to conclusions based on real evidence.
• Working Scientifically skills are embedded into 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 topics.
• Teachers demonstrate how to use scientific equipment, and the various Working Scientifically skills in order to embed scientific understanding. Teachers find opportunities to develop children’s understanding of their surroundings by accessing outdoor learning and workshops with experts
• Children in our Early Years (F1 and F2) have regular opportunities to develop their early scientific understanding and curiosity through their "Knowledge and Understanding of the World" curriculum.
• Children then have weekly lessons in Science throughout Key Stage 1 and 2, using our programme of study and resources.
• Additional opportunities are provided in Science, such as science days for children, Science fairs in school and educational visits linked to the science curriculum.

The rest of this document outlines how we implement science in more detail.

Linked to our school vision, our ambition is for our children to understand and marvel at the world around them, learn through asking and answering questions and incrementally building on concepts about science as they progress through school. The Association for Science Education (ASE) argues that children should “…conceive the goals of science education, not in terms of the knowledge of a body of facts and theories, but as a progression towards understanding key ideas – ‘big ideas’ – of relevance to students’ lives during and beyond school.”

Following a great deal of curriculum research and discussion, we decided that we needed children to gain an understanding of a number of key concepts within science to help prepare them for later education and employment. We looked to the ASE (Association Science Education) and their research paper on "Working with big ideas in science (2015)" as a starting point. We used this to draw up the key concepts that children will learn as they progress through our science curriculum at Woodsetts:

These key concepts 'thread' through our curriculum and help to develop children's scientific understanding. We have mapped out these concepts across the units of work to help both teachers and children make the relevant connections. The content of each unit might seem to children (and teachers) to be disconnected from each other. The document we created combines the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Primary Science with the Key Concepts, showing the ways in which each science unit relates to others. Read horizontally, each of the concepts in each of the National Curriculum science units are plotted against the Key Concepts. Read vertically, the document shows the conceptual progression through the primary phase for each of the Key Concepts. Here is a page from this document to highlight this:

We plan for science using the National Curriculum objectives to ensure a robust and thorough approach. We have mapped out the skills and knowledge for each unit to ensure progression and coverage.This also links to prior learning within the EYFS.

Working scientifically skills are also mapped out to ensure that these are covered. As we work to a mastery curriculum approach, these are taught over two years so that children can learn, apply and master them over a range of units of work. Here is an example page from our progression document:

As we want to develop our children as enquiring scientists, each of our units of work begins with a question. These have been mapped out on to our curriculum road maps. This visual representation is to help show the children their journey through their science learning.

To ensure that our curriculum is the best it can be, we have created a unit overview for each science unit of work. This outlines the following information to help teachers and children:

• Rationale and intent for the unit
• Links to our PSHE Pillars
• Links to other subjects
• Links to other science units
• Working scientifically skills covered
• Key retrieval vocabulary from prior units
• New vocabulary to be learnt
• Key concepts being covered
• Lesson by lesson break down of key retrieval and new knowledge to be learnt

This is a snapshot of one of the unit plans:

To help share key information and knowledge for each unit of work, we provide children with a knowledge mat. This is put into the books for them to refer to. They also take a copy home to share with families and support with home learning. These mats include some key facts to learn and some of the important vocabulary to be learnt. Here is an example:

To help our children in their science, we provide a number of ways for them to learn at home before, during and after a unit of work. This includes some of the following approaches:

• Science activities included in our termly home learning menus
• Home learning tasks sent home to complete
• Online home learning challenges available via our secure Google Drive folder
• Science experiments to try at home
• Links shared with children e.g. BBC Bitesize, Oaks National Academy lessons and more

We assess scientific understanding in a number of ways to help ensure our children retain and master key knowledge and skills. These include:

All of this information is used by the teacher to understand what has been retained and mastered and what might need to be re-visited within a subsequent unit, across the curriculum or in the next year.

The final unit for each year group is called "Scientists and Inventors" which allows teachers the opportunity to revisit key learning from across the year.

Children are able to learn about famous scientists and inventors within different fields of science whilst also covering some of the key learning from earlier units e.g. they may learn about Einstein and cover key knowledge again about gravity and forces.

This unit of work also allows us to link to subjects such as history by learning about significant individuals. We also ensure that there is representation of scientists from different cultures, ethnicities, gender and more. This links to our work on "No Outsiders" and helping our children to gain a good understanding of the world and people within it. Here is an example Knowledge Mat from one of our scientist and inventor units:

We try to link our learning in science to other areas of the curriculum to support the children in their learning. This includes:

• Making links with our novel study driving texts in English e.g. in Y4 children learn about the book "Butterfly Lion" which is undertaken at the same time as their unit in science learning about habitats. This allows them to think about the different habitats within this story.
• Linking science and maths e.g. using scientific data to make graphs, tables and charts.
• Computing and ICT skills such as learning how to use a spreadsheet and then using one to organise science data.
• As out curriculum is built on the PSHE Pillars, we try to link each unit of work to these e.g. when learning about the human body, we link to the PSHE aspects of how to keep healthy.
• History learning is connected through our "Scientists and Inventors" unit. We also try to put scientific discoveries into a historical context for the children to support their understanding of chronology.
• Geography learning is linked in through talking and where key discoveries and scientists come from within the world. We also try to ensure that concepts such as habitats and where animals come from is linked to their current learning within geography.

As we believe reading is the key to all of the curriculum, we link our science units to key texts as much as possible. This includes the texts in our English lessons but also in our story times, guided reading sessions and the texts we send home. Each unit of work has suggested books that the children may read e.g. Y6 "Pig Heart Boy" linked to their unit on the human body and the circulatory system.

Our reading areas for each phase also have a range of non-fiction texts linked to science units of learning to help the children.

Online reading through our Google Drive and services such as EPIC Reading also have texts which support learning within the science units which children can access.

We also try to enhance our science curriculum through a wide range of trips, hooks and experiences for the children. These have included: