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Wigton Moor

Primary School

Everyone learns and everyone achieves because everyone matters!

Science

At Wigton Moor Primary school we strive to create scientific learning, opportunities and experiences that will inspire our children to become the scientists our future needs.

Intent

At Wigton Moor everyone learns, everyone achieves and everyone matters! This is seen in our science curriculum in a variety of ways. We ensure that all children consider themselves as scientists, feel valued for their science interests and enjoy being 'science-y' through a no ceiling approach to differentiation, including the most able and children with SEND. Science lessons at WMPS should inspire all children to ask questions, make links and ensure a deeper understanding of the world around them. Giving children the vocabulary to articulate their scientific observations, develop their scientific knowledge and reflect on their scientific processes is fundamental to ensuring they develop scientific capital. This will be further enhanced by giving children experiences in class and outside that allow them to take part in, observe and assess scientific processes. Our science curriculum aims to support all children to secure a deeper understanding of how the knowledge and disciplines of Science fit into all parts of our society. Children will be encouraged to take responsibility for their scientific practices and to consistently link their growing knowledge to wider concerns around climate change, sustainability and globalisation. Each year children will learn about the scientists and scientific discoveries that have shaped our world, developing their understanding of the years of work and research that underpin scientific discoveries and developments.

Implementation

Wigton Moor teaches the national curriculum which can be seen in the documents below. The Science curriculum is also spiral, enabling children to deepen and broaden their understanding of science concepts from Early Years to Year 6. A high-quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world. This begins in the exploratory Early Years where children will be introduced to a range of scientific process including planting and growing seeds, floating and sinking and observing seasonal changes. Here, children will learn basic scientific language to help them explain the world around them. Through building up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts, pupils are encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. They are encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes. This will lead to further progression in KS3 and 4 to understanding the discreet strands of Biology, Chemistry and Physics and how these scientific subjects combine with and impact on the other STEM subjects of Maths, Technology and Engineering.

Substantive Knowledge

Through revisiting areas such as Humans and other Animals, Light and Forces (to name but three) children will build their substantive knowledge of scientific processes and products. They will learn about important figures from the past who have contributed to our scientific knowledge including people such as Mary Anning and Louis Pasteur and will deepen their understanding of key scientific vocabulary as they progress through the Primary curriculum.

Disciplinary Knowledge

Children will also steadily increase their disciplinary knowledge of science-the way that scientists work and the importance of asking questions. conducting fair tests, using a variety of observations and gathering and interpreting data. Within the National Curriculum this is referred to as 'Working Scientifically'. Again, this disciplinary knowledge will be returned to and deepened throughout the Primary phases.

Vocabulary underpins this throughout, giving children the words to describe their experiences of science both in and out of school and link these real life experiences to a variety of curriculum subjects. For example: baking at home can be linked to chemical reactions and to D and T, creating a product for a particular occasion. Understanding magnetic fields will be linked to compass points in both maths and geography.

Impact

Ultimately we want the long lasting impact of our teaching and their learning to be that all children learn more and remember more. We measure this in lessons through a range of assessment for learning techniques and at the end of units of learning with assessment quadrants to ensure their learning has stuck! Science monitoring is a constant and ongoing priority, based on planning and work scrutiny, lesson observations and conversations with children and teachers. We want to ensure that children can recognise the science around them, make links across disciplines and talk about their knowledge articulately. We want our children to leave WMPS feeling enthusiastic and confident about Science for the next stage of their learning journey.