Intent

Our primary aim is to offer children a wide range of ongoing learning opportunities, which strive to ignite and develop their scientific curiosity. Using a well-planned and inclusive curriculum, staff will provide the necessary progression of scientific knowledge and skills to enable all students to become well-rounded, adventurous and inquisitive learners.

Meaningful and engaging lessons must allow children of all ages to express and explore their ever-growing scientific wonder and interest, providing an access to the fundamental tools and understanding which will allow them to investigate the world around them while building reflective and thoughtful conclusions. Teachers will engage, inspire and challenge children, equipping them with the confidence to experiment and explore both individually and collaboratively. Not only will our young scientists have the opportunity to discover and present their own experiences and findings, they will also be encouraged to discuss, innovate and evaluate the work of their peers; working together to reach new heights within their learning.

The provision of science learning will aim to celebrate the successes within our evolving teaching practice at Summercroft while promoting a constructive, responsive and reflective environment that will allow teachers to deliver a progressive and engaging science curriculum.

Implementation

It is important to ignite an interest from the very beginning of their scientific learning with activities which can provide a context. Hooks can be used to connect background knowledge to the lesson, bring excitement into the students' learning and can be drawn from four key areas; local relevance (plants – opening of a local park), linked stories (animal lifecycles - monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson), relevance to their lives (hygiene in animals including humans - Covid-19 pandemic) and intriguing activities (close ups, odd one outs etc)

Whenever possible learning should be ‘hands on’ with children accessing environments and resources which allow them to build on theory classroom based knowledge and provide a deeper, richer opportunity for learning.

Confidence is key. It is important that teachers are confident in their ability to teach and assess science effectively which will be achieved with regular access and training by in house and external experts.

It is important for teachers to acknowledge that all children have differing experience of the world around them which they use to make sense of their future experiences. Encouraging teachers to employ a constructivist approach will allow children to develop their independent enquiry skills.

Science is interwoven throughout the curriculum so links can be made by children across their broader learning allowing them to appreciate the many ways that our lives are impacted by science.

Impact

All children will be confident and use technical vocabulary accurately whilst demonstrating a wide variety of scientific skills.

Teachers have high expectations and progression of knowledge and skills will be clearly evident as children journey through the school.

Children will be active learners who are intrigued and confident they understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring in the world around them, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.