Science at Chennestone Primary School

Creating a sense of ‘Awe and Wonder’ and ‘Excitement and Curiosity about Natural Phenomena’ has provided the basis for our science curriculum.

The science curriculum at Chennestone is designed to inspire children to develop an inquisitiveness, fascination and understanding of the world in which they live as, at its heart, science seeks to explain the material world.  Through exploration and investigation, all children will thrive from a high quality science education. Knowledge of complex scientific ideas will be developed over many years through a carefully sequenced curriculum that identifies what pupils need to know and retain.  To understand science, pupils will learn how knowledge becomes established and revised through low-stakes testing and recap of key scientific concepts.  This will involve pupils carrying out high quality, meaningful and well-selected practical tasks which are carefully connected to the theoretical work and focusses pupil’s attention to the content that we want them to learn and recall.  As well as this, children will be explicitly taught the procedures and concepts that underpin scientific enquiry to enable them to work scientifically.  Our curriculum looks at how a science education can develop all of this knowledge for all pupils. Pupils will build, remember and connect together a rich body of knowledge rooted in an authentic understanding of what science is and are able to distinguish the difference between each scientific discipline.

Our vision is to deliver a curriculum that enables children to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring and why in the world around them.  We will foster a sense of excitement and curiosity which stimulates scientific questioning through appropriate challenge in a subject that is learning driven rather than activity led. Children will have an awareness of the dynamic nature of science and its huge importance and relevance in everyday life.  

We want our children to develop a love of science that will stay with them as they move through our school, into Secondary school and beyond. We want to inspire our children so that they can aim high with science. STEM opportunities are abundant in our local area and we want our children to aspire to be a part of that community. We want our children to be lifelong scientists, to be curious and critical thinkers that pose their own questions and know how to find the answers. 

Implementation

EYFS

The EYFS curriculum at Chennestone provides the children with a firm foundation to develop scientific enquiry and critical thinking. They begin to work scientifically by asking questions to find out more and to check what has been said to them. The children also use talk to help work out problems and organise thinking and activities, and to explain how things work and why they might happen. Children are able to explore the world around them and describe what they see, hear and feel while they are outside. Carefully planned provision and teaching encourages them to know and talk about the different factors that support their overall health and wellbeing, including the importance of regular physical activity and toothbrushing. Adult interactions are designed to extend children's ideas, scaffold their inquiries and develop their language through play.

Key Stage One
Children at KS1 develop an understanding of the variance in plants and animals and what they need to survive and flourish. At Chennestone children are given opportunities to visit different environments within our school and their locality. They study the materials in the natural world around them and begin to make conscious choices about which materials to used, based on their scientific properties (e.g. durability or strength) and whether or not they would be fit for purpose. Additionally, they observe and explain the changes in seasons and their effect on the environment and the various food chains within them.

Key Stage Two

As they move into KS2, the key knowledge and understanding children require widens with the breadth of topics now covered. Each child explores how different rock types are formed and their uses, how and why animals have evolved over time, the differing states of matter and develop an understanding of space and the solar system. Throughout KS2, in every year group, the children gain a deeper understanding of the human body, focusing on a particular area of human anatomy via teeth, skeletal structure, the digestive system and reproduction and puberty. They also visit and then re-visit topics like ‘Electricity’ and ‘Light’ to ensure they build upon previous learning and how an in-depth knowledge in fundamental areas of the curriculum to then make a smooth transition into secondary schooling.   

A whole school focus on improving oracy skills and frequent vocabulary development is very important in the teaching of Science. Scientific vocabulary, 'Star Words',  are introduced for every new topic. New terms and their definitions are explicitly taught, as well as opportunities for repeated engagement with and using of new words over time. Further opportunities to reinforce pupils’ science-specific vocabulary are taught and reinforced during through spoken language reading and writing.  

This approach provides the opportunity for language development and ensures that disadvantaged groups, as well as SEND and Pupil Premium children, can fully engage with and attain their potential within the Science curriculum at Chennestone.