Science

Vision

At St Ann’s Well academy our vision is to inspire our children to think, talk and behave as scientists.

We want our children to be confident to explore and investigate, to develop scientific knowledge and a deeper understanding of the world we live in.

We believe that scientific investigation creates opportunities for our children to develop skills and learning behaviours essential to life-long in addition to scientific skills, knowledge and conceptual understanding. Our enquiry rich curriculum enables children to develop curiosity, independence, perseverance, motivation, and reflection alongside the development of scientific enquiry skills including questioning, predicting, planning, investigating, observing, measuring, recording, analysing, and evaluating.

Children from St Ann’s well Academy are the citizens of the future, they will embrace the opportunities and challenges of life in an increasingly scientific and technological world and be required to make informed, responsible decisions about our planet by understanding that science is an important and valuable part of their lives and essential for our future survival.

We are encouraged to be curious, to explore and ask questions about our world and how it works.

We work together to plan and carry out our investigations, using our scientific skills and knowledge to answer questions and solve problems.

We enjoy learning about the science all around us using our school grounds and local outdoor environments.

We develop links to science in our everyday lives and are inspired by science and scientists in the real world.

We use scientific vocabulary to talk about science. We discuss our ideas, describe our observations, and explain our discoveries and investigations to others.

Intent

To enable children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to think, talk and behave as scientists.
To ignite children’s curiosity, fuel their excitement and motivate them to discover more about their world and understanding of science using the outdoors and local environments, science experiences and trips, visitors, and STEM partnerships.
To provide an engaging, progressive enquiry-based science curriculum for all children which enables them to develop scientific skills, knowledge and conceptual understanding.
To use real world science and scientists as inspiration to develop children’s understanding of the relevance of science to our everyday lives past and present and the importance of science for the future of our world.
To improve communication skills through science talk and develop learning behaviours essential for life-long learning including curiosity, creative thinking, independence, motivation, reflection, and skills such as questioning, predicting, planning, testing and analysing.

Implementation

In the Foundation Stage science is taught through themes across the year developing knowledge, skills and understanding from the Understanding of the World aspect of the EYFS curriculum. Children gain experiences in our indoor and outdoor learning environments enabling them to:

Develop a sense of curiosity
Form observation skills
Explore the natural world
Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments
Understand important processes and changes in the natural world, including the seasons and changing states of matter.

In Key Stages one and two science topics cover the programme of study for science, to ensure progression across school, planning of the learning journey for each year group and across year groups and key stages is based on the ASE Science Progression grids for scientific enquiry and knowledge. Each science topic is delivered over a half term and taught through a series of discrete science lessons as part of their topic.

Children will be taught specific knowledge under the following concepts:

Biology

Plants – Years 1, 2 & 3
Animals, including humans – Years 1, 2, 3. 4, 5 & 6
Living things and their habitats – Years 2, 4, 5 & 6
Evolution and inheritance – Year 6

Chemistry

Materials / states of matter – Years 1, 2 , 4 & 5

Physics

Seasonal changes – Year 1
Rocks – Year 3
Light – Years 3 & 6
Forces and magnets – Years 3 & 5
Sound – Year 4
Electricity – Year 4 & 6
Earth and Space – Year 5

Working scientifically

Children have frequent opportunities to work as biologists, chemists and physicists.

Across the year children will have used each of the five enquiry types plus problem solving & modelling

F – Fair testing & Comparative testing
R – Research using secondary sources
O – Observation over time
G – Grouping, identifying & classifying
S – Seeking patterns

Impact

Through the explicit teaching of the science skills and identified knowledge, both the teachers and the pupils can assess their learning throughout the unit of work. Our assessment systems enable teachers to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress they have made over time.

Aspirations For the Future

Pupils develop an understanding of how subjects and specific skills are linked to future jobs. Here are some of the jobs you could aspire to do in the future as a Scientist:

Aquatic vet
Astronaut
Animal researcher
Health visitor
Cancer researcher
Rocket engineer
Marine biologist
Helicopter mission control
Weather presenter.