Science Intent
At Sherburn Primary school, we want to foster a curiosity about and understanding of the world, and nowhere is this goal more evident than in the teaching of Science. We encourage the notion of child-led enquiry whenever possible, allowing our pupils to ask their own questions and make their own observations about the topics they study and to explore methods of testing their ideas.
We strive to present Science and other STEM subjects as accessible, exciting, essential and aspirational to our pupils in order to close the gap in future STEM interest between the genders and between pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds,
We aim to give our children the opportunity to develop their scientific thinking, gain an understanding of scientific processes, and acquire a strong understanding of the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future. Scientific enquiry skills are embedded in each science unit that the children study, leading to pupils who are confident in conducting their own investigations to determine the answer to their own hypotheses.
Implementation
Principle topics, for example plants and human development, are taught in Key Stage One and studied again in further detail throughout Key Stage Two. This model allows children to build upon their prior knowledge and increases their confidence in and enthusiasm for the topics, whilst also embedding this procedural knowledge into their long-term memory. All children are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including observations, planning and investigations, and will start to rely on these skills more independently as they move through our school. Specialist vocabulary for topics is taught and built up, and effective questioning to communicate ideas is encouraged. The concepts taught will be reinforced by focusing on the key features of scientific enquiry, so that pupils learn to use a variety of approaches to answer relevant scientific questions.
For information about what Science topics are taught in each year group please refer to the long-term curriculum overview.
Please click here for the Long Term Curriculum Overview