Science at St. Monica's

'To promote curiosity about the world and how it works, through child-centred activities.'

At St Monica’s Catholic Primary School, we believe a high-quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world. Science has changed, and continues to change our lives and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science.

Intent

Our Science curriculum intends to ensure that all children:

•  Develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
• Develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to ask and answer scientific questions about the world around them 
• Are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.
• Are taught in a relevant context and provide practical, creative ad challenging lessons. We believe that children should:

- Be encouraged to look at the world around them with curiosity

- Understand how science can explain the occurrences

- Help them to predict what will happen.

- Be enabled to reason, discuss, argue and explain rather than merely respond in order to develop higher order thinking. (As refenced by the Education Endowment Foundation Projects - Dialogic Teaching research paper 20th January 2020)

Implementation

The Science curriculum delivery ensures that the intent statement is at the forefront of our practice. High standards of teaching and learning provide progression throughout the whole school, from Nursery to Year 6. Planning for science is a process in which all teachers are involved to ensure that the school gives full coverage of, ‘The National Curriculum programmes of study for Science 2014’ and, ‘Understanding of the World’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Science is taught in a practical, creative and investigative manner, exciting children and allowing them to form questions and hypothesise. We believe children need the opportunity to observe ‘science in action’ and develop the skills of investigating, theorising, planning and forming conclusions through the context of real life learning and current themes/areas of study that are of a focus. This practice is in line with the research paper published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) – Thinking, Doing, Talking Science (13th December 2018) St Monica’s Catholic Primary School Alongside these skills, we adapt our curriculum to create cross curricular links within the school where possible. We aim to teach children to be problem solvers so that they are able to work creatively and critically both independently and collaboratively. Teachers give clear and accurate explanations that offer skilful questioning and promote critical and scientific thinking. As a school, we provide a range of opportunities to deliver science in varied ways to develop scientific skills and knowledge.

Impact

The impact and measure of science teaching is that children develop an understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiry that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them. They are also equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. Pupils also develop a secure understanding of each key block of knowledge and concepts, meaning that they can progress successfully to the next stage in their learning (e.g. from one year to another) and between key points of transition (such as between primary and secondary school). Assessment is crucial in improving learning. Formative assessment is used regularly to inform teachers of on-going progress and allows timely adjustments or intervention to be made that reflect the learning needs of all children in our school. Feedback is continually given to children, which leads to better outcomes in science. In line with our school assessment policy, summative assessment, in the form of an end of unit test is carried out at the end of each topic to inform teachers and aid their own teacher assessments. We want the children to be passionate about science and understand its importance in our world and for our future. We want them to have a better understanding of the world around them and know that they can find answers to their own scientific questions.