Science at Christopher Hatton school
Intent
Our aim is for all pupils to be informed, articulate and empowered:
In science this means children are engaged and inspired by a well-designed sequential curriculum complemented by a wide range of enrichment opportunities. Science is highly valued as part of our rich curriculum and supports children to acquire the transferrable skills, knowledge they need to succeed in life.
Informed
- Children develop the scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding they need in order to make sense of the world, through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
- Children develop understanding of how to work scientifically through different types of scientific enquiries (comparative and fair testing; pattern seeking; identifying, classifying and grouping; observing over time; research using secondary sources) that help them to answer specific questions about the word around them.
- Children acquire the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and in the future.
Articulate
- Through the teaching of specific science vocabulary and opportunities to discuss their learning, children develop their ability to think critically, evaluate and understand the world.
- Children are given sentence stems within which they can frame their ideas and communicate clearly and accurately.
Empowered
- The discoveries, innovations and significant scientists introduced reflect the diversity of our community, enabling pupils to see themselves within the world of science. This fosters a belief that they too can be successful scientists.
- The focus on having a growth mind-set is essential in the teaching of science, empowering children with the confidence to have a go, to learn from mistakes and to keep trying and improving. This is true of many significant scientists.
- Children explore the purposes of science within a context as well as its meaning within their own life and future e.g. exploring the meaning of biodiversity or that just because science now enables us to do something, does that mean we should?
- In school workshops (e.g. Zoolab) and visits to places of scientific interest (e.g. The Francis Crick Institute learning laboratory, Science Museum, Hampstead Heath) empower children to understand that the amazing resources we have in London belong to and are open to them.
- An appreciation and understanding of how science influences all of our daily lives is essential to the children feeling empowered to make a positive difference to society.
- All children, including those who have SEND or are disadvantaged, are supported to fully access the science curriculum. This may include additional adult support or use of visual/actions or Widget symbols. Structured sentence stems and taught vocabulary scaffold children in discussion.
Implementation
- The science scheme of work lays out the sequential steps to be taught so that new knowledge, skills and key science vocabulary build on what has been taught before and pupils can work towards clearly defined high quality outcomes.
- We use the White Rose scheme of work to complement our science scheme. Click here to see more
- Science teaching is sometimes embedded in class topics if meaningful links can be made and at other times is taught in discrete units. See our Y3 forces science knowledge organiser below:
- Each key strand of science across the three disciplines is covered: biology (plants; animals including humans; living things and their habitats; evolution and inheritance), chemistry (everyday materials; uses of everyday materials; rocks; states of matter; properties and changes of materials) and physics (seasonal changes; Earth and space; light; sound; forces and magnets; electricity).
- Specific investigations are plotted for each year group using enquiry types appropriate for pupils age (comparative and fair testing; pattern seeking; identifying, classifying and grouping; observing over time; research using secondary sources). Plotting specific investigations across each year group ensures that a child will experience the whole range of enquiry types on their learning journey through the school.
- National curriculum working scientifically objectives are made accessible to the pupils through the use of Widgits
- Sentence stems and the investigation frame are used to support children’s understanding of enquiry skills. e.g. stems to support interpretation of results by giving the frame into which the variable and measurable are inserted. The thicker the string the lower the pitch. Using frames supports all children, especially those with SEND to access the science curriculum
- The science lead supports teachers and monitors standards by reviewing planning of units, teaching model lessons, team teaching, talking to children with their science learning and learning walks.
Impact
- Children at Christopher Hatton retain key science knowledge.
- Children can accurately use specific science vocabulary to explain their ideas and discuss their learning.
- Children are interested in the world around them and have a set of key skills which they can use to investigate it.
- Standards set in science are high and children aspire to them.
- Children enjoy learning in science and value the subject. They understand its relevance and importance in a real world context and see themselves as scientists not only in school, but in the future.
