St Margaret Clitherow Catholic Primary School
We act with love, build our faith and grow as people
Science
SMC Intent, Implementation and Impact of Science
Intent
At St Margaret Clitherow (SMC) teaching of all subjects are firmly rooted in the overarching principles of our mission statement to develop a love of learning, develop our faith and grow as people. Through our ambitious and logically sequenced science education all children including disadvantaged and SEND, will be provided with a foundation for understanding of the world around them. Our science curriculum aims to develop a curiosity and excitement around science.
Children are taught substantive concepts linked to the three areas of science: Biology, Chemistry and Physics; as laid out in the national curriculum. Through engaging tasks and investigations, they build the disciplinary knowledge of; observing over time; pattern seeking; identifying, classifying and grouping; comparative and fair testing; and researching using secondary sources. Children are taught key topic vocabulary and have opportunities to practise and embed this overtime.
Children are encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave and analyse cause and effect.
Children are provided with opportunities to engage with science using our school garden, the wider grounds including a field and wooded area including a bug habitat and through an enrichment science week.
Implementation
In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in science, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout our school. Science teaching at SMC involves adapting and extending the curriculum to match all pupils’ needs. Although staff are provided with a scheme of work and teaching sequence to follow, teachers plan to suit their children’s interests, current events, their own teaching style, the use of any support staff and the resources available.
Science is taught consistently in standalone lessons, once a week for up to two hours, but is discretely taught in many different contexts throughout all areas of the curriculum. For example, through our guided reading/comprehension sessions and RSHE.
At SMC we promote independence for all students to take responsibility in their own learning, therefore we have implemented knowledge organisers which enables the student to articulate key scientific vocabulary clearly and precisely, assisting them in making their thinking clear, both. In addition, we have topic and self assessments. At SMC we ensure that all students are exposed to rich learning experiences that:
- Make links between science and other subjects.
- Build on our student’s natural curiosity and develop a scientific approach to solving problems.
- Help our students acquire a growing understanding of the nature, processes and methods of scientific ideas.
- Help develop and extend our student’s scientific concept of the world they live in.
- Develop the use of scientific language and vocabulary, recording and techniques.
- Encourages open-mindedness, self-assessment, resilience and developing the key scientific skills including: observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating.
Impact
The impact and measure of this is to ensure all students including disadvantaged and SEN acquire the appropriate age-related knowledge linked to the science curriculum. Our aim for science is to increase the skills needed to navigate an ever-changing world of science and technology by immersing our students with scientific enquiry skills, key scientific knowledge. We aim to create a culture of high scientific aspirations, which will allow our students a platform to develop their scientific learning and careers, and to articulate their understanding of key scientific concepts.