Curriculum Intent

“A high–quality Science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes, and uses of science”

(National Curriculum 2014)         

We intend to teach scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding. We intend to develop an understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of scientific enquiries so that children can answer scientific questions about the world around them.

We follow the National Curriculum and the vehicle we use to underpin our science curriculum is Rising Stars- Switched on Science. The science curriculum delivers a coherent curriculum, which helps pupils to progress their knowledge, understanding and skills. We adapt to suit our school’s context, curriculum, and the enthusiasms and interests of our pupils and colleagues.

We intend that pupils’ time at St Thomas’s Centre inspires and encourages them as confident scientists, inspired to explore and pursue the huge range of STEM careers available to them. We want our pupils to enter secondary school with knowledge of the interrelated disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics and a strong understanding of the nature, processes, and methods of science, developed through practical experiments.

St Thomas’s Centre teaches Science as a discrete subject from Years 1 to 6, and in all year groups, there will be lots of opportunities for hands-on experiences. Each unit is designed to support the development of a specific area of scientific knowledge, along with a strand of scientific skills. The curriculum is designed to be spiral in nature, with pupils returning to areas of learning in greater depth as they move through the school. Each unit follows an inquiry approach.

During the children’s learning journey at St Thomas’s Centre, our intended impact of the Science Curriculum is to ensure that children:

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics

•  develop an understanding of the nature, processes, and methods of science through different types of science inquiries that help them to 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

Key Stage 1 overview

In Key Stage 1 the children should be taught to:

• Ask simple questions and recognise that they can be answered in different ways
• Observe closely, using simple equipment
• Perform simple tests
• Identify and classify
• Use their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions
• Gather and record data to help in answering questions

Key Stage 2 overview

In Key Stage 2 the children should be taught to:

• Ask relevant questions and use different types of scientific enquiries to answer them
• Set up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
• Make systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, take accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers
• Gather, record, classify and present data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions
• Record findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables
• Report on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions
• Use results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions
• Identify differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes
• Use straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings