Science Vision
Vision
Having successfully gained the PSQM Bronze Award in 2018, we continue to maintain the high profile of science Teaching and Learning at Bemerton St John.
The 2014 National Curriculum for Science aims 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 the different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
- are equipped with the scientific skills required to help them understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. We understand that it is important for lessons to have a skills-based focus, and that the knowledge can be taught through this.
Our purpose in science teaching is to spark and nurture the natural curiosity and excitement in children. Children have a desire to discover new facts and are in awe of so much of the fascinating world in which we live. Our staff have worked collaboratively to develop a Vision for Teaching and Learning Science which is the ethos of our teaching of science. Therefore, to hook-in to these, we aim to offer learning opportunities which:
- encourage child-led enquiries using the different types of scientific enquiry
- develop the skill of asking relevant questions
- use a wide and increasingly scientific range of vocabulary
- develop collaborative learning skills.
It is essential that we show that science matters in our world and is an essential part to all of our futures.
Please click here to read Bemerton St John's Principles for Teaching and Learning Science which was written collaboratively by staff.
Coverage
All class teachers are encouraged and supported to teach weekly engaging and practical science lessons which reflect our Vision for Teaching and Learning Science. Teachers deliver the curriculum through discrete subject lessons or links to other curriculum areas when relevant. They develop their own planning, using recommended links, which cover all the expected knowledge, concepts and working scientifically skills to enable pupils to progress with secure understanding. Through scrutiny of pupils’ work, visiting science lessons throughout the school, referring to the curriculum overviews for each class and use of insight tracking, the subject leader has a clear overview of science progression across the school.
Science resources have been updated to ensure we are well stocked with appropriate equipment. This results in teachers providing lessons which deliver the different types of enquiry skills using resources as needed.
Having achieved the PSQM Bronze Award, the science subject leader has aimed to maintain the higher profile of science within the school by ensuring that science whole school events take place periodically each year. Where possible, STEM colleagues from the wider community are invited in to inspire the pupils and illustrate the importance of these key areas within our everyday lives.
Science CPD is provided through science staff meetings, periodically throughout the academic year, to support staff.
Progression of Scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding:
|
Year Group |
Autumn 1 |
Autumn 2 |
Spring 1 |
Spring 2 |
Summer 1 |
Summer 2 |
|
EYFS: Understanding The World |
Changes over time Seasons/Autumn The Natural World |
Light and Dark The Natural World |
Materials/Toys The Natural World
Changes over time Seasons/Winter The Natural World |
Changes over time Seasons/Spring |
The local environment and further afield
Changes over time Seasons/Summer The Natural World |
Observing animals and plants The Natural World |
|
Year 1 |
BIOLOGY Animals including humans
- Identify and name a variety of common animals -Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals
Seasonal changes across whole year
|
BIOLOGY Seasonal changes across whole year
-Observe and describe seasonal weather associated with seasons and how day length varies -Observe changes across four seasons |
CHEMISTRY Everyday Materials
- Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made. Identify and name a variety of everyday materials - Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials. - Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials using their simple physical properties |
BIOLOGY Seasonal changes across whole year
Working Scientifically
- Ask simple questions when prompted - Suggest ways of answering a question - Make relevant observations - Conduct simple tests, with support |
BIOLOGY Animals including Humans
- Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense - Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
|
BIOLOGY Plants
- Identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees. - Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees |
|
Year 2 |
CHEMISTRY Materials and their uses
-Describe/ compare the properties of everyday materials - Explain the uses of everyday materials in terms of their properties |
BIOLOGY Living things and their habitats
- Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive - Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other - Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including microhabitats - Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food |
BIOLOGY Plants - Observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants - Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy
|
BIOLOGY Animals including humans
- To notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults - To find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air) - Describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different food types, and hygiene |
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|
Year 3 |
Rocks
- To compare and group different rocks based on appearance and properties - To describe how fossils are formed -To recognise soil is made from rocks and organic matter
|
PHYSICS Forces and Magnets
- To compare how things move on different surfaces - To know that some forces need contact between two objects - To describe magnets having two poles - To observe how magnets attract and repel each other and some materials
|
PHYSICS Light
- To recognise we need light to see - To notice light can be reflected from surfaces - To understand how shadows are formed - To understand why shadows change |
BIOLOGY Plants
- To identify and describe functions and parts of flowering plants - To explore requirement of plants for life - To understand how water is transported through plants - To explore the life cycle of flowering plants |
BIOLOGY Animals including Humans: Nutrition
- To identify that animals need the right amount of nutrition - To understand animals do not make their own food |
BIOLOGY Animals including Humans: Skeletons, Muscles and Movement - To identify that skeletons and muscles provide support and protection
|
|
Year 4 |
BIOLOGY Classifying living things - To recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways - To explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment |
PHYSICS Electricity
- To identify common appliances that run on electricity - Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts: cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers - To recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors - Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit - To recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit |
PHYSICS Sound
- Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating - To recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear - To recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases - To find patterns between the pitch & volume of a sound and features/ strength (of vibrations) of the object that produced it |
CHEMISTRY States of Matter
- To compare and group materials together, according to solids, liquids or gases - To identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate rate of evaporation with temperature - To observe that some materials change state when heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens °C |
BIOLOGY Habitats and Food Chains - To recognise that environments can change and that this sometimes poses dangers to living things - To construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey |
BIOLOGY Teeth and digestion - Describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans - To identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions |
|
Year 5 |
PHYSICS Earth & Space
- To describe movement of Earth, and other planets, relative to Sun in solar system - To describe movement of Moon relative to Earth - To describe Sun, Earth & Moon as approximately spherical bodies - To use idea of Earth’s rotation to explain day and night, and apparent movement of sun across sky |
PHYSICS Forces
- To explain that unsupported objects fall towards Earth because of force of gravity acting between Earth and the falling object - Identify effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces - To recognise that some mechanisms including levers, pulleys and gears allow a smaller force to have a greater effect |
CHEMISTRY Properties of materials: reversible changes - To compare and group together everyday materials on basis of their properties, including hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity (electrical& thermal), & response to magnets - To know that some materials dissolve in liquid to form a solution, & describe how to recover a substance from a solution - To use a knowledge of solids, liquids & gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating - To demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes |
CHEMISTRY Properties of materials: irreversible changes - To give reasons, based on evidence from comparative & fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic - To explain that some changes result in formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning & action of acid on bicarbonate of soda. |
BIOLOGY All living things: animals and humans
- To describe differences in life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect & a bird - To describe changes as humans develop to old age |
BIOLOGY All living things: plant life cycles
- To describe the life process of reproduction in some plants & animals |
|
Year 6 |
BIOLOGY All living things
- To describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants and animals - To give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics. |
PHYSICS Light
- To recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines - To use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye - To explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes - To use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them |
PHYSICS Electricity
- To link brightness of a lamp or volume of a buzzer with number and voltage of cells used in a circuit - To compare and give reasons for variations in how components function: the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches - To use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram |
BIOLOGY Animals
- To identify and name main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood - To recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function - To describe ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.
|
BIOLOGY Evolution and inheritance
- To recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago - To recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents - To identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution
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Evidence
Our science curriculum is delivered through high quality, careful planning to ensure clear progression. Every child is expected to make progress that is at least in line with their progress in other subjects. Staff will make informed judgements on pupils’ learning through weekly formative assessments during their lessons and will make summative judgements based on a range of types of activity which reflect knowledge-based and enquiry skills. To complement this, the skills progression within each year and between them, will be monitored by periodic book looks carried out by the subject lead. Attainment and progress data will be analysed from each class, three times per year using insight tracking; the subject lead will clearly see that coverage of the curriculum is taking place, can ensure all children are progressing as expected and can address any areas of concern which arise.
As a result, we hope that the impact of our quality science teaching will generate a young generation of enthused and curious science learners. We aim for this to be deep-rooted so that it will continue with them as they move throughout each stage of their education. Our passion is to provide our learners with knowledge and skills, an enquiring mind and an understanding of the significant role of STEM within the world we live.
