Science

Intent

At Christ Church Academy we believe that all pupils of this school should have regular access to a stimulating science education, appropriate to their age and stage of development and that due emphasis is given to its provision, for good quality teaching and learning.  Our aim is to develop a sense of curiosity and wonder about natural phenomena in the world around them, enabling them to become increasingly more excited about science, asking questions and finding out how to answer these using a broad range of scientific enquiries.   Children will receive an appropriate sequencing of content to build an understanding of scientific concepts and knowledge to take them into secondary school and encourage a lifelong interest and curiosity in the sciences.  This enables children to progressively learn a range of skills that will instil confidence and independence throughout their science education and further as they aspire to become the scientists of the future. 

Implementation

Science is taught discreetly throughout the day. In KS1 this is for a minimum of 1 hour a week and in KS2 1.5 hours.  Science is taught through the Snap Science Scheme of Work. The scheme provides teachers with a set of lesson plans and a practical scientific investigation to aid this learning. 

The long term map shows how science starts off in year R with general ideas about the world around them and then moves into year 1 with more specific topic areas that children can relate to at their developmental age e.g. ‘everyday materials’ covers the language that children are able to access to describe the properties by using their senses. This subject is revisited in year 2, 4 and 5 and the level of language progresses as children begin to learn more scientific language e.g. solid, liquid, gas in year 4 and thermal conductivity, dissolving, change of state etc… in year 5. 

At Christ Church we carefully plan for children to experience a progression of skills that enable them to work scientifically across related subject knowledge content in the disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics fields of study. We promote scientific inquiry to encourage pupils to answer questions they may pose about the world around them and understand natural phenomena. Working scientifically skills are developed progressively through our science curriculum with pupils being encouraged to apply their mathematical knowledge to their understanding of science, including collecting, analysing and presenting data.

From the start, our youngest learners are encouraged to use specialist scientific vocabulary related to their units of scientific study.  This specialist vocabulary is planned, modelled and expressed both orally and in written form by teaching staff to allow children to express their ideas and findings with increasing clarity, precision and accuracy.