Science Statement of Curriculum Intent:

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In today’s rapidly-evolving world, Science is a vital part of our curriculum, which gives us the opportunity to help our children make sense of the world around us. Science at Hunnyhill aims to stimulate and excite the pupils’ curiosity about the world and give them the necessary skills, knowledge and understanding to find answers to the many questions that they have. The practical side of Science, linked with opportunities to hypothesise about answers to questions, engages children through this natural curiosity and allows all children to participate at a level at which they feel comfortable. We encourage children to evaluate the process of evidence-gathering and their observations, and feel that analytical evaluation is an important skill that can be used throughout the curriculum, in areas such as English, History and ICT.

 

Scientific enquiry skills are embedded in each topic that the children study and these topics are revisited and developed throughout their time at school. Topics, such as Plants, are taught in Key Stage One and studied again in further detail throughout Key Stage Two. This model allows children to build upon their prior knowledge and increases their enthusiasm for the topics whilst embedding this procedural knowledge into the long-term memory.

 

All children are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including observations, planning and investigations, as well as being encouraged to question the world around them and become independent learners in exploring possible answers for their scientific based questions. Specialist vocabulary for topics is taught and built up, and effective questioning to communicate ideas is encouraged. Concepts taught should be reinforced by focusing on the key features of scientific enquiry, so that pupils learn to use a variety of approaches to answer relevant scientific questions.

 

At Key Stage 1, pupils observe, explore and ask questions about living things, materials and physical phenomena. They begin to work together to collect evidence to help them answer questions and to link this to simple scientific ideas. They begin to evaluate evidence and consider whether tests or comparisons are fair. They use reference materials to find out more about scientific ideas. They share ideas and communicate them using scientific language, drawings, charts and tables with the help of ICT if it is appropriate.

 

At Key Stage 2, pupils learn about a wider range of living things, materials and physical phenomena. They make links between ideas and explain things using simple models and theories. They apply their knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas to familiar phenomena, everyday things and their personal health. They think about the effects of scientific and technological developments on the environment and in other contexts. They carry out more systematic investigations, working on their own and with others. They use a range of reference sources in their work. They talk about their work and its significance, using a wider range of scientific language, conventional diagrams, charts, graphs and ICT to communicate their ideas