“The important thing is to never stop questioning” – Albert Einstein

INTENT

What do we teach? Why do we teach it?

At Ambler, our intention is to provide a practical and engaging high quality curriculum that inspires our students to succeed in science and help make sense of the world around them. We do this by adopting an exploratory and investigative approach to enable them to understand scientific concepts as well as develop their skills of working scientifically.

At Ambler, we use the National Curriculum to teach children the different disciplines of science; biology, chemistry and physics. The programmes of study differ from each year group, however as some topics are revisited it allows for children to build upon their prior knowledge and for their understanding to be developed throughout their time at school.See breakdown below.

EYFS: The Foundation Stage programmes of study for Understanding of the World are set out in EYFS Development Matters.
Year 1: Animals including humans, everyday materials and their properties, plants and seasonal changes,
Year 2: Animals including humans, living things and their habitats, plants and uses of every day materials.
Year 3: Animals including humans, forces and magnets, light, plants and rocks.
Year 4: Animals including humans, electricity, living things and their habitats, sound and states of matter.
Year 5: Animals including humans, Earth and space, forces and living things and their habitats.
Year 6: Animals including humans, electricity, evolution and inheritance, light and living things and their habitats.

We ensure that these science concepts are reinforced through scientific enquiry and that the working scientifically skills are embedded within our curriculum. In science lessons at Ambler, pupils:

• ask questions
• make predictions
• plan how to carry out different investigations
• take measurements
• record data
• present findings
• answer questions using data
• draw conclusions
• evaluate their enquiry

Together, this allows a broad and balanced science curriculum to be provided to all children at Ambler.

IMPLEMENTATION

How do we teach science and how does this look in practice?

Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of science involves the following:

• Science units are taught in two-week blocks every half term. This allows for consistent progression of learning.
• Teachers follow the National Curriculum statements to build their medium term and weekly plans.
• Learning is differentiated for all children’s abilities and needs.
• Teachers use a range of assessment tools as detailed below:
  – KWL charts and revision quizzes to assess prior knowledge.
  – Plenaries throughout lessons to identify misconceptions.
  – Pupils answer assessment questions based on National Curriculum outcomes at the end of each unit.
  – Teachers use an online tracking sheet that records if a child has/ has not met the National Curriculum and working scientifically outcomes. This is then used to inform future planning.
• Children are given a knowledge organiser at the beginning of each topic with key vocabulary and scientific diagrams to assist them with their learning.
• Each lesson has a clearly stated learning intention that links to both the curriculum outcome and the working scientifically skill. Pupils then use the numbered success criteria to self-assess whether they have met the learning intention.
• Topics are linked to each year groups half term topic, allowing for cross-curricular links with other subjects such as history and geography.
• Educational trips and visitors are planned to enrich the student’s experiences within the science curriculum.

IMPACT

The impact of our curriculum will enable our students to leave Ambler with the foundations of understanding the world around them. Our science curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression and allow all students to make good or better progress.

The approach allows all children to:

• Ask questions, think critically and evaluate the world around them
• Build on their prior knowledge
• Understand new concepts
• Use scientific vocabulary
• Work collaboratively
• Develop of love of learning
• Reason scientifically
• Confidently use a range of science equipment.

“Science is so much fun. I love doing experiments because they help me understand what we are learning about.” Joseph 4B