Subject Leader (2024-2025): Mrs L Ward 

INTENT 

At St. Mary's C of E Primary Academy we want all our children in Science to:

• Learn as much as possible, by developing scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding – through the specific disciplines of biology, physics and chemistry.  Are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.
• Ignite Curiosity by developing an understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiry that help children to answer scientific questions about the world around.
• We want all our students to develop into well-read confident speakers therefore we want our students to be able to explain their scientific thinking and develop their own evidenced based ideas that they can use to support future learning, and so they can  take on the world. 

IMPLEMENTATION

At this point in time the school uses the Snap Science scheme of work which ensure coverage and progression across the school and also give teachers detailed plans to draw upon and deference to support their science teaching. 

Based on the year by year model of the Programmes of Study, the school has a clear progression framework of the ‘big ideas in science’ which has been used to structure the content both within each topic, from year to year and within each year group and module, and to identify any conceptual gaps. This will ensure that children are continually building on their prior learning as they systematically develop their understanding of key ideas and their scientific skills.

Working scientifically, asking questions and testing ideas against evidence, is common feature of learning and every lesson has a clear science enquiry focus.

Every lesson is carefully planned around a question for children to answer, either inside the classroom or outside. By ensuring that these questions spark children’s curiosity and that they want to fi nd out the answer, lessons are purposeful and result in children gaining a new understanding of the world around them.

In each lesson the learning intention is designed so that children have a powerful understanding of the skills and understanding they are developing in the lesson. Success criteria define the features of the learning intention in the context of the activity so that children can identify what they are aiming for and how well they are doing.

Each lesson is designed to ensure that all children in a class can access and master the lesson’s learning intention with each lesson offering three levels of differentiated task. These are planned to challenge and extend the learning of all children whilst ensuring that they all achieve the learning intention.

Every lesson includes Assessment for Learning strategies which enable teachers to fi nd out what children have learned and to use that information formatively.

In response to the wealth of evidence that exists about the benefit ts of children experiencing the natural world first hand, children learning science outdoors is a key feature of our approach. For each year group there is a module called Our Changing World which is designed to be taught in every term, offering children regular opportunities to explore all aspects of their outdoor environment and build up a rich understanding of how it changes over the year. 

IMPACT

As we develop this approach we want to raise levels of attainment in science across the school in science. By July 2023 we expect our attainment data to be inline with similar school nationally. We want our students to be curious and enquiring.