Science At Cawthorne

At Cawthorne CE (VC) Primary School, we aim to provide children with a lifelong curiosity and interest in Science. When planning, we intend for children to have the opportunity, wherever possible, to learn through a variety of investigations, leading to them being equipped for life and to ask and answer scientific questions about the world around them. As children progress through the year groups, they build on this through opportunities to work scientifically, as well as building upon their prior scientific knowledge. They also develop greater independence in planning and carrying out fair and comparative tests to answer a range of scientific questions. Each year group focuses on curriculum specified subject knowledge and scientific skills as outlined in the Science progression document.  We also aim to develop each child's scientific vocabulary within each unit taught. Adding to this year on year as they progress through school. Our school aims to ensure that children have a varied, progressive and well-mapped-out science curriculum that provides the opportunity for progression across the full breadth of the science national curriculum for KS1 and KS2.

The acquisition of key scientific knowledge is an integral part of our science lessons. By having smaller year group specific classes for Science, we are able to focus our teaching on the necessary scientific knowledge for each year group. The progression of skills for working scientifically are developed through the year groups and scientific inquiry skills are of key importance within lessons. Each lesson has a clear focus. Both scientific knowledge and inquiry skills are developed with increasing depth and challenge as children move through the year groups.  Pupils complete investigations and hands-on activities while gaining the scientific knowledge for each unit. Interwoven into the teaching sequence are key assessment questions and pupils are assessed at the midpoint and end of a unit through Rising Stars Science Assessments. These assessments inform teacher's planning and allow teachers the opportunity to recap and embed key concepts where necessary. There is the opportunity to regularly review and evaluate children's understanding through weekly Science lessons. Activities are effectively differentiated so that all children have an appropriate level of support and challenge.

Progress is measured through a child’s ability to know more, remember more and explain more. This can be measured in different ways through our Science teaching and learning. The use of key questions means opportunities are built into the lesson for ongoing assessment. Our midpoint and end of unit assessments also enable us as a school to ensure that each pupil is progressing within a specific area of the Science curriculum. The impact of using a wide range of resources in each science unit across the year groups can be seen by the increased profile of science in school. Each learning environment within school will be more consistent with science technical vocabulary displayed, spoken and used by all learners. Whole-school and parental engagement will be improved through the use of science-specific home learning tasks at least once during unit of study. Children who feel confident in their science knowledge and inquiry skills will be excited about science, show that they are actively curious to learn more and will see the relevance of what they learn in science lessons to real-life situations and also the importance of science in the real world.