Science

Intent

At St. Joseph’s, our intention for science is to support children in exploring and discovering the world around them in order for them to develop a deeper understanding of the world in which we live. We strive to empower children with the scientific knowledge and skills that will give them a solid foundation from which to develop themselves as scientists in our school, at secondary level and hopefully beyond. We aim for our children to be scientifically literate, used to using and applying scientific vocabulary in their verbal and written responses in science but also, where possible, in other areas of the curriculum to help children to realise the transferability of the subject. In addition, it is important to our Catholic ethos to give children opportunities to make links between science and their faith to help children to see how science features in many other aspects of their lives.

Implementation

We follow the National Curriculum programmes of study for science and our children develop their knowledge and skills in a spiral approach, as children revisit and build upon previous learning across the biology, chemistry and physics strands of the subject. The subject co-ordinator is responsible for the planning of science and ensures that teachers are fully equipped with the teaching structure, activities and resources that will enable us to achieve our aims.

All plans from Year 1 through to Year 6 have both knowledge and working scientifically objectives assigned to lessons, both of which are shared with children at the beginning of lessons. Investigative activities are planned to include terminology such as independent, dependent and control variables to get children used to using such vocabulary from an early age. Teachers provide as many practical opportunities as possible to explore scientific concepts and to conduct scientific enquiry. Activities have been planned to make processes and more abstract concepts more tangible to help facilitate understanding. Children’s work is recorded in science exercise books (diagrams, data tables, data charts and photographs) to communicate understanding and enquiry.  Learning activities are also carefully selected to ensure that learning is accessible to all and are appropriately differentiated. Teachers will plan teaching and learning activities based on their assessments to plug gaps in prior learning where the need arises.

Impact

As a result, our children enjoy and are enthusiastic about science in our school. They are able to explain the phenomena they experience and the concepts they encounter, grounding their ideas in scientific thinking. This is epitomised by the impressive ideas and often very original thinking children show in creating investigations to take part in Ealing’s annual Science Fair.  St. Joseph’s regularly attend the fair and have enjoyed success in the past. There is a clear progression of children’s work, showing a range of topics and evidence of the curriculum coverage for all science topics. Teachers constantly seek to push children’s learning forward and standards in science at the end of the key stages are good.