Science
'Let your light shine' (Matthew 5:16)
Intent
We promise to do the best for all our pupils with everything that they learn. Children who attend our schools are supported to access the full curriculum. Our Christian ethos and values underpin all that we do within our learning and the wider activities in our school.
Our curriculum is designed and focused on equipping our learners with the knowledge and skills they need to achieve their dreams. We aim to grow their confidence, develop their social skills, and equip them to become active participants within their communities.
We maintain high standards and continually look at new ways of teaching our pupils the skills they require, explicitly and directly. Our curriculum is knowledge-rich, specifically sequenced, and is taught to be remembered. It promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental, and physical development of our pupils and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life. With this in mind the Primary Knowledge Curriculum is used trust wide for foundation subjects.
Since its conception, the Primary Knowledge Curriculum (PKC) has placed ‘powerful knowledge’ at the heart of learning. This is knowledge that “is powerful because it provides the best understanding of the natural and social worlds that we have and helps us go beyond our individual experiences” (Young, 2013). Through a deep respect of the traditions of each unique subject, the PKC recognises the identity of the disciplines that are studied. Our vision, and intent, was to create a well-sequenced, well-specified and ambitious curriculum for all children to access. As a result, the PKC has been organised coherently to ensure it builds interesting and meaningful connections within and across history, geography, science, art, DT and English, allowing children to think deeply about interesting content. Our aim is to inspire the next generation of learners through teaching them essential background knowledge, so that they can embark on their next step in their journey filled with confidence, able to form their own opinions and develop a deep love for learning.
A knowledge-rich curriculum exposes children to ambitious content that has been highly specified and well-sequenced, leaving nothing to chance. Within schools, time is limited, and a knowledge-rich curriculum ensures that each moment will support children in acquiring the knowledge, skills and cultural capital that they will need to become well-educated citizens of the future. Every historical figure encountered, philosophical idea grappled with, and scientific concept applied, fits neatly into a scheme of learning that holds a sense of purpose and develops logically from lesson to lesson, unit to unit and year to year. Utilising cognitive science, the psychology of learning, memory and schemata, a knowledge-rich curriculum is designed to ensure that the knowledge is taught to be remembered. At its core, a knowledge-rich curriculum democratises knowledge – it enables all children, regardless of socio-economic background, to be provided with the opportunities to succeed in later life. The PKC has taken evidence and research into account to ensure that it incorporates the principles of spaced retrieval, formative low-stakes quizzing and plenty of practice to develop knowledge fluency in pursuit of mastery.
Implementation
The PKC Science curriculum aims to equip children with the foundations for understanding the world through a scientific lens. Pupils will be taught units of work that cover and go beyond the requirements of the National Curriculum in the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. Pupils will encounter people who have made significant contributions to the field of science over time, understanding that science has been a quest for understanding for many years, and will continue to be so in the future. Pupils will build a body of key foundational science knowledge as they work through the curriculum, asking questions and developing a sense of curiosity about the world around us.
Following the PKC Science curriculum will give children an introduction to fascinating content such as the inner workings of the human body, animals and the environments they live in, plants and their features, forces in nature, what lies beyond the visible and what lies beyond the planet we live on. Over time their knowledge will deepen moving from recognising and naming parts of the human body to understanding how our muscles work, how our blood moves around our body and how our nervous system helps us to interact with the world.
Pupils will be encouraged to use the knowledge they learn in Science and apply it to investigations that test a theory or set out to answer a question. Importantly, substantive scientific knowledge is taught first, before pupils are asked to undertake enquiry. This helps them to fully understand the elements of the enquiry first, and to make informed observations about the processes they see. Gathering information, recording data, graphing data and interpreting findings are all essential skills that pupils will apply to new contexts as they work through the curriculum. Enquiries include observing over time, pattern seeking, identifying, classifying and grouping, comparative and fair testing and researching using secondary sources. Scientific enquiries provide children with a wealth of opportunities, but first and foremost they will help to deepen understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science as a discipline and how it differs from other subjects they are studying. Pupils will gain an understanding of the purpose and uses of science both today and in the future.
Throughout the science curriculum, children are taught that scientific discoveries have been made since time began around the world. The children learn about the work of scientists such as Lewis Howard Latimer, who invented the carbon filament that allowed Edison’s lightbulb to light up the world. In Year 5 children learn about Jabir ibn Hayyan who is thought to have invented a crucial tool for the distillation process: the alembic. In Year 1 children learn about their senses and reflect upon the challenges faced by Helen Keller who achieved a university degree despite being blind and deaf from her early childhood. Importantly in Science, over time, children learn about scientists and their search for the truth. They learn that the people who have contributed to science, from Ancient Baghdad to Ancient Rome and beyond, are diverse and many voices make up the story of science.
Our science curriculum builds knowledge incrementally. Pupils have multiple opportunities to secure and build on their knowledge and understanding as subject content is revisited at points throughout the curriculum. This helps children to master the knowledge and concepts whilst building up an extended specialist vocabulary. This incremental approach helps teachers to identify knowledge gaps and look back at previous content if they need to close gaps in knowledge or understanding. Our curriculum enables children to understand the important role that science plays in the sustainability of life on earth. We want children following this curriculum to be equipped to go forth into their secondary education with curiosity, passion and a desire for discovery.
Impact
Our Science curriculum is high quality, knowledge-based, well-sequenced and is planned to demonstrate progression. If our pupils have understood and retained knowledge from the carefully sequenced curriculum we have taught, we know that they are where they should be.
At Farcet C of E Primary School we ensure that children are equipped with scientific skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.
We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about scientists, obtaining scientific knowledge and taking part in scientific enquiry, therefore, encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.