Science

At Earlsfield we provide a balanced science curriculum that stimulates enthusiasm and curiosity and develops knowledge and understanding of important scientific ideas that our children can relate to every day experiences.

Teaching allows pupils to secure the knowledge they need for each topic and ‘Working Scientifically’ skills are embedded within the curriculum. Currently, children learn through rich discussions, securing and developing their knowledge and ideas, testing and developing ideas about everyday phenomena and the relationships between living things and familiar environments.

Early Years

Children explore the world as it is happening. For example, weather. The outdoor space is utilised to ensure children have hands on experience of the changes that occur and therefore have the opportunity to comment on what they see; ask questions as they explore.

Children develop the skills needed to engage in scientific exploration as they learn in all seven areas of the Early Years Curriculum.

In Early Years children will mostly be taught through games and exploration.

The areas of learning within science are:

Communication and language
Physical development
Personal, Social and Emotional
Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding the world
Expressive arts and design

Key Stage 1

Lower Key Stage 2

Upper Key Stage 2

Progression of skills and knowledge is paramount for children to build on their learning and continue to work as budding scientists across the school. Being able to refer to ‘Scieroglyphics,’ (see Appendix 2 below) reminds children what ‘Working scientific skills’ they are using within a lesson.

By giving children an inspiring high quality science education, they develop curiosity, resilience and a love of learning. Our child led approach to scientific investigations allows children to think of questions they would want to investigate (in a controlled and safe environment) and ultimately enables them to plan, solve and develop their enquiry skills within Science. Children are encouraged to make meaningful connections with other areas of the curriculum so that they are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Subject overview

Science subject overview

Our topics

Our knowledge organisers outline the key facts for our topics.

Knowledge Organisers

Our knowledge organisers outline the key facts for our topics. Please note that many are in the form of a question but the ? cannot be represented on a saved PDF file!

How is science taught?

Children are taught science twice a week at Earlsfield Primary. Every child at the start of their Topics get the opportunity to display what they know. This summative assessment informs teachers with their planning. Within these sessions, children can ask any questions about what they would like to know about their topic and these are addressed within the learning across the half term. At the end of a particular topic, children will traffic light their knowledge, which ties in with the National Curriculum. This is to show how confident they feel with the knowledge they have acquired.

The children therefore know what knowledge they will gain during a topic and their skills are referred to at the start and during the lesson. Knowledge and skills are built on across the school. For example, in Year 2 children learn about ‘Keeping Healthy.’ They focus on describing the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene (as the national curriculum states). This knowledge is built on in Year 3 as the children learn about nutrition.

Throughout term, the expectation is that children are developing their scientific skills as well as the knowledge they have gained. Within a topic, children develop their skills through investigations. Children are given opportunities to think of questions they would like to answer and have to use a type of scientific enquiry in order to answer them. An example of this could be observation over time. Teachers and children use a planning format to enable the pupils to carry out their fair test investigations.

What would you expect to see in a science lesson at Earlsfield?

Topic coverage of knowledge ‘I Can Statements’
At the start of each lesson children will be asked to activate their prior knowledge (on previous lesson, week and topic).
Skills within lessons (Scieroglyphics) referred to in the lesson and are embedded across all lessons
Explicit scientific vocabulary which children are encouraged to spell accurately
Challenge for all
Practical resources being used
Investigations through a type of scientific enquiry
Independent learning at the start of a topic to show what children already know and informs teachers planning. At the end of the topic an assessment which shows what children have learnt(on green paper)
Children routinely being challenged in science with Maths (where applicable)
Links to other areas of the curriculum, for example-genres of Literacy (where applicable)

What do pupils tell us about Science?

What have you been learning in science?

Year 2 Pupil: “Animals. We have been learning about living things and their habitats. Every living things has to have Mrs GREN. They need to be able to move, respire, sensitivity, growth, reproduction and excretion. We love learning new things because it is fun. I want to be a scientist. Prey is when an animal gets hunted for food.”

Year 4 Pupil: I enjoyed learning about animals. Woodlice need moisture to survive. In a food chain you have the sun then the plant which is the producer, after the primary consumer, then the secondary and after the tertiary consumer.”

Year 6 Pupil: “Yes we have done lots. An investigation we did for example was, How could we create a rainbow using everyday objects? We led these ourselves. We made and planned our own investigations and had to prove how we did.”

Have you been challenged in science?

Year 1 Pupil: “We get different challenges. Why would you wear these clothes in that month? This links with our seasons’ topic.”

Year 3 Pupil: “Yes we are always challenged. We have questions such as, ‘What would happen if.”

Year 5 Pupil: “There are lots of challenges given to us to make us think. Reasoning is a good example of this using our scientific knowledge.”

What scientific skills have you used?

Year 2 Pupil: “Recording data, planning fair tests, observations, predictions.”

Year 1 Pupil: “We make observations over time. We go and visit the same tree to look for changes. We record in tables.”

Year 6 Pupil: “Observation is one of the many skills we have used. I loved observing and dissecting a lambs heart for our Blood topic.”

Do you do maths in science? Can you give an example?

Year 4 Pupil: “We do lots of tables, recording in Venn diagrams, graphs, Carroll diagrams,

recording results.”

Year 4 Pupil: “We do maths in science a lot. We have analysed pie charts when we looked at energy consumption for our electricity topic. We had to compare data.”

Year 5 Pupil: “We have completed scatter graphs in science as well as looking at tables.”

Year 1 Pupil: “In Science, we have been using maths to measure temperature. Outside we go and see how hot or cold it is using a thermometer. Measuring is a skill.”