Intent

At Arboretum Primary School, our children greatly enjoy science and are experts in asking questions borne out of curiosity about life and the world around them. Some of our children do not have the opportunity to engage in experiences beyond that of their immediate environment; therefore, throughout their time at our school, we intend to broaden their experiences beyond that of their immediate locality in order to answer those questions and further foster their curiosity . We intend to expand the children’s knowledge and aspirations of careers within the scientific community and challenge gender and cultural stereotypes. In addition to furthering children’s knowledge, our intention is to develop disciplinary skills that transcend all subjects but particularly those of the sciences. It is important to the core values of Arboretum Primary School that through Science, we encourage and develop children to become future stewards of our planet.

Implementation

At Arboretum Primary School, we base our science teaching and learning on the National Curriculum and where possible make genuine links with other subjects. We make links with the children’s heritage and culture and ensure that we celebrate the scientific achievements of culturally and gender diverse scientists. Through our ‘know more, remember more’ curriculum, we build on past learning using a Knowledge and Working Scientifically progression document. Regular sticky knowledge tasks and a deepening understanding of scientific vocabulary is core to our teaching and learning.  To develop the cultural capital of all children, we provide children with science related visits and visitors into school.

Impact

We record in individual Science books but also work practically, including discussions, team research, experiments and where possible, involvement with practising scientists on-line.

Assessment of children’s achievement is formative, leading to a final level at the end of each unit of work. Both children and staff, including TA’s, are involved in reaching a final level at the end of the year, taking into account both knowledge based learning and working scientifically.

Monitoring of teaching and learning takes place using book trawls, lesson observations and discussions with staff and pupils. Finalised levels are input into a common database and analysed by co-ordinators. Where there are areas of concern, support is given to ascertain why and measures put in place to support staff and children in order to ensure that our children meet at least national standards and are able to compete equally with peers in secondary school and in life as an adult.