Science
Science Champion: Mr Steer
My name is Mr Steer and I am the Science Champion at Fairmeadows. I have always loved science from an early age and have always been fascinated with the goings on in the world around me. This passion for science continued throughout my school life and into my A Levels. I have also had practical experience with working in a laboratory setting for a couple of years prior to starting my teaching degree, which made me truly value the importance of Science in our world and making sure that all of our children at school become avid scientists!
Vision:
Science teaches an understanding of natural phenomena. It aims to stimulate a child’s curiosity in finding out why things happen in the way they do. It teaches methods of enquiry and investigation to stimulate creative thought. Science changes as human understanding and experience changes. It is an on-going process as our ideas about the world around us are constantly developed and revised. Children learn to ask scientific questions and begin to appreciate the way science will affect their future on a personal, national, and global level.
Children are encouraged to develop their investigative skills and their understanding of science in activities which:
- Promote the raising and answering of questions
- Encourage a working understanding of safety and care
- Are set within the everyday experience of the child and build on their existing practical skills within a given framework
Aims and Goals:
- To develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
- To develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
- To ensure children are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future
We encourage all children to:
- Use all of their senses to enquire, explore and observe so that they can ask questions and pose problems about themselves and their environment.
- Investigate and experiment in a fair way to try and answer questions posed by themselves and others.
- Record their findings in a variety of ways as accurately as possible so that they can communicate them to others.
- Suggest tentative conclusions/answers or pose further questions for investigation.
Curriculum:
Early Years:
In EYFS, pupils are taught the knowledge and skills for Understanding the World through varied topic themes throughout the year and also through blocked Science topics. Our EYFS Curriculum for Understanding the World is taught in variety of ways through adult-led and adult-supported tasks and child- initiated learning in well-resourced provision areas, both indoors and outdoors.
Key Stage 1:
The principal focus of science teaching in key stage 1 is to enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly constructed world around them. They should be encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what they notice. They should be helped to develop their understanding of scientific ideas by using different types of scientific enquiry to answer their own questions, including observing changes over a period of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple comparative tests, and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They should begin to use simple scientific language to talk about what they have found out and communicate their ideas to a range of audiences in a variety of ways.
Lower Key Stage 2:
The principal focus of science teaching in lower key stage 2 is to enable pupils to broaden their scientific view of the world around them. They should do this through exploring, talking about, testing and developing ideas about everyday phenomena and the relationships between living things and familiar environments, and by beginning to develop their ideas about functions, relationships and interactions. They should ask their own questions about what they observe and make some decisions about which types of scientific enquiry are likely to be the best ways of answering them, including observing changes over time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple comparative and fair tests and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They should draw simple conclusions and use some scientific language, first, to talk about and, later, to write about what they have found out.
Upper Key Stage 2:
The principal focus of science teaching in upper key stage 2 is to enable pupils to develop a deeper understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas. They should do this through exploring and talking about their ideas; asking their own questions about scientific phenomena; and analysing functions, relationships and interactions more systematically. At upper key stage 2, they should encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the world operates. They should also begin to recognise that scientific ideas change and develop over time. They should select the most appropriate ways to answer science questions using different types of scientific enquiry, including observing changes over different periods of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out comparative and fair tests and finding things out using a wide range of secondary sources of information. Pupils should draw conclusions based on their data and observations, use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings.
Assessment:
Progression in Science will be assessed throughout each key stage through the children’s ability to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. We will assess the children through:
- Observing children at work during their Science sessions.
- Questioning the children in relation to their programme of study in order to assess their understanding and comprehension of that topic.
- Assessment/marking the work produced by the children and discussion of their next steps, which may be both verbal or through the use of SEESAW in class.
- End of year tests
Awards:
In 2021, through a lot of hard work, passion and dedication for science, we achieved the Primary Science Quality Mark. We are currently working on achieving our PSQM mark for 2024 and look forward to continuing to promote Science within Fairmeadows!
Documents and useful links:
Please see below a selection of documents and links that relate to the teaching of Science at Fairmeadows. If you require any additional information relating to the subject, then please contact the subject champion Mr Steer via the school office.