Science

Our Science Coordinator, Chris Lawson, is a fellow of the Primary Science Teaching Trust. She has access to resources and training which support our school's high-quality science. She also supports teachers in other schools in developing primary science, presenting training on EYFS science to the area mentors of the trust and to other fellows and teachers at PSTT conferences. Additionally she has contributed to a project to develop an EYFS section of the PSTT website.
 
We have been awarded the Primary Science Quality Mark in 2021 to celebrate our commitment to excellence in science teaching and learning, for the second time.
The Primary School Quality Mark programme ensures effective leadership of science, enables schools to work together to share good practice and is supported by professional development led by local experts. It encourages teacher autonomy and innovation while at the same time offering a clear framework for development in science subject leadership, teaching and learning. Schools that achieve PSQM demonstrate commitment and expertise in science leadership, teaching and learning.
 
Associate Professor Jane Turner, PSQM National Director said: “There was never a more important time for primary children to have a high-quality science education. The Coronavirus Pandemic has made everyone aware of the impact of science on our daily lives. Primary schools have an important role to ensure that children understand how science works and keeps us healthy and safe. Schools that have achieved a Primary Science Quality Mark have demonstrated a significant commitment to science teaching and learning, even at this challenging time for schools. The profile and quality of science in each awarded school is very high. Children are engaging with great science both in and outside the classroom, developing positive attitudes towards science as well as secure scientific understanding and skills. Science subject leaders, their colleagues, head teachers, children, parents and governors should be very proud.”

Curriculum Intent

The teaching of science at Laurel Avenue Community Primary, is designed to aid teachers to help pupils build a science schema within their long-term memories. Rather than memorising isolated facts, building a strong science schema enables pupils to organise knowledge in a meaningful way.
As a school we map
​• Breadth of study - the topics the pupils will study
• Threshold concepts - the big ideas in science that pupils will explore through every topic (working scientifically; biology: understand plants, understand animals and humans, investigate living things and understand evolution and inheritance; chemisty: investigate materials; physics: understand movement, forces and magnets, understand the Earth’s movement in space, investigate light and seeing, investigate sound and hearing and understand electrical circuits).
• Milestones - the goals that pupils should reach to show they are meeting the expectations of the curriculum.
 
Milestones are the goals that pupils are aiming for; through developing a strong schema based on knowledge, vocabulary and tasks pupils progress through the milestones.
 
Pupils with SEND are given full access to the science curriculum. Teachers use a range of strategies to enable all pupils to become successful historians including:
• Discrete teaching of vocabulary to ensure all pupils access and use scientific terminology
• Pre-teaching where appropriate for example: sharing texts with a pupil prior to the lesson
• Dual coding to help pupils efficiently learn key concepts
• Thinking maps and mind mapping to enable pupils to organise and memorise key knowledge.

Curriculm Implementation

Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science; three main principles underpin it:
• Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
• Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.
• Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.
 
In addition to the three principles, we also understand that learning is invisible in the short term and that sustained mastery takes time.
Our content is subject specific. We make intra-curricular links to strengthen schema.
Continuous provision, in the form of daily routines, replaces the teaching of some aspects of the curriculum and, in other cases, provides retrieval practice for previously learned content.

Curriculum Impact

Formative Assessment
Pre-unit diagnostic assessment.
Verbal Feedback – the vast majority of feedback is in conversation with the pupil, allowing misconceptions to be spotted and effectively addressed at an early stage.
Know Its - periodical assessment of pupils' prior knowledge gained within current and previous milestones, related to current learning.
 
Summative Assessment
End of unit assessment - assessed against Key Stage Milestones.
Proof of Progress (POP) tasks against the milestones.
Our curriculum distinguishes between subject topics and threshold concepts.
 
Subject topics are the specific aspects of subjects that are studied. Threshold concepts tie together the subject topics into meaningful schema. The same concepts are explored in a wide breadth of topics. Through this ‘forwards-and-backwards engineering’ of the curriculum, pupils return to the same concepts over and over, and gradually build understanding of them.
 
Each Threshold Concept is explored within different contexts so that it has tangibility and meaning. Breadth of contexts ensures that pupils gain relevant knowledge and can transfer this knowledge.

Long Term: Curriculum Map

Science Overview

Subject Topics

Knowledge Progression: Milestones

KS1: Milestone 1

Lower KS2 : Milestone 2

Upper KS2: Milestone 3

Vocabulary Progression

Science Policy

Curriculum Drivers