“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

Carl Sagan.

Intent

Our Science vision

At Heathrow Primary School, we strive to foster a lifelong passion of science through engaging and relevant experiences. We want to give pupils the skills, and aspirations to be future environmentalists, scientists, engineers, technologists, and health professionals. We also want them to be informed citizens who are equipped to make healthy decisions for their physical and mental wellbeing.

Why is Science important?

Here at Heathrow Primary School, we feel that science is a crucial and exciting core subject. Children have an instinct to explore and investigate the world around them, and science offers students the opportunity to acquire knowledge about the wonders of this glorious world we live in. We are passionate about practical opportunities in science for our pupils and proud of the science learning opportunities that we offer.

Implementation

The Curriculum

At Heathrow Primary school, we aim to build children’s curiosity and nurture their passion for science through a broad, rich curriculum. We use the Plymouth science scheme which is designed around the National Curriculum statements for knowledge, working scientifically and scientific enquiry. Our science lessons take focus on implementing and developing children’s scientific skills which they apply through enquiry based, practical lessons.  

The National Curriculum for science aims to ensure all pupils:

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics,
• 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,
• are equipped with the scientific skills required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Every lesson, children are developing a scientific skills which allows them to access the intended learning. These skills are:

• asking questions,
• making predictions,
• setting up tests,
• observing and measuring,
• recording data,
• interpreting results,
• and evaluating.

The types of enquiry children use for every science topic are:

• comparative and fair testing,
• research,
• observation over time,
• pattern-seeking,
• grouping and classifying,
• and problem solving.

Science teaching and learning at Heathrow Primary School, encompasses a wide range of cross-curricular activities including links with outdoor learning, geography, mathematics, computing and writing.

A copy of our science long term plan and progression of skills can be found below.

Science in the Early Years Foundation Stage

Science learning starts in Heathrow Primary School as soon as children enter our Nursery class. From birth, human beings have an instinct to explore and find out about the world around them. At Heathrow Primary school, we give children a range of learning opportunities to develop these skills. We are currently following the new EYFS Early Adopter framework, which has clear science goals under the ‘Understanding the World’ section. Pupils are assessed using the Early Learning Goals, at the end of the Reception. In science, the Early Learning Goals require children to:

• Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants
• Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class
• Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter
• Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class

Scientific exploration and investigation are at the very heart of early years learning at Heathrow Primary School. Pupils are encouraged to develop positive characteristics of learning which give a wealth of opportunities to develop scientific skills, across the early years environment. These include opportunities to; sort materials, solve real problems, make more links between ideas, recognise that actions have an effect on the world, make choices and explore different resources and materials, feel confident about coming up with and making more links between ideas. Our Nursery and Reception give children the opportunity to develop a strong foundation in science to build on when they enter Key stage 1.

Science in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

At Heathrow Primary school, we follow the National Curriculum for science from Year 1 to Year 6. This aims to ensure that all pupils: develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics.

In KS1, pupils develop their scientific understanding through experiencing and observing phenomena and events and being encouraged to ask questions and challenge what they notice. Pupils in year 1, explore themes such as investigating changes in plants, seasonal changes, exploring materials and animals.  In year 2, scientific knowledge is built on and children relish in challenges including exploring different materials and developing an understanding of living things and their habitats. In years 3 and 4, pupils begin to broaden their scientific view of the world around them through more sophisticated testing procedures. They also further develop ideas about nature and the relationship between living things and the environment. These themes are explored through topics including questioning how rocks are formed and investigating how changing environments can affect habitats. By years 5 and 6, the focus is on a deeper understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas and recognising how more abstract ideas change and develop over time, such as changes within ecosystems, animal development and how humans change due to evolution and inheritance. By this point, children are using a range of scientific data and observational evidence to justify their findings.

As well as developing scientific knowledge through a range of topics, skills in scientific enquiry are also an integral part of learning.

Science Assessment

Children’s progress is continually monitored throughout their time at Heathrow Primary School and is used to inform future teaching and learning. We assess the children’s understanding of each topic and scientific skills once it has been covered, through teacher-based assessment in lessons, evidence of work and children’s comments. As teachers, we also collect evidence of learning for our class scrap book which is always used as an assessment tool. We then use our school’s assessment tracker to outline the children who are working at the age-related expectation, below expected standard and above expected standard for the seven scientific skills we teach.  

Science Scrap books  

Science work is recorded through the class scrap books through various forms of evidence, these are a great resource for pupil to revisit and reflect on scientific ideas.

Science STEM experiences

At Heathrow Primary School, we also offer pupils the opportunity to probe deeper into science experiences, outside of weekly science lessons. Every year we celebrate British Science Week and pupils delight in our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) day. Challenges include, investigating fingerprints as a forensic scientist, or exploring buoyancy and engineering skills as a craft inventor.

Impact

Here are some of the positive outcomes of a well taught science curriculum:

• Helps children make healthy choices/ lifesaving choices.
• Critical Thinking- The ability to objectively evaluate information, is one of the greatest skills that we can possess.
• Resilience – Resilience is now known as one of the most important markers of life success.
• Constantly learning and improving- Children through Science can learn to love learning.

• Having a good foundation in science at primary school can support young people’s skills, ambition, and drive to pursue essential careers as: doctors, nurses, engineers, laboratory technicians and even astronauts! 

• Preserves the sense of wonder – Children are born with natural wonder and curiosity.
• Pupils with a strong bedrock in primary science, can build upon it further and succeed in secondary school and higher education.

Through the teaching of science, we hope that pupils will be inspired and motivated to live happy, healthy lives. We also hope that they will have an appreciation and understanding of the wonderous world we live in, and be equipped with the skills and opportunities to be inspirational scientists of the future.