At Longtown Primary School, our children are SCIENTISTS!
Our intent is to give every child a broad and balanced Science curriculum which enables them to confidently explore and discover what is around them, so that they have a deeper understanding of the world we live in. We want our children to love science. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be astronauts, forensic scientists, toxicologists or microbiologists. We want our children to remember their science lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the scientific opportunities they are presented with! To achieve this, it involves exciting, practical hands on experiences that encourage curiosity and questioning. Our aim is to stimulate and challenge children, helping them secure and extend their scientific knowledge and vocabulary, as well as promoting a love and thirst for learning.
Our science curriculum covers the knowledge and skills our children will learn over their time at Longtown Primary School. Our curriculum is broken down into 8 topics. The topics are organised to allow pupils to revise and build on their previous knowledge and to know more and remember more.
Our topics are organised into the following areas:
- Animals including humans
- Plants
- Living things and their habitats
- Materials
- Forces
- Electricity
- Light and Sound
- Evolution and Inheritance
Working Scientifically runs throughout our lessons. These are the disciplinary skills the children will be taught. At the beginning of every lesson, the science skill or skills are identified. Posters with different images are used as a visual representation of each skill.
The skills are:
- Observing over time
- Observing
- Identifying and Classifying
- Research
- Comparative and Fair Testing
- Pattern seeking
The successful approach to the teaching of science at Longtown Primary School will result in a fun, engaging, high quality science education, that provides children with the foundations for understanding the world that they can take with them once they complete their primary education.
Assessment at Longtown Primary School is teacher based and formed using formal strategies (e.g. learning ladder assessment updates) and informal strategies (Use of retrieval questions/tasks, verbal/written outcomes, reflection tasks/presentations).
Formative assessment is used as the main tool for assessing the impact of Science at Longtown Primary School as it allows for misconceptions and gaps to be addressed more immediately rather than building on insecure scientific foundations.
Children at Longtown Primary School will:
- demonstrate a love of science work and an interest in further study and work in this field
- retain knowledge that is pertinent to Science with a real life context.
- be able to question ideas and reflect on knowledge.
- be able to articulate their understanding of scientific concepts and be able to reason scientifically using rich language linked to science.
- demonstrate a high love of mathematical skills through their work, organising, recording and interpreting results.
- work collaboratively and practically to investigate and experiment.
- achieve age related expectations in Science at the end of their cohort year.
