Wimborne First School & Nursery

Science Curriculum

Intent:

At Wimborne First School and Nursery, our high-quality, exciting Science curriculum provides the opportunity for children to build on their natural curiosity to explore the world around them. We inspire every child to see themselves as the scientists of the future and encourage them to apply their scientific skills and knowledge to real world problems and questions. The curriculum is designed to give children increasing opportunity to work independently and engage in enquiry learning, to answer questions and problem solve. We strive to equip every child with a strong foundation of scientific knowledge for them to take forward into their future education and the rest of their lives.

Implementation:

For children in Nursery and Reception, Science is not taught explicitly but rather opportunities for observation of and enquiry into scientific phenomenon are carefully planned into the curriculum. Knowledge is built over the year, with constant opportunities to revisit learning. Children are encouraged to be curious, and ask and answer their own questions about the world around them.

For children from Y1-Y4, Science at Wimborne First is taught in weekly sessions. The curriculum is broken down for students into domain knowledge and working scientifically knowledge. Each domain is taught either in a unit, typically over a half-term, or across the year. These units have been carefully sequenced so links can be made between units where appropriate and children can compare or contrast topics across time.

The scientific method is explored through the children partaking in scientific enquiry. The children are taught the 5 types of enquiry and experience the full range of these across the year. Working scientifically skills are explicitly taught and modelled so the children can identify and acquire these skills over time. Scientific enquiry is heavily scaffolded in KS1 with the teacher taking the lead for most of the enquiries. Children develop their independence in KS2 with increasing opportunities to work individually or in groups.

Teachers make links between the taught knowledge of each lesson and the wider world, allowing the children of Wimborne First to apply what they have learnt to a real world context. Children are given opportunities to ask and answer questions about the world and engage with the wider school and scientific community.

Each lesson begins with a review and recap of previous taught knowledge so that key facts and information is embedded into the long-term memory of every child. Children are regularly quizzed to help them practice the recall of previous taught knowledge.

Please see progression information below:

Please see our learning journeys below:

Year 1 

Year 2 

Year 3 

Year 4 

Impact:

The impact of the science curriculum is assessed in two main ways.

Firstly, children are assessed in line with the whole-school assessment procedures at the end of each lesson. The tasks in each lesson elicit evidence of the children’s substantive and disciplinary knowledge for their Science work books, which the teacher then uses to judge if the child is secure in the knowledge and skills covered during the lesson or not. This forms the basis of teacher’s ongoing assessment for learning which informs future teaching and catch up sessions. These work books are used a primary source of evidence for a child’s progression and achievement against the National Curriculum. Throughout the year, a selection of books are moderated and benchmarked both across each year group and against the PLAN Assessment Examples of work to ensure consistency.

Secondly, the children are assessed at the end of each term using a multiple-choice style quiz. The format is kept consistent across the whole school so children gain confidence and familiarity over time. This assessment focuses on the children’s retention of substantive knowledge from throughout the year so far and from previous years. This enables teachers to gauge whole-class strengths and weaknesses, and again inform future teaching.