Science

Science Curriculum Intent

At Manor, our Science curriculum enables children to:

• find out why things happen in the way they do;

• learn methods of enquiry and investigation to stimulate creative thought;

• ask scientific questions and begin to appreciate the way in which science will affect the future on a personal, national, and global level;

• plan and carry out scientific investigations, using equipment (including computers) correctly;

• know and understand about variation and evolution, animals, plants and materials;

• evaluate evidence and present their conclusions clearly and accurately.

Implementation

In the EYFS, children engage with aspects of Science through discovery time activities linked to the topic. Children gather real life, hands on experiences, which set a solid foundation of scientific understanding. They also enquire about scientific concepts linked to their interests such as melting ice, insects & animals and seasonal change.

At Manor, our Key Stage 1 Science curriculum is based on the Hampshire Key Ideas document. We follow these ‘Key Ideas’ as they provide a progressive and engaging curriculum for our children that is delivered through an enquiry based learning approach.

Our Science curriculum provides a wide range of experiences both inside and outside of the classroom, which give children opportunities to develop and deepen their understanding of key scientific ideas. The curriculum delivers clear, precise and structured opportunities to learn and understand scientific facts and allows the children time to apply this knowledge to new situations through scientific enquiry. These enquiries challenge all children to find the answer to scientific questions that they do not know the answer to and allows them the chance to test their knowledge against the results that they find. Children will also have the opportunity to apply their scientific knowledge to studies in our school grounds, discovering the environment just outside their classroom by studying this specific space over longer periods of time.

The children receive weekly Science lessons, which provide regular opportunities for them to investigate and carry out practical tasks. Direct teaching of knowledge is linked to the investigations the children are undertaking. Adults encourage the children to ask, as well as answer, scientific questions. Children have the opportunity to use a variety of data, such as graphs, pictures, as well as photographs. Wherever possible, we involve the children in real scientific activities, for example, by investigating a local environmental problem, or carrying out a practical experiment and analysing the results.

We endeavour to ensure that the Science curriculum that we provide gives children the confidence and motivation to continue to further develop their skills into the next stage of their education as well as their life experiences.

Trailblazer

At Manor, the children participate in a Hampshire initiative called Trailblazer.

Trailblazer is a scheme that promotes a balanced approach to outdoor and environmental education. Every half term, the children at Manor take part in a Trailblazer afternoon outside in our extensive school grounds. Children love to be outside and Trailblazer gives them the opportunity to:

- discover the environment - by taking part in activities that promote understanding of the environment and the issues involved, with an enquiry-based approach to develop thinking skills, connecting outdoor learning to the curriculum.

- explore the environment – by taking part in fun and challenging and adventurous activities, where the challenge is to solve a problem, achieve a task or complete a journey, using new skills.

- care for the environment –by taking part in awareness-raising projects that aim at maintaining, improving or caring for a location or environment.

Impact

By the time the children leave Manor at the end of Year 2 they will be able to:

• make observations over time, noticing similarities and differences;
• ask questions, recognise that questions can be answered in different ways;
• notice patterns;
• group and classify;
• plan experiments (including fair testing, making predictions, recording results and writing clear conclusions);
• plan and carry out simple comparative tests by measuring;
• find things out using secondary resources.