Science
Why do we teach Science at Freeland Primary School?
Science teaching at Freeland Primary School aims to provide children with firm roots in understanding the world around them. Our enthusiastic approach to the subject nurtures a life-long passion for science, sows the seeds for natural curiosity whilst adopting vital, transferable skills. We promote life-long learning whilst acquiring specific skills and knowledge to help them to think scientifically.
Our curriculum is about developing enquiring minds and a scientific approach to problem solving through predicting, observing, recording and reflecting on results of investigations. Children at Freeland understand that their scientific learning journey grows by asking questions, making mistakes and that this is an important part of learning which enables them to make real and valuable connections with the world around them.
How do we teach Science at Freeland Primary School?
At Freeland, we follow the Science curriculum, introduced in 2014, which offers greater opportunities to develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding, as well as understanding the uses and implications of science today and for the future. The curriculum is carefully planned to ensure all children across the school develop the necessary knowledge and skills in a progressive way. Science topics are planned with our mixed aged classes in mind to ensure all children are taught the full science curriculum and where possible are linked to the cross curricular topics taught. Knowledge, Concept, Vocabulary Organisers are developed by our Science Leader to outline the learning (knowledge, concepts and vocabulary) in each class, each term.
We have developed personalised teaching and learning based around the Deepening Understanding scheme of work. Our curriculum aims to provide opportunities for children to experience learning in all areas of science: chemistry, biology and physics and opportunities to build on their prior knowledge; this promotes enthusiasm for the topics taught whilst embedding procedural knowledge into the long-term memory. All children are encouraged to develop and use a range of scientific skills through every topic and specialist vocabulary is taught and built upon in each year.
Every year, we aim to provide extra science opportunities such as visits to scientific environments such as the Oxford University Physics Department and Science Oxford. Whole-school focused science weeks are planned with enthusiasm and allow children to investigate the scientific work by current scientists and those from history.
What is the impact of our teaching?
Our Science curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression in all areas of science. We measure the impact of our curriculum through regular low level testing, such as quizzes, knowledge challenges, brain dumps, as well as summative assessment to enable teachers to investigate any children’s misconceptions and effectively identify any gaps in knowledge so they can be addressed.