Science at Lordship Lane

Aims

We believe that Science is an area of our curriculum that should excite and intrigue children in our school. We aim to ensure that children develop a strong understanding of scientific concept but we also support them in developing and refining their skills in scientific enquiry. At Lordship Lane, we also place a special emphasis on supporting children to acquire scientific vocabulary because we know this is challenging for some of our pupils.

Curriculum

We follow the National Curriculum for Science, but in a number of places we go beyond it, giving the children an extra depth of understanding. We have made knowledge builders for each unit of work. This is a sheet containing the scientific words and knowledge that children are going to learn in each half term. Your child will bring this sheet home each half term, and it will also be shared on Seesaw.

We want children at Lordship Lane to become confident in carrying out a range of investigations. As such, each half term children take part in an enquiry which is given over to developing scientific enquiry skills. By carrying out an entire enquiry, children become absorbed in the scientific method and gain as much as possible from the experience.

Science Teaching

In Early Years, children are encouraged to explore the world around them and develop their understanding of scientific concepts through a wide range of free flow activities, both indoors and outdoors. At this stage, teachers take advantage of children’s curiosity to introduce new ideas to them.

In Key Stages 1 and 2, children benefit from Science lessons each week. We ensure that children are secure in their understanding of each topic and confident in using the relevant vocabulary before carrying out the enquiry.  We believe this allows them to get the most out of the experience. Weekly quizzing helps children to remember what they have learnt over time.

Overview

The table below offers a very broad overview of what children study in science each half term. Our knowledge builders provide much more detail of the content; children will be given these to take home at the beginning of each unit of work. In Science we have 4 Golden Threads which include: Good Health, Innovation, Sustainability and Climate.  Teachers use the Golden Threads to help children remember prior learning.