Here you can find information about our Science Curriculum. 

Intent

At Leafield C.E. Primary School, a learner will enjoy exploring, questioning, and gaining a greater understanding of the world around them. They will plan scientific experiments, make predictions, and answer their own questions about how and why things work. Children will have an appreciation of the world that God created for them and the impact that they can have upon it.

Implementation

The content of science teaching and learning is set out in the 2014 National Curriculum programmes of study supported by Cornerstones and aims to ensure that all children:

• Develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
• Develop an understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them.
• Are equipped with the scientific skills required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. 

Within this, certain topics and areas are repeated across year groups, meaning that children may revisit a particular topic in each year of primary school but with increasing difficulty and with a different focus each time.

The Leafield C.E. Primary School, Science curriculum in Years 1 to 6 uses the widely respected Cornerstones, with adaptations appropriate to resources, timing and cohort ability. This resource provides an ambitious level of challenge coupled with relevant links to other curriculum areas, and enquiries that are rooted in children’s everyday experience. In Reception, Science, or Understanding the World, is planned from the Development Matters document.

Impact

The successful approach to the teaching of Science at Leafield C.E. 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 Leafield C.E. Primary School is teacher-based and formed using formal strategies (e.g. periodic year group assessment tasks, quizzes) and informal strategies (use of concept maps, verbal/written outcomes, quizzes and presentations).

Formative assessment is used as the main tool for assessing the impact of science at Leafield C.E. Primary School as it allows for misconceptions and gaps to be addressed more immediately rather than building on insecure scientific foundations.

Children at Leafield C.E. 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 in relation to real life contexts.
• 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.