St Paul's Catholic Primary School, V.A.

     Welcome to Science at St. Paul's CPS

Intent: At St. Paul's CPS our ambition is to inspire and excite children's curiosity to find out about the world around them and how it all works. We aim to make learning hands on and memorable through investigations and testing ideas. We place a huge importance on learning and using scientific vocabulary.

Science Policy 2021-2022

Implementation : 

At St Paul's Catholic Primary School, VA, we follow the National Curriculum and use the Developing Experts Science Scheme of Work from Years 1-6.

The scheme is well-balanced and covers all aspects of the National Curriculum. We also use dedicated Science days, enhancement trips to enhance and personalise our approach. The children carry out a range of experiments and investigations. 

The children experience scientific enquiry lessons that have a focus on 5 different lines of enquiry

• observation over time
• identifying and classifying
• pattern seeking
• research
• comparative and fair testing  

We also teach the children about famous scientists and consider their impact on our lives. We encourage children to think about how science relates to their everyday lives.

Below is an example of the Developing Experts Curriculum overview for Year 1. These excellent documents are used by all year groups in school to ensure progression and challenge.

Please do not attempt to copy or reproduce this document as it belongs to Developing Experts, not St Paul's Catholic Primary School, VA. Reproducing, copying or using this document without permission would contravene UK copyright laws. 

  PLANNING, COVERAGE AND MONITORING PROGRESS
We use the "Primary Science Curriculum Progression" document, provided by PSTT to help with planning and monitoring coverage. It helps to ensure continuity so that skills and knowledge are built upon year by year. This document has also helped to identify where topics have been covered during one of the COVID lockdowns and therefore might need revisiting by the next teacher. 

Impact: We use a range of strategies to monitor and assess the knowledge, skills and understanding that the children have learned each term

• vocabulary checks
• topic assessments from Developing Experts
• book looks
• pupil voice interviews
• formative assessments / feedback within lessons
• marking and feedback in line with school policy 

Science at St Paul's aims to provide the children with the opportunity to explore and understand the world around us through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics - fulfilling the Primary National Curriculum 2014.

Science, as a core subject,  is taught weekly as a stand alone subject, to ensure full coverage of the curriculum, We do make links with other subjects wherever possible. The topics taught each half term are shown on our school long term plan. 

The core approach taken with this subject is that children develop the ability to question, predict, think, investigate and report as routine. These key scientific skills are embedded in the science teaching undertaken and are crucial for the children to take their understanding and enjoyment through to secondary school and beyond . The emphasis is on the practical nature of the subject. The aim is very much learning through hands on investigation. 

Mrs Winters is the Science Coordinator in school. She is supported by Mr Purcell.

If any parents could offer any expert support in school with Science by sharing their real-life experiences, we would love to hear from you!  

SCIENCE WEEK : 05 JULY - 09 JULY

INTENT: The intention of Science Week is to raise the profile of science among the children by learning about a scientist and by carrying out investigations. The focus is on exploring the different strands of "Working Scientifically" for example, pattern seeking, observing over time, grouping and classifying and carrying out a fair test.

IMPLEMENTATION: All classes completed a "Pupil Voice Questionnaire" at the start of the week. All classes then began with an assembly to discover which scientist we already know and to learn a little about some we don't! The rest of the week was dedicated to answering questions by carrying out experiments. Have a look at just some of the experiments we did.

Year 1 : Does the biggest ball bounce the highest?

Year 2 : Does the biggest ball bounce the highest?

Year 4 : Can the person with the longest feet jump the furthest?

Year 5 :

                              Year 1 : The  Life Cycle of a Chick

One of the highlights of the year is having the eggs arrive in class and watching the chicks hatch and grow. We learn lots of new words such as, pipping, brooding and incubator. We are amazed at how quickly the little wet chicks fluff up and stand on their feet!

                                   Year 1: Humans and Animals

When we were learning about humans we explored our senses. We took part in different tests to see if we could work out what things were by smell, by touch and by listening!

Plants 

Year 1 have been testing the conditions needed for the growth of a plant and observing what happens over time. We have been learning about the different parts of a plant and exploring what part of a plant we can eat - the root, the stem, the seeds, the fruit, the leaves or the flower. We have been finding out which wild flowers grow near our school and doing some close up observational drawing.

Did you know that  buttercup flower has 5 petals?

Science National Curriculum