Science 

Our ambition is that our children become educated and informed about scientific concepts and knowledge, and are curious about the world they live in. We want our children to develop their scientific knowledge so that they have a greater understanding of the world around them. Our curriculum is designed to provide stimulating and challenging experiences to help the children develop their curiosity and to be able to answer scientific questions about the ever-changing world in which they live.  We want them to engage with and enjoy science and understand its relevance to them and life in the modern world. We aim to build cultural capital in order for pupils to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. 

Science allows every pupil to develop a deeper understanding of the world in which they live. Through a stimulating curriculum provide memorable learning experiences allowing all pupils to discover, question and develop their curiosity thus evolving their knowledge and bank of core skills which will equip them for an ever-changing world. 

Science in action at BSP

 We follow the national curriculum and our aim is for children to achieve the endpoints at the end of each topic and each key stage.  Our science curriculum is mapped out against the Association for Science Education’s fourteen Big Ideas of and about science, so that whichever order science units are taught in children revisit, review and reflect upon these key concepts and big ideas, augmenting their understanding of them by revisiting them in different contexts and units of work.  

Teachers take account of the big ideas and related threshold concepts in their science planning to secure mastery of subject knowledge year-on-year and over time.  Within the science curriculum domain specific skills such as setting up practical enquiries, making systematic and careful observations are taught alongside key knowledge.

Science is taught where possible within topics which take account of links between concepts, and address the ways science contributes to our curriculum themes at BSP.  Throughout the school knowledge is built on prior knowledge, and is sequenced through answering a series of Key Questions in each unit of work.

For each science topic there is a knowledge organiser with key information which is used for retrieval practice to enable children to know and remember more. In and out quizzes show progress over a topic of work and identify gaps and misconceptions.   

We base each science unit around an enquiry question.  Our curriculum is written to answer this question using a series of Key Questions which unpick the knowledge needed to understand and answer the enquiry question.  This knowledge helps the children to deepen their conceptual understanding of the Big Ideas of science.