Intent
Our vision at Ratby Primary School is to instil a lifelong love of Science within our pupils. We want our children to be curious, inquisitive and enthusiastic learners. We aim to enable them to suggest and use different lines of enquiry in order to answer their own questions. We offer a broad, rich and progressive Science curriculum that covers all areas of the national curriculum. We make cross curricular links through our Cornerstones topics and the implementation of additional Science units. We want to equip our learners to understand the importance and use of Science today and in the future. Our Science capital is high as we have lots of sharing opportunities within our school and alongside other schools.
Implementation
We collect evidence of Science in many ways at Ratby Primary School. Our books show recording and photographs of Science investigations and alongside this we also conduct practical assessments at the end of every unit to ensure that we are meeting the working scientifically goals as well as assessing the pupils understanding of the current Science topic. We also share our Science work with parents too via Twitter. We are a well-equipped school and the Science coordinator regularly checks the resources and shares this list with the staff. We cover a Science topic in every half term and these are often linked to our Cornerstones topic.
EYFS
The teaching of Science is practical, playful and inclusive with support and challenge from adults in class sessions, small groups and working with individuals. There is a combination of adult-led, teacher taught sessions as well as a wealth of stimulating continuous provision opportunities when adults scaffold learning through skilful interactions and questioning. Throughout all of these areas of learning and at the heart of our EYFS are the “Characteristics of Effective Learning”. Our foundation stage team make links to the Year 1 and 2 Science curriculum as we believe that Science should be introduced to children at an early age. Examples of the foundation stage’s wide variety of learning include: Forest School sessions, role play linked to various settings, small world play (bugs and materials), cooking opportunities, a selection of observational experiments and the opportunity to look after and care for small animals.
Teaching Style
Teachers use assessment for learning to tailor their lessons and to cater for the abilities of their current class. We also introduce Scientific vocabulary for every topic and spend time explaining the meaning of these words so children can use them in their own work. Science is monitored regularly and feedback and next steps are given to teachers. Working Scientifically is at the core of our teaching of Science. Children are provided with opportunities to develop their questioning, predicting/hypothesising, recording and explanation skills.
