Science

What does a scientist look like at Margaret Wix Primary School? 

• The ability to think independently and raise questions about working scientifically and the knowledge and skills that it brings.
• Confidence and competence in the full range of practical skills, taking the initiative in, for example, planning and carrying out scientific investigations.
• Excellent scientific knowledge and understanding which is demonstrated in written and verbal explanations, solving challenging problems and reporting scientific findings.
• High levels of originality, imagination or innovation in the application of skills.
• The ability to undertake practical work in a variety of contexts, including fieldwork.
• A passion for science and its application in past, present and future technologies.
• Foster high levels of originality, imagination or innovation in the application of skills.
• The ability to undertake practical work in a variety of contexts, including fieldwork.
• Instill a passion for science and its application in past, present and future technologies.

Intent – why are we teaching this?

We aspire for each child to develop a deep interest in, and love for learning so they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they will require to be successful, both now, as children, and in the future. We offer an ambitious Science curriculum, which is shaped to reflect the unique needs of our pupils and promote how careers in science are open to all, regardless of age, gender, race or ability.

We challenge the stigma of the traditional ‘scientist’ and show children who real scientists are. We encourage children to be courageous, to take risks and work collaboratively. Children are challenged to aim high to be the ‘first’ in the future, for example to invent something new. 

Our teaching of sequenced scientific knowledge builds on pupils’ prior understanding. We recognise the importance of children being given opportunities for ‘real life’ experiences in Science, through first-hand experiences. Extended writing is built into every unit and allows children to build not just their scientific knowledge but also use and achieve their English writing targets.

The breadth and depth of the curriculum provides stretch and challenge for all abilities and it is sequenced to ensure the progressive development of scientific concepts, knowledge and skills. It aims to inspire in pupils a curiosity and interest in Science through challenging, exciting activities. It is designed to ensure learning is regularly rehearsed and reinforced, providing SEND pupils with chances to revisit key skills and concepts until they become embedded.

Children learn methods of scientific enquiry and how to ask questions to find out specific information. They are taught to use scientific vocabulary accurately and gain knowledge and skills not just in the classroom, but also through educational visits and reading. Children use the Key Stage one and two scientific wheels to decide what scientific skills they are using during each lesson.

We promote positive mindset and resilience so that our children attain their best, are challenged to achieve their best and leave Margaret Wix ready for their secondary education and beyond. It enables them to want to learn and enjoy creating work that allows them to reach a high standard in all areas of the curriculum, with enough time given for researching, discussing, proof-reading and redrafting. Having the confidence to take risks is valued and ‘having a go’ encouraged in all areas of the Science curriculum.

The EEF 'five-a-day' underpins all we do for our SEND learners in Science. As part of The Wix Way this means that small tweaks to the way we teach Science for all children could make a significant, positive difference for the pupils with SEND in our school.

Implementation – how are we teaching this?

The Science curriculum is structured to be progressive in knowledge and skills across all phases and is closely aligned to the National Curriculum Programmes of Study. The curriculum is mapped out into specific units, which incorporate the knowledge and skills children will gain by the end of each half term; these are sequenced to build on prior learning progressively through year groups in a rolling curriculum across years 1 and 2, Years 3 and 4 and years 5 and 6.

Each unit has a clear learning focus, and the sequencing of units is planned across the year to ensure the maximum amount of learning is achieved, for example ‘Living Things and their Habitats’ is taught in the Summer term, to ensure children have maximum access to outdoor learning facilities.

Scientific knowledge and skills are taught creatively; children work towards clearly defined end points, creating opportunities to make connections within and across their learning. Pupils are taught to understand the key concepts that link their learning within Science to other subjects by clearly defined learning intentions for each lesson, and use of ‘mind maps’ at the start of each new topic to record what the children’s prior knowledge is. The children then review these ‘mind maps’ at the end of the topic with their newly learnt understanding to show themselves how much they have learnt across a topic. Children have frequent opportunities to write at length and read texts linked to their learning in Science; we also promote a strong emphasis on talk throughout the Science curriculum. Relating learning to examples of science in everyday situations enables us to make topics more purposeful, relatable and engaging.

While children work through differentiated activities, teachers will conduct regular mini plenaries in order to assess understanding. Lessons are taught creatively and will reinforce and deepen fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills.  Teachers employ various strategies to keep children engaged and enthusiastic, including:

• Interactive whiteboards (modelling)
• Lesson presentations/slides (visual)
• Individual whiteboards (quick practice and assessment)
• Talk partner discussions (scientific discussion)
• Science experiments (predictions and conclusions)

Children are frequently given opportunities to ‘have a go’ at applying their learning in new contexts through exciting, challenging reasoning and problem-solving tasks. Children can progress in their learning through systematic trial and error. Rather than being deterred by ‘mistakes’, children learn to recognise that they are in fact a useful, positive part of the learning process. Our Science (and whole school) culture values courage, questioning and deep thinking.

Science lends itself to many cross-curricular links, which are planned and indicated in advance, in order for children to meet their English targets, demonstrate maths skills and apply other learning through the subject.  Real-life experiences enhance learning in Science and enable children to gain knowledge and skills not just in the classroom, but also through engaging activities such as:

• Scientific workshops and visitors
• Outdoor learning activities linked to the Science topic
• Visits to museums

Regular opportunities for retrieval practice enables children to deliberately rehearse newly acquired skills and knowledge, transfer these across different contexts and identify gaps in their learning, ultimately strengthening long term memory.  Children are frequently given opportunities to ‘have a go’ at applying their learning in new contexts. Children are encouraged to recognise mistakes as a useful, positive part of the learning process. Our whole school culture promotes self-challenge, resilience, courage, questioning and deep thinking.

We implement the 'five-a-day' strategy from the EEF within the teaching of science in variety of ways. The five strategies identified as having strong evidence for their effectiveness in supporting pupils with SEND which we use to underpin The Wix Way:

1. Explicit instruction

Explicit instruction refers to a range of teacher-led approaches, focused on teacher 

demonstration followed by guided practice and independent practice. Explicit instruction is not just ​“teaching by telling” or ​“transmission teaching”

Examples:

• Worked examples with the teacher modelling self-regulation and thought processes is helpful. A teacher might model a part of an experiment to show this process to the pupil. They would then give the pupil the opportunity to practise this skill.
• Using visual aids and concrete examples promotes discussion and links in learning.

2. Cognitive and metacognitive strategies

Cognitive strategies are skills like memorisation techniques or subject specific strategies like use of blackboards in class, referring to knowledge organisers and key vocabulary on working walls.

Metacognitive strategies help pupils plan and evaluate their learning

Examples:

• Chunking the task will support pupils with SEND – this may be through  instructions on a whiteboard, step by step modelling, real life examples  which helps reduce distractions to avoid overloading working memory.
• Prompt sheets that help pupils to evaluate their progress, with ideas for further support.
• Use of working wheels in books to support skill understanding that the learner is addressing.

3. Scaffolding

‘Scaffolding’ is a metaphor for temporary support that is removed when it is no longer required. Initially, a teacher would provide enough support so that pupils can successfully complete tasks that they could not do independently.

Examples:

• Support could be visual, verbal, or written. 
• Include a variety of oracy rich opportunities throughout the lesson E.G use of, sentence stems, speaking frames, concept cartoons, discussions prompts and talk tactics to enable all pupils to access learning.
• Outline sketches, partially completed examples, knowledge organisers, step by step modelling, pause and look demonstrations and sentence starters can all be useful.
• Reminders of what equipment is needed for each lesson and classroom routines can be useful.
• Scaffolding discussion of scientific questioning.
• Use of wow cupboard/box/suitcase, to engage learners with the lesson focus and promote curiosity around the current science unit.
• Using knowledge organisers in lessons
• Key vocabulary strips on table to access easily

4. Flexible grouping

• Flexible grouping describes when pupils are allocated to smaller groups based on the individual needs that they currently share with other pupils. Such groups can be formed for an explicit purpose and disbanded when that purpose is met.

  Examples:

• Allocating temporary groups can allow teachers to set up opportunities for collaborative learning, for example to work with a learning partner, mixed ability group work, independently carry out a skill, developing a new concept.
• Pre-teaching key vocabulary to be used in art lessons to enhance group discussion is helpful when learning new techniques or evaluating the work of an artist.

5. Use technology

• Technology can assist teacher modelling. Through the use of experiment videos we can share a range of videos to introduce a new technique. Via the use of the internet a wealth of scientists can be shared with children to allow for zooming in and out.

  Examples:

• Use a visualizer to model worked examples, modelling or sharing good examples from peers.
• Technology applications, such as the camera function to evidence experiments and results rather than having an extensive written task.

Impact – what is the effect on the pupils?

The impact of our curriculum is the measure of how well our intent has been realised. It is demonstrated through the success of our learners and their confidence to demonstrate the knowledge they have retained over time as well as their readiness for the next stage in education and for life as an adult in the wider world. 

Children’s achievements in Science are assessed through a variety of ways. Marking and feedback provides ongoing assessment information which is used to shape future teaching. Children's knowledge and skills are assessed formally at the end of each term and phase, including their use of scientific vocabulary, enquiry skills and ability to communicate information in a variety of ways.

We continually evaluate the impact of our Science curriculum by assessing evidence that defines a high-quality education, through:

• Judgements which are based upon a triangulation of different monitoring and evaluation activities within school such as work scrutiny, Pupil Voice discussions, outcomes of assessments and quality of teaching and learning. This includes ensuring that the EEF 'Five a Day' are utilised to make certain that all pupils make measurable progress.
• The learning attitudes, engagement and motivation shown by the children.
• Ongoing feedback and assessment, which addresses misconceptions and gaps in learning and informs planning, to ensure that the curriculum effectively meets the needs of all pupils.
• A range of assessment and analysis strategies: timely testing, moderation of work, pupil interviews, use of assessment grids and data tracking systems, to ensure children know what they are meant to know at specific points during their education.
• Evidence from monitoring which shows that children are active in their learning, are able to construct their own knowledge and are able to think flexibly and creatively.
• High levels of engagement in all learning in school and at home.
• The subject has a link governor who makes at least termly visits to school. In addition, the subject lead also meets with the governing board to ensure that they are aware of the school’s current performance in mathematics, the action plan and the measures being put in place to improve attainment and progress in the subject.

The Margaret Wix community is diverse and we understand the vital need for representation within our teaching. We ensure diversity across the curriculum: careful thought and planning has gone into selecting whose stories we tell and how they are told. Our curriculum has been re-examined and we have endeavoured to reduce the western bias. We strive to ensure that BAME pupils see themselves reflected in our curriculum, all year round. We call our personalised curriculum ‘The Wix Way’. In science, this includes learning about a variety of successful scientists, such as Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a British BAME space scientist.

The delivery of Science in our school

Working scientifically at Margaret Wix

Science encourages and teaches children how to discover and wonder about everything in the world around them. At Margaret Wix we promote curiosity and wonder and through working scientifically, we can build on this. We equip children with the skills and knowledge to go on the scientific pursuit of answering why, how and what if questions. We nurture all our learner’s natural curiosity through allowing them to perform tests and discover first hand through experiments. At Margaret Wix, we believe that by giving all our children time to evaluate what they have done often creates new questions, ideas to investigate further and excitement.

Subject on a page

Vocabulary 

Aspirations For The Future

Pupils develop an understanding of how subjects and specific skills are linked to future jobs.

Here are some of the jobs you could aspire to do in the future as a Scientist:

• Aquatic vet
• Astronaut
• Animal researcher
• Marine biologist
• Helicopter mission control
• Weather presenter
• Teacher
• Lecturer
• Researcher
• Doctor
• Physiotherapist
• Nurse

Science in action at Margaret Wix

How to help create and allow for Science learning opportunities at home

Below are a selection of videos, documents and websites. These will aid to build curiosity around science in your own home. It is vital that we aim to create a love for science in school and out, to build our scientists of tomorrow. We hope you find the following information useful. Any investigations or activities that take place at home, Mrs Ralph would be keen to see. Please do email any photos so that we can share and celebrate your child’s enthusiasm in school.