“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.”

                 Thomas Berger 

What does science look like at Uplands?

At Uplands Primary School we aim to deliver a science education that will be accessible for all children and provide them with the foundations of understanding the world through the different disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. We aim to develop an understanding of nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them. Through the use of science specific vocabulary, the children will gain an extended specialist vocabulary. During investigations, we aim to teach the children to work scientifically throughout by asking questions, making careful observations, performing tests, recording data to help answer questions, identifying similarities and differences and identifying scientific evidence to support arguments. Each class will perform a variety of investigations which have links to the main theme of the topic that is being covered during that term. We make links in our science lessons to our five Big Ideas that appear throughout all subjects in our curriculum: environment, similarities and differences, diversity, relationships and changes.

The curriculum is structured in a way that allows for children to make links between current and previous learning. Teachers make comparisons between science units previously taught, developing children’s deep understanding of biology, chemistry and physics. All classes start their lessons with a retrieval practice activity focusing on the key knowledge and key vocabulary about their current unit or a previous unit with the aim to support the children to know more, remember more and understand more.

Enrichment Opportunities

We enrich our curriculum through relevant trips, visitors to the school and other opportunities. In the past, these have included:

• A science enrichment week including workshops and visits from scientists
• Trips to We The Curious
• Heart dissection
• Trips to farms and animal parks
• Nature walk and outdoor learning
• Visits from people working in different careers in science
• Assemblies about the environment and significant figures in the world of science and technology

Science Outcomes

At Uplands, we communicate our learning through a variety of ways. These can include extended pieces of writing, essays answering an enquiry question, practical investigations, pictorial representations of their learning, labelled diagrams, photographic records, recording and presenting data from investigations, videos, writing up of findings and conclusions, presentations, and debates and discussions.

Class teachers formatively assess the children’s understanding of the scientific concepts and key knowledge taught throughout their lessons. They also record an overall understanding of key areas at the end of each unit to enable the subject leader and future teachers to have a picture of each child’s learning journey across their time from Reception to Year 6. Summative data is entered for Year 6 as required nationally using the ‘Exemplification of Standards in Science’ to inform our judgement.

Science Curriculum

We have mapped out the key learning for our science curriculum across all the year groups.  We have looked at how it links to prior learning and future learning, and picked out the key vocabulary for each unit.

Our Curriculum

We have identified the key pieces of knowledge that we want our children to remember from each unit. We have also mapped out the key vocabulary from each unit and the connections between other units of learning across the year groups. These are all mapped out in our Granular Knowledge document.