Science at Ryelands
Our aims in teaching science include the following:
- Preparing our children for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world
- Fostering concern about, and active care for, our environment
- Helping our children acquire a growing understanding of scientific ideas
- Helping develop and extend our children’s scientific concept of their world
- Developing our children’s understanding of the international and collaborative nature of science
Attitude
- Encouraging the development of positive attitudes to science
- Building on our children’s natural curiosity and developing a scientific approach to problems
- Encouraging open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance and responsibility
- Building our children’s self-confidence to enable them to work independently
- Developing our children’s social skills to work cooperatively with others
- Providing our children with an enjoyable experience of science, so that they will develop a deep and lasting interest and may be motivated to study science further
Skills
- Giving our children an understanding of scientific processes
- Helping our children to acquire practical scientific skills
- Developing the skills of investigation – including observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating
- Developing the use of scientific language, recording and techniques
- Developing the use of ICT in investigating and recording
- Enabling our children to become effective communicators of scientific ideas, facts and data
How is Science Taught at Ryelands?
Key Stage 1
The main focus of science teaching in Key Stage 1 is to enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly-constructed world around them. They should be encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what they notice. They should be helped to develop their understanding of scientific ideas by using different types of scientific enquiry to answer their own questions, including observing changes over a period of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple comparative tests and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They should begin to use simple scientific language to talk about what they have found out and communicate their ideas to a range of audiences in a variety of ways. Most of the learning about Science should be done through the use of first-hand practical experiences, but there should also be some use of appropriate secondary sources, such as books, photographs and videos. Pupils should read and spell scientific vocabulary at a level consistent with their reading and spelling knowledge at Key Stage 1.
Lower Key Stage 2 – Years 3 and 4
The main focus of Science teaching in Lower Key Stage 2 is to enable pupils to broaden their scientific view of the world around them. They should do this through exploring, talking about, testing and developing ideas about everyday phenomena and the relationships between living things and familiar environments, and by beginning to develop their ideas about functions, relationships and interactions. They should ask their own questions about what they observe and make some decisions about which types of scientific enquiry are likely to be the best ways of answering them, including observing changes over time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out simple fair tests and finding things out using secondary sources of information. They should draw simple conclusions and use some scientific language, first, to talk about and, later, to write about what they have found out. ‘Working scientifically’ must always be taught through and clearly related to substantive Science content in the programme of study. Pupils should read and spell scientific vocabulary correctly and with confidence, using their growing reading and spelling knowledge.
Upper Key Stage 2 – Years 5-6
The main focus of Science teaching in Upper Key Stage 2 is to enable pupils to develop a deeper understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas. They should do this through exploring and talking about their ideas; asking their own questions about scientific phenomena; and analysing functions, relationships and interactions more systematically. At Upper Key Stage 2, they should encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the world operates. They should also begin to recognise that scientific ideas change and develop over time. They should select the most appropriate ways to answer Science questions using different types of scientific enquiry, including observing changes over different periods of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out fair tests and finding things out using a wide range of secondary sources of information. Pupils should draw conclusions based on their data and observations, use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings. Pupils should read, spell and pronounce scientific vocabulary correctly. ‘Working and thinking scientifically’ must always be taught through and clearly related to substantive Science content in the programme of study.