Science
The intent of our Science curriculum is:
To encourage children to embrace their sense of wonder about natural phenomena and develop their ideas and ways of working that enable them to make sense of the world. We intend for our children to develop an understanding of the uses and implications of Science, how it has changed and shaped our lives and continues to do so.
At Birkbeck, we believe that the robust embedding of knowledge is the key to developing children's scientific understanding. Our Science curriculum strategically develops key threads of concept (which you can read about below) meaning that children are continuously building new knowledge on top of existing knowledge, making it easier for them to embed and retrieve at will.
Developing the foundational knowledge needed to understand the key concepts in each unit of work also means that children are able to apply this to disciplinary knowledge within the subject and work scientifically as a result.
Working scientifically encompasses all science teaching across the school and represents the fundamental skills that a child needs to develop in a disciplinary sense:
- Asking questions
- Planning and setting up different types of enquiries
- Performing tests
- Using equipment
- Observing and measuring
- Identifying and classifying
- Gathering and recording data
- reporting, presenting and communicating data/ findings.
Every year we take part in British Science Week organised by the British Science Association in March.
Our curriculum coverage posters provide information about which units are taught in which year groups and the order in which they are taught. You can view the Science one below:
You can also read about what each unit of work in the Science curriculum includes below.
concept thread development science.pdf
curriculum content by subject science.pdf
Below you can see the development of our key concept threads in grid form so that you can see how each one is progressed and developed as children move through the school.
sciencecurriculum thread development table.pdf
Lesson delivery
Every Science lesson begins with a retrieval practice starter which has the aim of activating prior knowledge around the concept thread which the lesson to come is focused on.
Every lesson also includes clarification of any technical vocabulary to be used in the lesson. This always takes place before the main lesson content begins.
All Science lessons are delivered in line with our principles of teaching and learning which are the same for all subjects. These are the principles that we believe underpin truly great teaching and learning. You can read about how these are applied to Science lessons below:
birkbeck primary school science implementation guide.pdf
Assessment
We assess Science once per term. Teachers assess children's body of work against a set of descriptors which match the threads of concept that our Science curriculum is designed by. As such, the curriculum is the model for progression that we follow and assess against. Assessment is reported to parents and carers every term at parents evening.
Please also take the time to watch this presentation on our Science curriculum. This is the same presentation that parents and carers saw when they attended the Science curriculum workshop.
Science curriculum video
