Science Curriculum

Science intent

The science curriculum at Pegasus Primary School aims to ensure all children have a high level of science capital, resulting in a full spectrum of scientific knowledge and working scientifically skills to allow them to engage in science enquiry effectively.  Children are confident and able to talk about their science learning and the skills they used to get there. Through the use of questioning and discussions children are encouraged to use a variety of approaches to answer scientific questions. All children will be given the tools to be able to think scientifically and gain a deep understanding of the scientific processes and also an understanding of the uses and implications of Science in their lives now and for future careers.  

The science curriculum at Pegasus Primary School has a clear progression of enquiry skills, knowledge and vocabulary as the children move through the school. The result is the embedding of knowledge and skills from Early Years to Year 6 with a well- rounded ambitious attitude to science and high level of science capital as the outcome for pupils leaving our schools.  All children are supported to ensure they have the best science capital possible.  We work closely with local STEM organisations to ensure children are able to see science in a real life context and gain meaningful experiences within our local community. 

The 6 key values are embedded and celebrated in all the science that takes place, linking closely with the working scientifically skills across all year groups (see helix). This ensures a consistent whole school approach to the values and ensures the children understand how the overarching values of the school are relevant within the science curriculum.(See implementation) 

The implementation of our intent

The implementation of our intent statement at Pegasus Primary School will be through the careful use of the science national curriculum to produce coherent, inspiring, meaningful lessons that build on prior knowledge, skills and vocabulary. Lessons are planned in clear progression so that knowledge is enriched, embedded and applied, ensuring information is maintained in the long term memory. By using the Rosenshine principles of instruction as a basis for lesson planning teachers enable the pupils to build bridges from their current knowledge to their new knowledge and apply it successfully, thus giving an opportunity for children to access learning at a greater depth of understanding. The basis of our science curriculum ensures that the enquiry skills are included in all lessons, thus ensuring progression as the children move through the school. Open ended questioning instigates varied and wide ranging discussion using high level scientific vocabulary with children encouraged to voice their own scientifically based hypothesises, and to contextualise and apply their science learning. Children are not afraid to take risks and collaboration is successful and positive. Children are regularly exposed to how science is used in both their local community and those of communities’ further a field. The schools have strong links with local STEM organisations and there are regular workshops, assemblies and careers talks to ensure the relevance of their learning is understood. Children’s work will be recorded in a variety of ways, pupil voice, photographs, graphs, tables, recordings, and cross curricular written work. Misconceptions will be carefully discussed to ensure the children have a firm foundation of knowledge before building on it further.   

Children will be assessed on both their knowledge and skills, with a termly practical assessment as well as a variety of elicitation exercises and pop quizzes at the start of each lesson. This will allow the teacher to see where the gaps in knowledge and skills are and address them appropriately. Classrooms (if appropriate) will have science words webs with key vocab for the appropriate unit as well as associated skills vocab. There will be whole school events to celebrate science involving the local community as well as the schools engaging in national celebrations such as British Science week.  

The impact of the science curriculum

The impact of the science curriculum is that children leave school with a full, rounded, high level of science capital. The breadth and depth of the curriculum, exposure to scientific vocabulary and coverage of enquiry skills means that results are a reflection of the children’s experience of learning science at Pegasus Primary School. There is good progress for all children, which is monitored using a variety of elicitation exercises. Progress is evident both short term through the learning children are doing from the start to the end of a topic, as well as from EYFS to Year 6. Teachers have a good understanding of both prior learning and the topic progression to ensure the children are taught appropriately. Assessment is consistent and regular to ensure all children are maintaining good progress and support is implemented where and if needed quickly to ensure the gap does not widen and affect their future learning.  Children are able to have a better understanding of the relevance of their learning within both their community and our global community and have a clear idea of how science can help them reach their career goals. The achievements and learning of the children is regularly celebrated.  

What science looks like in our school?

Science is an opportunity for the children to apply the key values of our school at once, in everything they do. To be part of our science the children are determined, ambitious, creative, respectful, confident and of course enthusiastic. We are delivering a curriculum based on the children being the scientist. They are the thinkers, the talkers and the doers, discovering and embedding their learning through carefully structured discussions, collaboration, investigation and recording. 

The units are planned so that progression is clear and evident to both staff and pupils and they build on their embedded learning of previous years. The lessons are ambitious. We encourage the children to independently engage their working scientifically skills and be confident in their own abilities to question and discuss their topics using scientific vocabulary enabling them to create and evaluate their own successful investigations from EYFS to year 6.  

The working scientifically skills are inbuilt within each lesson ensuring that there is also a clear progression.The children are aware of, and able to identify, which line of enquiry they are using during their lessons.The science curriculum offers opportunities for our children to understand how thier science curriculum fits in the real world.There will be (covid allowing) regular guest speakers in assemblies from a wide range of STEM careers and industries. We aim to enage pupils in visits to local STEM companies so that the context of what ‘being a scientist’ means, is understood resulting in more engaged, enthused scientists at our school.

We recognise that Oxford is rich in science and engineering and thread this local knowledge throughout our school life. The aim of our science at our school is immerse our children and communnity in a more enriched meaningful curriculum that excites our children and increases their science capital.  

What our pupils learn:

Click here for the progression of knowledge (substantive - National Curriculum Objectives)

Click here for the progression of skills (disciplinary knowledge - National Curriculum)

Click here for the yearly overview of biology, physics and chemistry units