Science

Intent

At Weeth School our aim is to develop young, independent scientists, who have a strong understanding of the world around them whilst acquiring the specific skills and knowledge to help them think scientifically.

Through dedicated weekly lessons, our children gain an understanding of scientific processes and also an understanding of the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. Influential scientists are recognised and celebrated to illustrate the impact they have made to society: inspiring our children to make a difference. Scientific enquiry skills are embedded in each unit and these are revisited and developed throughout their time at school.

We recognise the importance of a skills-based approach to provide a breadth of opportunities which fosters and encourages children to be inquisitive.  Therefore, all children are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including observations, planning and investigating, as well as being encouraged to question the world around them and find answers for their own scientific questions.

Science lessons also emphasise skills like working in teams, collaboration and engaging in discussions, to feel safe in giving their opinions, respecting the ideas of others and to understand why everybody’s role is important. Designing and conducting investigations is a perfect opportunity for children to team up, develop and test ideas, appreciate each other’s creativity and talk about their successes and failures. This links to the core competencies of social and emotional learning.

We fully embrace and encourage taking science outside of the classroom as this provides first-hand experience that allows children to observe science taking place in the real world. This embeds their learning into meaningful contexts and increases self-esteem and as a result, children become more engaged in their learning.

Implementation

Our science planning follows the National Curriculum which is broken down into progressive ‘small steps’ which builds on prior learning. The units build on their science knowledge in weekly lessons of 2 hours where they are taught practical science skills, asking questions, observations, scientific processes, using equipment, identifying and classifying and using observations to answer questions whilst generating their own through curiosity.

In EYFS science forms an integral part of Understanding the World and aims to ensure all pupils:

know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things.
talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another.
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.

In KS1 and KS2 the national curriculum for science aims to ensure that all pupils:

develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them.
are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Science Overview

  Autumn 1 Autumn 2 Spring 1 Spring 2 Summer 1 Summer 2
FS2 Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them. Explore the natural world around them.

Draw information from a map.

Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them.

Describe what they see, hear and feel whilst outside.

Explore the natural world around them

Recognise some environments that are different to the one in which they live. Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them.

Describe what they see, hear and feel whilst outside.

Year 1 Animals Including Humans

Identify and name a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and pets.

Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.

Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense.

Plants

Identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees.

Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees.

Earth and Space: Seasons

Observe changes across the four seasons.

Observe and describe weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies.

Materials

Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made.

Identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, and rock.

Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials.

Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of their simple physical properties.

Year 2 Animals Including Humans

Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults.

Find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air).

Describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene.

Materials

Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses.

Materials: Changing Shape

Find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

Plants

Observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants.

Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy.

Living Things

Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead and things that have never been alive.

Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other.

Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro habitats.

Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify the name of different sources of food.

Year 3 Animals Including Humans

Identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat.

Identify that humans and some animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.

Materials: Rocks

Compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of appearance and simple physical properties.

Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock.

Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.

Plants

Explore the requirements for life and growth (air. Light, water, nutrients from soil and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant.

Identify and describe the functions of different parts of a flowering plant: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers.

Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants.

Explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants.

Forces and Magnets

Compare how things move on different surfaces.

Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance.

Observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others.

Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials.

Describe magnets as having two poles.

Predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.

Light

Recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light.

Notice that light is reflected from surfaces.

Recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes.

Recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by a solid object.

Find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.

Year 4 Animals Including Humans

Describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans.

Identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions.

Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey.

Electricity

Identify common appliances that run on electricity.

Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers.

Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery.

Recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit.

Recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.

Sound

Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating.

Recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear.

Find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it.

Find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it.

Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases.

Materials: States of matter

Compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases.

Observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C).

Identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.

Living Things

Living things can be grouped in a variety of ways.

Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name living things in their local and wider environment.

Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Year 5 Animals Including Humans

Describe the changes as humans develop to old age.

Living Things

Describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird.

Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.

Materials: Property and Shape

Compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity (electrical and thermal), and response to magnets.

Know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution.

Use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating.

Give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic.

Demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes.

Explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda.

Forces

Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object.

Identify the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces.

Recognise that some mechanisms, including levers, pulleys and gears, allow a smaller force to have a greater effect.

Earth and Space

Describe the Sun, Earth and Moon as approximately spherical bodies.

Year 6 Animals Including Humans

Identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood.

Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function.

Describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.

Evolution and Inheritance

Recognise that living things have changed over time and fossils provide information about living things millions of years ago.

Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind.

Identify how plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution.

Electricity

Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.

Compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches.

Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.

Light

Recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines.

Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye.

Explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes.

Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them.

Living Things

Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms and plants.

Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics.