Rationale

At Jericho Primary School, we are scientists! We want our children to love science, know more, and remember more. We want them to have no limits to their ambitions and grow up wanting to be astronauts, forensic scientists, nuclear scientists, nurses, or doctors. We want our core values to be represented in our children: nurture, achievement, adventure, respect, and creativity, and these are embedded within our learning sequences. We believe that: “we are growing the hearts and minds of today to build the communities of tomorrow” and the ambition of our children embodies this ideal. The science curriculum has therefore been carefully crafted to ensure our children develop their knowledge, skills, and experience of science-related careers with the aspiration that many will pursue a career in science. We want our children to remember their science learning in our school, to cherish and build upon these memories and embrace the scientific opportunities they are presented with. In order to achieve this:

  • Our science curriculum promotes curiosity and a thirst for learning. It empowers our children to become independent and resilient – like all curriculum areas.
  • Our inspiring, ambitious, high quality science curriculum provides the foundations for understanding our world through a scientific knowledge within and conceptual understanding of the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
  • We want to equip our children with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the science National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. Science is especially crucial to the prosperity of our own local, national, and global community. Science is vital to our local economy and has changed, and continues to change, our lives forever.  In building the communities of tomorrow, our skillful teaching and learning in Science plays a key role in ensuring our success.
  • All pupils should be inspired and challenged to develop an understanding and achieve their best in the essential aspects of the nature, knowledge, methods, processes, implications and uses of science both today and in the future.
  • Through innovative and creative teaching and learning, where all children are nurtured, known well, and encouraged in their interests and passions by their teachers, pupils will grow and develop a sense of adventure, excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. They should be encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation developed through the use of precise vocabulary. They will do this by building up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts which they have developed over time.
  • They should be encouraged to make connections across their learning in order to understand and remember how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.
  • Through a range of scientific enquiries, children will be able to answer scientific questions about the world around them.
  • With our core values placed at the heart of everything we do, we want our children to use the natural diversity and cultural vibrancy of our great town and county to learn to become global citizens. Through their carefully crafted science learning, scientific enquiries, educational visits, enrichment opportunities, and science capital links, our children will learn about what being a ‘scientist’ means and how that is imperative to them as global citizens who embrace the world around them. We firmly believe that it is not just about what happens in the classroom, it is about the added value we offer to really inspire our children.

Curriculum Intentions

Science, by nature, is a subject rich in knowledge, which can transform a pupil’s understanding of their own place in the world and helps them to appreciate everyday phenomena.  It is our intention that pupils undergo a journey from novice to expert as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating and connecting substantive and disciplinary scientific knowledge within the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics. Our children will be given opportunities to learn about common inter-disciplinary concepts as they develop as scientists over time.

Substantive Knowledge is the scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding of the products of science organised according to the three subject disciplines, such as concepts, laws, theories, models. Pupils know the science. Practical work is part of this and helps our children to learn substantive knowledge; this interconnects substantive and disciplinary knowledge. At Jericho, we identify the three subject disciplines and their ‘Big Ideas’.

Biology

  • Organisms are organised on a cellular basis.
  • Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they are often dependent on or in competition with other organisms.
  • Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
  • The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Chemistry

  • All material in the Universe is made of very small particles.
  • The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but energy can be transformed when things change or are made to happen.
  • The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate.

Physics

  • Objects can affect other objects at a distance.
  • Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it.
  • The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but energy can be transformed when things change or are made to happen.
  • The solar system is a very small part of one of millions of galaxies in the Universe.

Disciplinary Knowledge will enable pupils to understand the connections between ideas, and develop the skills to consider how knowledge is established, is generated and grows.  This is our ‘working scientifically’ part of our learning sequences and incorporates four content areas: methods to answer questions; apparatus and techniques; data analysis; and how science uses evidence to develop explanations. Pupils therefore know the evidence for the science. Science disciplinary knowledge is embedded within the substantive content of our learning sequences.

Our curriculum will:

Build upon prior learning: For example, in the EYFS, pupils learn about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. This is revisited in Year 1 as children begin to study plants, parts of plants, and trees in more depth.  This makes it easier to cognitively process. Children revisit this as they move on to learn about habitats, germination, productive parts of plants, and how to grow them in Year 2.  Later on, in KS2, a more detailed knowledge of the requirements for plants to thrive and reproduce and how to classify living things is gained.  Each unit of work builds on previous learning.

Cumulative Knowledge: Our curriculum is built on the principles of the big ideas of the three subject disciplines as detailed above.  These principles are built one step at a time and revisited over time to ensure that they culminate in our end of unit, year and key stage outcomes.  

Building Substantive Knowledge: Our curriculum equips pupils to become ‘more expert’ with each unit and grow an ever-broadening model of the subject. We have identified clear knowledge that is to be taught for each unit.  This knowledge is carefully sequenced so that each piece of knowledge builds on the previous piece of knowledge so that children become ‘more expert’ in the subject. Golden nuggets of knowledge have been identified clearly in each lesson (and are outlined for teachers on knowledge organisers) so that teachers can easily check whether children know more and remember more.

Scientific Vocabulary: Scientific vocabulary is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Early Years to Y6. High frequency and multiple meaning words (tier 2) are taught and help make sense of subject specific words (tier 3).

Knowledge Retention: Our science curriculum is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge’. The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the use of a range of  retrieval activities (based on small steps and knowledge organisers), interleaving, and spaced practice that helps children to remember the golden nuggets.

EYFS

In EYFS, children begin their Science learning journey by following the Early Learning Goals:

  • Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants;
  • Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class;
  • Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter;
  • Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps; and
  • Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps.

These early learning goals have been used as prior knowledge outcomes, and developed in detail on which the KS1 and KS2 curriculum is based .

Key Stage One and Key Stage Two

The Science Long Term Plan  gives an overview of the subjects covered. In every KS1 & KS2 year group science is to be taught weekly for an afternoon or twice weekly lessons, following the LTP of topics, small steps and knowledge organiser for unit planning. Further details of this unit planning can be found in the year group and Science Subject Leader file. These documents give the key learning, key vocabulary and methods of assessment for each unit. TAPS documents and activities are to be completed for each unit, where applicable, to ensure ‘working scientifically’ is covered appropriately in every year group, progressed effectively throughout the school, and assessed according to moderated outcomes. 

Science Long Term Map

THE SUBSTANTIVE DISCIPLINES OF BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY, AND PHYSICS

Biology

  • Organisms are organised on a cellular basis.

KEY STAGE 1 & 2

There is a wide variety of living things (organisms), including plants and animals. They are distinguished from non-living things by their ability to move, reproduce and react to certain stimuli. To survive they need water, air, food, a way of getting rid of waste and an environment which stays within a particular range of temperature. Although some do not appear to be active, all will at some stage carry out the life processes of respiration, reproduction, feeding, excretion, growth and developments and all will eventually die.

  • Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they are often dependent on or in competition with other organisms.

KEY STAGE 1 & 2

All living things need food as their source of energy as well as air, water and certain temperature conditions. Plants containing chlorophyll can use sunlight to make the food they need and can store food that they do not immediately use. Animals need food that they can break down, which comes either directly by eating plants (herbivores) or by eating animals (carnivores) which have eaten plants or other animals. Animals are ultimately dependent on plants for their survival. The relationships among organisms can be represented as food chains and food webs. Some animals are dependent on plants in other ways as well as for food, for example for shelter and, in the case of human beings, for clothing and fuel. Plants also depend on animals in various ways. For example, many flowering plants depend on insects for pollination and on other animals for dispersing their seeds.

  • Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.

KEY STAGE 1 & 2

Living things produce offspring of the same kind, but offspring are not identical with each other or with their parents. Plants and animals, including humans, resemble their parents in many features because information is passed from one generation to the next. Other features, such as 7-11 skills and behaviour, are not passed on in the same way and have to be learned.

  • The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

KEY STAGE 1 & 2

There are many different kinds of plants and animals in the world today and many kinds that once lived but are now extinct. We know about these from fossils. Animals and plants are classified into groups and subgroups according to their similarities. For example within the group of animals called birds, there are families of birds such as sparrow, and different kinds (species) within a family such as house sparrows, tree sparrows, and great sparrows. Organisms of the same species breed more of the same. Different species cannot interbreed to produce offspring that can reproduce. Although organisms of the same species are very similar they vary a little from each other. One of the results of sexual reproduction is that offspring are never exactly like their parents.

Chemistry

  • All material in the Universe is made of very small particles.

KEY STAGE 1

All the ‘stuff’ encountered in everyday life, including air, water and different kinds of solid substances, is called matter because it has mass, and therefore weight on Earth, and takes up space. Different materials are recognisable by their properties, some of which are used to classify them as being in the solid, liquid or gas state.

KEY STAGE 2

When some substances are combined they form a new substance (or substances) with properties that are different from the original ones. Other substance simply mix without changing permanently and can often be separated again. At room temperature, some substances are in the solid state, some in the liquid state and some in the gas state. The state of many substances can be changed by heating or cooling them. The amount of matter does not change when a solid melts or a liquid evaporates.

  • The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but energy can be transformed when things change or are made to happen.

KEY STAGE 1

There are various ways of causing an event or bringing about change in objects or materials. Objects can be made to change their movement by pushing or pulling. Heating can cause change, as in cooking, melting solids or changing water to vapour. Electricity can make light bulbs glow. Wind can rotate the blades of wind turbines.

KEY STAGE 2

In all these changes, energy is transferred from one object, which is an energy source or resource, to another. Fuels such as oil, gas, coal and wood are energy resources. Some energy resources are renewable, such as those produced by wind, waves, sunlight and tides, others are non-renewable such as from burning fossil fuels with oxygen.

  • The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate.

KEY STAGE 1

There is air all around the Earth’s surface but there is less and less further away from the surface (higher in the sky). Weather is determined by the conditions and movement of the air. The temperature, pressure, direction, speed of movement and the amount of water vapour in the air combine to create the weather. Measuring these properties over time enables patterns to be found that can be used to predict the weather a short time ahead. Long-term patterns in the weather are referred to as the climate of different parts of the world.

KEY STAGE 2

Long-term patterns in the weather are referred to as the climate of different parts of the world. Much of the solid surface of the Earth is covered by soil, which is a mixture of pieces of rock of various sizes and the remains of organisms. Fertile soil also contains air, water, some chemicals from the decay of living things, particularly plants, and various living things such as insects, worms and bacteria. The solid material beneath the soil is rock. There are many different kinds of rock with different compositions and properties. The action of wind and water wears down rock gradually into smaller pieces – sand is made of small pieces of rock and silt of still smaller pieces. About two-thirds of the surface of the Earth is covered by liquid water, which is essential to life. Water is constantly recycled through processes involving evaporation from oceans and other surfaces, such as soil and plants, condensation in clouds and precipitation as rain, snow or hail.

Physics

  • Objects can affect other objects at a distance.

KEY STAGE 2

Objects can have an effect on other objects even when they are not in contact with them. For instance, light, both from close sources such as light bulbs or flames and from the Sun and other stars very long distances away, is seen because it affects the objects it reaches, including our eyes. These sources give out light, which travels from them in various directions and is detected when it reaches and enters our eyes. Objects that are seen either give out or reflect light that human eyes can detect. Sound comes from things that vibrate and can be detected at a distance from the source because the air or other material around is made to vibrate. Sounds are heard when the vibrations in the air enter our ears. Other examples of objects affecting other objects without touching them are the interactions between magnets or electric charges and the effect of gravity that makes things falls to the Earth.

  • Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it.

KEY STAGE 1

Forces can push, pull or twist objects, making them change their motion or shape. Forces act in particular directions. Equal forces acting in opposite directions in the same line cancel each other and are described as being in balance. The movement of objects is changed if the forces acting on them are not in balance.

KEY STAGE 2

The speed of a moving object is a measure of how far it would travel in a certain time. How quickly an object’s motion is changed depends on the force acting and the object’s mass. The greater the mass of an object, the longer it takes to speed it up or slow it down, a property of mass described as inertia.

  • The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but energy can be transformed when things change or are made to happen.

KEY STAGE 1

There are various ways of causing an event or bringing about change in objects or materials. Objects can be made to change their movement by pushing or pulling. Heating can cause change, as in cooking, melting solids or changing water to vapour. Electricity can make light bulbs glow. Wind can rotate the blades of wind turbines.

KEY STAGE 2

In all these changes, energy is transferred from one object, which is an energy source or resource, to another. Fuels such as oil, gas, coal and wood are energy resources. Some energy resources are renewable, such as those produced by wind, waves, sunlight and tides, others are non-renewable such as from burning fossil fuels with oxygen.

  • The solar system is a very small part of one of millions of galaxies in the Universe.

KEY STAGE 1

There are patterns in the position of the Sun seen at different times of the day and in the shape of the Moon from one night to another.

KEY STAGE 2

The Earth moves round the Sun taking about a year for one orbit. The Moon orbits the Earth taking about four weeks to complete an orbit. The Sun, at the centre of the solar system, is the only object in the solar system that is a source of visible light. The Moon reflects light from the Sun and as it moves round the Earth only those parts illuminated by the Sun are seen. The Earth rotates about an axis lying north to south and this motion makes it appear that the Sun, Moon and stars are moving round the Earth. This rotation causes day and night as parts of the Earth’s surface turn to face towards or away from the Sun. It takes a year for the Earth to pass round the Sun. The Earth’s axis is tilted relative to the plane of its orbit round the Sun so that the length of day varies with position on the Earth’s surface and time of the year, giving rise to the seasons. The Earth is one of eight (so far known) planets in our solar system which, along with many other smaller bodies, orbit the Sun, in roughly circular paths, at different distances from the Sun and taking different times to complete an orbit. The distances between these bodies are huge – Neptune is 4.5 billion km from the Sun, 30 times further than Earth. As seen from Earth, planets move in relation to the positions of the stars which appear fixed relative to each other. Exploring the solar system is possible with robotic missions, or by humans at shorter distances from the Earth.