Intent
At All Saints Carshalton, we recognise the important role that science plays in every aspect of our daily lives. As a core subject, we strive to equip all our children with key scientific knowledge, understanding and skills and encourage them to be curious about the world around them. Through our theme-based approach to learning, we ensure that children learn, build on and revisit key knowledge for each science unit, as well as enabling them to develop the working scientifically skills throughout each phase. We want each child to think like a scientist by asking questions, using a variety of equipment, looking at results and key findings, and drawing conclusions from their work.
Implementation
At All Saints, we ensure that our teachers plan for and provide children with a challenging and engaging science curriculum that ensures progression as they move through the school. When beginning a new unit of science learning, children are asked a Big Question to demonstrate their current understanding and then revisit the same question on completion of the unit to show what they have learnt.
Science lessons include challenging starters where children revisit existing knowledge and then build on this through the lesson to enable them to develop their knowledge and skills. We believe that our commitment to providing challenging and hands-on practical work gives our children the opportunity to ask their own questions, explore and investigate concepts and also develop their resilience to become creative, critical thinkers. We encourage them to develop their scientific enquiry skills through guided and independent practise and by using research methods to discover the answers to their questions.
Impact
Our approach to science at All Saints ensures our children:
- Enjoy challenging, engaging and high-quality science lessons,
- Remain curious about the world around them,
- Can revisit, revise and build on existing knowledge and understanding,
- Can ask and answer questions confidently,
- Make links between their learning,
- Become increasingly confident in using a range of equipment to carry out science investigations,
- Are able to apply working scientifically skills in a variety of contexts,
- Are confident in using scientific vocabulary accurately,
- Have high aspirations to enable them to succeed in future study work and adult life.
How can parents help?
The topics covered in the science curriculum are wide and varied. They are also fun for all the family!
London is packed full of opportunities to explore cutting edge science. The Science Museum always has inspirational (and free) exhibitions. The Natural History Museum also covers some of the topics in our environmental science topics. The Royal Institution also provides a Young Scientist Centre to explore science technology outside the classroom. Why not take you child along to one of these venues?
At home, there are loads of videos you can watch, or activities you can be doing with your child using everyday items you can find in your home. Follow the links below to find out all about them.
