Vision for Science
At St Joseph’s, we see Science as an interconnected subject which should encourage discussion, exploration and ambition. We want the children to see the wonder in science all around them, viewing it as being relevant and purposeful to their lives. Their science experiences should be ones which develop the children’s curiosity, knowledge and understanding, always encouraging them to think scientifically. We encourage the use of practical investigations as much as possible to allow children to see, hands on, how science can be used to explain the world around us.
Science - Curriculum Planning
At St Joseph's, we have planned and developed our own curriculum based on the objectives from the National Curriculum. It is organised into half-termly units and lessons are taught weekly. In addition, meaningful ‘cross-curricular’ links are made with other subjects that help secure prior learning or develop learning further. It shows a clear progression of both substantive and disciplinary skills from Nursery all the way up to Year 6.
Some topics covered include:
- Plants - identification, lifecycles, growth
- Animals, including humans - types of animals, growth, lifecycles, digestive and circulatory systems, evolution
- Forces - gravity, friction, magnetism
- Electricity - circuits and how they work
- Light - how we see, shadows, the eye
- States of matter - solids, liquids and gases, reversible and irreversible changes
Please see the whole school science curriculum overview and examples of planning from Y2 and Y6 below.
We achieved a quality mark for science
1/10
Finding out about different materials
2/10
Animal sort
3/10
What helps a plant to grow?
4/10
Does a plant need light for healthy growth?
5/10
Finding out about life on the farm
6/10
Collecting the eggs
7/10
Measuring the eggs
8/10
Taking care of the chicks
9/10
Exploring the deep ocean with VR
10/10
What the children think about science at St Joseph's:
- I like it when we do experiments. I enjoy them and think they go well for me!
- I enjoy working in a group - we have fun in our science lessons.
- I really enjoyed dissecting flowers and melting chocolate!
- I enjoyed learning about terminal velocity in our STEM sessions because we got to make parachutes.
- I like that we learn new things.