Science

SCIENCE

Curriculum Lead: Mrs R. McGirl

Intent

At St Mary and St Michael Catholic Primary School, we believe an engaging and high quality science education provides children with solid foundations for understanding natural phenomena about the world. Throughout our SSMM Curriculum, children begin to understand the way in which science will affect their future on a personal, local, national, and global level through the teaching of biology, chemistry and physics. We make science exciting and relatable, with real life links which enable our children to have an understanding of the importance that science has within all our lives.

Implementation

Here at SSMM, Science is taught using the PLAN primary Science assessment resources. This ensures we prepare our children for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world by allowing the children to generate their own questions and test phenomena. Children become ‘SSMM scientists’ and acquire a growing understanding of scientific ideas. We help our children to acquire practical scientific skills, developing the skills of investigation – including observing, questioning, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating.

Impact

At the end of the year, we expect the children to have achieved ARE (age-related expectations) for their year group. Some children will have progressed further, and others, who have gaps in their learning, receive appropriate intervention. We assess the children formally at the end of each term and also informally throughout our daily teaching using the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) resources.

Progression of Skills & Knowledge

We use Lancashire KLIPS and LAPS for our progression of skills and knowledge. We adapt these where necessary to meet the needs of our pupils.