Intent

The National Curriculum states that ‘high-quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science’.  

At Welbourne Primary Academy, our aim is to develop curious and ambitious scientists, who wish to explore all disciplines of the subject, beyond their time here. Through our teaching, we aim to provide a broad and balanced understanding of the scientific skills. We recognise that science goes far beyond its lesson time, and we feel it is crucial to provide children with the tools they need to explore science in a way which addresses all areas of the subject.  

Implementation

At Welbourne Primary Academy, our planning is developed using The Cornerstones Curriculum. This follows a clear knowledge and skills framework and is expertly sequenced and interconnected, allowing us to teach our scientific units alongside our history and geography topics, as well as meeting the statutory statements within the National Curriculum. Teachers can use the four cornerstones of engage, develop, innovate, and express to ensure that all areas of the scientific unit are covered, as well as providing a variety of opportunities to explore science in an engaging and practical manner. Scientific skills are at the forefront of our mind when planning at Welbourne. We recognise the importance of developing the practical skills of our learners as they progress through the key stages and providing them with enough experience to confidently transition into KS3 and beyond. The Cornerstones Curriculum incorporates opportunities within each unit to teach and practice the individual skills of enquiry, which will be built upon as our learners move into each new year group.  

Impact

By the end of KS2, our expectation is that children will be able to develop their own questions and use the scientific skills of enquiry that they have built upon to answer those questions and communicate their findings in a variety of ways. Children will understand that science is wider than Welbourne and have the ability to approach topics in KS3 with confident curiosity.  

When using The Cornerstones Curriculum, we have chosen to use the assessment tool to measure the impact the curriculum has upon our learners. This allows us to confidently assess each element of the topic, with a clear and precise layout which can be used to accurately identify gaps within the learning. At Welbourne, we are also implementing the use of cold assessments at the beginning of each unit to identify gaps caused by the pandemic, as well as any gaps in progression as our learners move through the key stages. This provides teachers with foundations which can be built upon when planning to bridge gaps in the knowledge. These assessments are carried out again at the end of each unit to provide additional data which can be used to support future planning and accurately track the impact of our teaching. Teacher assessment sits alongside the assessment carried out by our science lead who completes book scrutiny’s, pupil voice opportunities, lesson walks and assessment of teacher’s subject knowledge in order to provide appropriate support which allows for high quality teaching throughout the school. 

If you have any questions please contact Miss Fisher, Science Lead via the school office office@wel.education.