Our Statement of Intent is ‘Unlocking Potential, Transforming lives’. This means that we want to unlock the potential and transform the lives of all members of our school community.

For our children, this may be removing barriers to ensure they approach their secondary education, equipped socially, emotionally and academically; for others it may be unlocking a hidden music skill which shapes their future.

For our staff, this may be providing opportunities to help them progress professionally.

For our parents, this may be removing barriers to help them access adult education.

For our wider community, this may be helping them to attend a school social event to prevent loneliness and encourage volunteering at future events.

To enable us to achieve the above, all members of the school adhere to the Core Values of:

• Safety
• Ready to Learn
• Working Together
• High Expectations
• Integrity in all that we do.

Intent

Our science curriculum is built around the principles of evidence-led practice. This is to ensure that pupils are equipped to successfully think, work, and communicate like a scientist. Unapologetically ambitious, our science curriculum focuses on excellence in this subject through a variety of scientific disciplines and incredible scientists.

We want to ensure that all pupils frequently get opportunities to be curious and express themselves through scientific inquiry. We hope they develop a genuine interest in science and learning about scientists, fostering a love and appreciation of the natural world. Following the CUSP curriculum for science, we aim to inspire children to acquire knowledge both as a scientist and enable them to skilfully attempt and apply their understanding.

Implementation

The CUSP Science curriculum is organised into blocks with each block covering a particular set of scientific disciplines, including biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science. Vertical progression in each discipline has been deliberately woven into the fabric of the curriculum so that pupils can revisit key scientific concepts and skills (such as scientific inquiry, observation, experimentation, and data analysis) throughout their Primary journey at increasing degrees of challenge and complexity. In addition to the core knowledge required to be successful within each discipline, the curriculum outlines key aspects of scientific development in the Working Scientifically section. Each module will focus on developing different aspects of these competencies. This supports teachers in understanding pupils’ development as scientists more broadly, as well as how successfully they are acquiring the taught knowledge and skills.

Central to the learning modules are activities designed to develop pupils’ oracy and vocabulary skills to enable them to use scientific language meaningfully when talking about their investigations, findings, and the work of other scientists.

Assessment

The assessment of pupils in science is formative, based on pupil outcomes and questioning from each lesson. The following can be used to assess pupils’ knowledge:

Educators will aim to use a wide-ranging variety of  assessment tools whenever possible throughout each block.

Expectations for each block are made explicit on the Curriculum Navigation (first page of each block), e.g., "At the end of this block pupils will know that plants require light, water, and nutrients to grow, and will be able to design and conduct a simple experiment to investigate one of these factors."

• The ‘Learning Question’ section specifies the expected outcome for each lesson.
• The ‘Cumulative Questions’ section in each block provides specific questions to be used with pupils to elicit their level of understanding of concepts, processes, and phenomena, e.g., "What happens if you change the amount of light a plant receives? How does this affect its growth?"
• The Oracy and Vocabulary tasks provide ample opportunities for teachers to evaluate pupils’ ability to:
  • Use scientific language effectively.
  • Explain scientific techniques and processes.
  • Evaluate their own and others’ investigations and conclusions.
• The exemplifications demonstrate the expected standard against which teachers can assess pupils’ work. The best form of assessment in science is in-action, while pupils are working. This helps us to understand pupils’ development as scientists, rather than their ability to produce a prescribed end outcome. By encouraging pupils to articulate their thinking and reflections, we can understand which aspects of scientific development they may require additional teaching in and reshape teaching to support this.
• Use of revisit units to recall prior learning and knowledge.

Adapting learning to meet the needs of all pupils

At St. Margaret’s Primary Academy, we believe that all children can be successful and should have full access to the curriculum, no matter their starting point or barrier. Using adaptive and bespoke strategies, we aim to deliver a curriculum that is equitable for every child, allowing them to unlock their potential.

In science, this can be demonstrated through adapting and chunking knowledge notes into manageable and digestible sections, highlighting key vocabulary, dual coding, annotations, alternate ways of recording work. It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list, and an emphasis is on teachers identifying and breaking down individual barriers to support their learning.

Impact

Our science curriculum is high quality, well thought out, and is planned to demonstrate progression to ensure age-related attainment at the end of each Key Stage. Pupils will have a detailed knowledge, understanding, and be able to demonstrate the necessary skills within science, preparing them for the next stage of education. This will be reflected in their work and scientific inquiries, which will show to be of a consistently good quality.

Enrichment

Where possible, the use of visitors (e.g., scientists, engineers), local area visits (e.g., parks, nature reserves, industrial sites), sources in the community (e.g., local businesses, environmental groups), events throughout the year (e.g., science weeks, STEM fairs), and trips (e.g., science museums, observatories) will provide a breadth of scientific knowledge, engagement, and enquiry.