Science

New Horizons Seaside Primary was awarded the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) – Silver Award on 8th May 2017. In the words of Jane Turner, PSQM National Director: “Gaining a Primary Science Quality Award is a significant achievement for a school. The profile and quality of science teaching and learning in each awarded school is very high. Children are engaging with great science both in and outside the classroom, developing positive attitudes towards science as well as secure science understanding and skills. Science subject leaders, their colleagues, head teachers, children, parents and governors should be very proud."

In September 2021, we were awarded the PSQM GILT Award. Clare Warren, Senior Regional Hub Leader, noted in her feedback: "Many congratulations on the impressive way that science teaching, learning and leadership have continued to develop over the past year. Please be very proud of the continuing developments and of course on your richly deserved PSQM Gilt."

Purpose of study

A 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. Through building up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts, pupils should be encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. They should be encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes.

Aims

The national curriculum for science aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
• develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
• are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Intent

At New Horizons Seaside Primary, we want our children to see themselves as scientists. We strongly believe that the teaching of science should enable all children to learn key facts about the world around them and gain a broad understanding of these.

At the same time, science at Seaside aims to spark our children’s natural curiosities, provide them with opportunities to ask their own questions and encourage them to seek answers to these through their own practical investigations and independent exploration.

We want our children to recognise how science shapes their daily lives and to recognise the wider uses and impact of science in our world today, as well as how it is vital to our world in the future.

Implementation

We ensure that our children’s learning experiences in science are engaging, challenging, cross-curricular and highly purposeful.

Our children in EYFS explore the world around them through weekly ‘Discover and Do’ sessions. These sessions look specifically at encouraging and developing their skills and knowledge in science through exploration and child-led experiments. The children our provided with different concepts and resources that allow them to develop their skills in observation, prediction and critical thinking.

From KS1 through to KS2, our science topics our planned and taught in curriculum blocks that allow our children to acquire a greater depth of knowledge and understanding. As the children progress through Seaside, topics are revisited across year groups and teachers ensure that their planning and teaching demonstrates a clear progression of knowledge and understanding. Our focus on working scientifically across the school ensures that the children are thoroughly familiar with all aspects of the investigative process and that enquiry skills are revised, developed and embedded as part of the Knowledge Led Curriculum. 

Teachers promote and support a love for learning in science through effective and creative approaches to teaching. Teachers ensure that their explanations are detailed and accurate and these are supported by quality resources. Wherever possible, lessons are practical. Teachers ask questions that are precise to assess understanding and provide challenges to push learning further. Engaging displays in each classroom are used as a tool to ensure that key learning and vocabulary can be referred to and built upon at all times. Revision and Expansion units are used to revisit and develop the children’s learning and allow them to apply this in different ways.

The teaching and learning of science at Seaside is further developed and fostered beyond the classroom. Children are offered a range of school trips, extra-curricular clubs, visitors and workshops that complement and broaden our science curriculum.

Impact

The engaging, varied and high-quality science education that we provide at Seaside ensures our children understand and retain the key fundamentals of the National Curriculum for science and acquire the knowledge and skills they need to understand the world around them.

Our children are excited by science. They are enthusiastic and motivated when talking about the science they have learnt and about making new discoveries and links within their learning. This is reflected in their science books and in classroom displays.

By the end of Year 6, our children are independent thinkers in science, who are inquisitive and thoroughly understand the whole investigative process. We aspire for them to be passionate and understand the significance that science plays in their everyday lives. By the time they leave us, children will have a secure knowledge of key concepts in science enabling them to succeed in their secondary science learning. We recognise that some children will have aspirations to work in the numerous scientific-based careers.