Science

At Boothroyd Primary Academy, our vision for the science curriculum is centred on the belief that children have a rich, robust learning experience, providing the foundations for understanding the world’s context through biology, chemistry and physics knowledge and skills. We know that children will make fantastic scientists due to their inquisitive minds and actively utilise this.

Our curriculum is built on the foundations of distilled versions of the key aims in the National Curriculum that is readily accessible and pertinent:

Developing curiosity, fascination and excitement about natural phenomena
Develop proficiency within the key features of scientific enquiry and rational explanation.
High-quality first-hand experiences which underpin the majority of teaching and learning
Read, spell and use age-appropriate, accurate scientific vocabulary
Recognise how science has contributed to our understanding of the world and how it has changed our lives.

In addition to this foundational layer, our curriculum is designed with a commitment to weave four key drivers consistently throughout our children’s learning journey from EYFS to Year 6: fair testing, observing, pattern-seeking, identifying & classifying.

Fair testing: Our students will have the opportunity for children to explore cause-and-effect relationships in science. Children find the answers to 'big questions' in fair test enquiries by planning tests to collect data through changing, measuring and controlling variables.
Observing: Through observations, students will be inspired to ask questions about the world and develop their curiosity.
Pattern-seeking: Through pattern-seeking enquiries, children can develop their measuring skills and look for and learn different ways to record and analyse their data.
Identifying & classifying: This type of enquiry allows students to make observations and measurements to help them look for similarities and differences and provides excellent discussion and collaborative learning opportunities. It allows children to organise things into groups and make connections.

Subject leaders at Boothroyd Primary Academy are fully committed to ensuring the National Curriculum aims, and our key drivers are prominent in every year group's teaching and learning. This commitment establishes a common language and fidelity that unites us as a learning community.

Our science curriculum follows the Switched-on Science program, which supports staff in creating exciting, hands-on science activities, providing appropriate repetition and reinforcement. However, we understand that a scheme does not help children learn but is the teacher's skill, subject knowledge, and understanding of how children learn. Learning in science involves children building their knowledge of essential concepts and procedures. Learners must connect this to what they already know when learning new content. This means that it is necessary that learners develop a secure understanding of previously taught concepts and procedures. Furthermore, subject leaders are dedicated to ensuring sound, robust, developing subject knowledge for teachers. Moreover, the program provides sound teacher subject knowledge through CDP videos for each topic and identifies children’s misconceptions.

Within Early Years, Knowledge and Understanding of the World is taught through the children’s naturally inquisitive and creative minds through well-thought provision, enhancement and quality interactions. This is then supplemented through carefully selected activities from the program that further the children’s interests or complement our current enquiry.

Within the Key stages 1 and 2, opportunities within particular topics will be created for roleplay, and this will allow students to:

Develop their communication and language skills.
Act out and make sense of real-life situations.
Explore, investigate and experiment.
Develop their social skills as they collaborate with others.

Within these year groups and Early Years, we have adopted an approach where Seasonal change is developed over a year, with teachers timetabling regular visits to the school grounds and/or Crows Nest Park. During each visit, the children carry out a range of activities, including ‘Adopt a tree’ or habitat and record changes, e.g. photograph each visit. We then use a ‘Big Book’ approach where children record their observations of Seasonal change over a year. This book is then taken with the children to their next class so that they can look back and continue their work in the next year group.

The Boothroyd science curriculum promotes inclusive lessons and an environment for all. When planning lessons through the scheme, staff consider learners with SEND and EAL. Staff are encouraged and supported to think about the following:

Specifically, what do they want children to learn?
How do they present new information that all learners can access?
How can complex ideas be broken down into simpler parts for pupils to learn and practice?
How can they focus the learner’s attention on the new content? For example, learners could observe and explore a stimulus to hook them into the new learning. This could be an object, a model, or an image.

Furthermore, staff understand the importance of:

Encouraging learners to ask questions about their learning and build in opportunities for small-group and whole-class discussions.
Oracy-led sessions, with visuals to support all learners’ access, can enable you to build on and extend your learners’ scientific thinking. If you have an additional adult in the lesson, plan their role and share their responsibilities with them in advance.

However, we advocate that high-quality teaching for pupils with SEND and EAL should be firmly based on strategies that will either already be in the repertoire of every mainstream teacher or can be relatively easily added to it. These strategies can be used as the starting point for classroom teaching for all pupils.

By using our distilled National Curriculum aims and our key drivers to drive our curriculum, we will, with precision and fidelity, inspire our students to become critical thinkers who question, interpret, and understand the complex world around them. Our approach will empower them to become informed and curious active scientists, fostering a deep understanding of scientific principles.

We are confident that this curriculum overview, with its focus on continuity, progression, and coherence, reflects the dedication and professionalism of our team at Boothroyd Primary Academy.

Key Curriculum Documents

Science Long Term Plan

Science in Action

Coming soon..

Pupil Voice

Coming soon..