Science

Statement of Intent

Our curriculum has been carefully designed by subject-leads, teachers and experts, in line with the National Curriculum, to ensure our children gain the cumulative scientific knowledge and working scientifically skills required to become independent critical thinkers who respect all living organisms and the physical environment around them. Throughout their time at Whitehall, children are given exciting, hands-on opportunities to answer relevant scientific enquiries through a variety of approaches, including: comparative and fair testing; identifying, grouping and classifying; observing over time and pattern-seeking. Links are made between units of science, as well as with wider curriculum subjects, to demonstrate science’s interdisciplinary nature and support children’s retention of learning.

By the end of KS1, all children will:

Experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly-constructed world around them
Be curious and ask questions about what they notice
To develop their understanding of scientific ideas by using different types of scientific enquiry to answer their own questions
To use simple scientific language to talk about what they have found out and communicate their ideas to a range of audiences in a variety of ways
Read and spell scientific vocabulary at a level consistent with their increasing word reading and spelling knowledge
Use practical scientific methods, processes and skills in line with the ‘Working Scientifically’ programme of study for KS1

By the end of KS2, all children will:

Have a deeper understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas through: exploring and talking about their ideas; asking their own questions about scientific phenomena; and analysing functions, relationships and interactions more systematically
Encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the world operates
Recognise that scientific ideas change and develop over time
Select the most appropriate ways to answer science questions using different types of scientific enquiry
Draw conclusions based on their data and observations, use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings
Read, spell and pronounce scientific vocabulary correctly
Use practical scientific methods, processes and skills in line with the ‘Working Scientifically’ programme of study for KS2

Teachers ensure there is progression in knowledge and skills by using our Progression document, which sets out the objectives taught in each year group. Embedded within the curriculum are opportunities for children to explore the local environment and gain new experiences through trips and visitors, so they can recognise how science explains, shapes and forms the world around us and how it operates. Children at Whitehall will be inspired by a range of diverse scientific role models in a wide range of STEM careers that will empower them to pursue science in secondary school and beyond. Through our science curriculum, children will gain a passion for questioning, learning and understanding the world around us.