ST PETER’S CE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Science

“Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.”

- Mae Jemison, first African American woman astronaut in space

Why not 'Celebrate Science' by reading wonderful books. Please see the book list below via the link:

Celebrate Science Reading List

At St Peter’s Primary School, we aim to foster children’s innate curiosity and desire to gain a deeper understanding of the world surrounding them.

In order to achieve this aim, we strive to provide high quality science teaching in line with five key indicators:

Developing and embedding children’s knowledge through five pivotal strands of scientific enquiries (see below for more details)
Explicitly teaching working scientifically objectives to develop skills and techniques that will enable children to work independently
Allowing children to devise their own research questions and search for answers to expand their knowledge and skills through hands on experimentation and investigation
Relating scientific learning to real life contexts to create purpose and substance to what is being taught
Equipping children with the investigative skills to delve deeper into key concepts in both the natural and physical, which will prepare them for secondary education and beyond

Five Strands of Scientific Enquiry:

observation over time

identifying and classifying

pattern seeking

research and secondary sources

comparative and fair testing

Whole School Curriculum Map

Whole School Progression Map

Our science curriculum has been planned and sequenced in line with National Curriculum objectives and with cross-curricular links where appropriate. Furthermore, the curriculum has been created to build on what has previously been taught in other year groups to embed key scientific knowledge and encourage effective progression towards clearly defined end points.

Working Scientifically

Working Scientifically Progression Map

Throughout our delivery of science lessons, our teachers will explicitly teach working scientifically objectives to develop function skills; observing, identifying and classifying, measuring, testing and recording, and reasoning and thinking skills; questioning, predicting and concluding.

Children in Year 1, 3 and 5 will be working on these objectives with support and children in Year 2, 4 and 6 will develop on the skills they have previously learnt and will be progressing in independence.

Science Policy

STEM Week

Each year we will organise and run STEM Week which is designed to support learning; help young people to understand the real world applications of their learning, to illuminate careers; showcase different roles and pathways into industry and to raise aspirations; help young people meet a wide range of inspiring role models.

STEM WEEK 2023

This February, we held our annual STEM Week. Throughout STEM Week, the children took part in a range of practical-based enquires relating to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As always, this week was a fantastic opportunity to include and gain expertise from our wonderful parents/carers.

STEM Week 2023

We were thrilled to welcome one of our parents into school to lead an assembly for STEM Week. The parent spoke about his career as a pilot and shared how this career links to all strands of STEM. The children were in awe of all of the countries the pilot had travelled to, and they were enthused by the videos taken from the cockpit.

Also, we welcomed more parents into the school to lead workshops focused upon marine engineering. The workshops focused upon the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and other marine vessels.

The children in Year 5 were invited to Fulham Cross School to take part in a science workshop. The workshop focused upon developing science skills for secondary school. The children had a wonderful time working in the science lab using the chemistry equipment to conduct a series of experiments.

The children participated in ‘A Puzzle Challenge Day’ as part of their STEM Week learning. The children completed challenges that required collaborative learning skills and strategic planning to find accurate solutions to a range of puzzles.

Throughout the week, the children also focused on ‘Women in Maths’. Each class researched and celebrated a different mathematician who has helped shape the profession as we know it.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

In February it was International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a day to celebrate all those inspirational change makers who have helped to promote the full and equal access and participation of females in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Each year group researched and studied a specific scientist.

Jane Goodall

Joan Beauchamp Procter

Charlotte Armah

Mah Hussain-Gambles

Katia Krafft

Jo Shien Ng

Jassel Majevadia

International Day of Women and Girls in Science Overview

Knowledge Organisers

For more information about the current scientific topics your children are learning, click on the links below. These organisers contain include key information and specific terminology the children should know by the end of the topic.