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French	Geography	History
Maths	Music	PE
PSHE	RE	Science

Intent

At Lethbridge, we are excited about science. We want to harness children’s naturally inquisitive nature so that they engage with the world around them. Finding out how things work, and why, is what makes children tick, and those big questions are inspiring to consider. By creating the right contexts for this natural exploration, we build a culture of ‘finding out’ and a real buzz around scientific enquiry.

In line with the national curriculum, we want every pupil to:

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

Our science curriculum reflects our motto, Firm Foundations, Bright Futures. Pupils build firm foundations of scientific knowledge, vocabulary and enquiry skills year on year, and see science and STEM as a route to bright futures, whether as a career or as a way of understanding and caring for the world around them.

What pupils learn

Science is taught through sequences of lessons around a termly focus. Each unit builds pupils’ knowledge and understanding year on year and develops their working scientifically skills alongside it.

Early years. In Reception, science is part of Understanding the World: The Natural World. Children explore through their senses and hands-on play, ask ‘why’ questions and learn new vocabulary, laying the foundations for working scientifically in key stage 1. Regular visits to Forest School and welly walks to Town Gardens let them observe the seasons and the natural world first-hand.

Term and topic	The Natural World	Hands-on science experiences
Autumn 1: Marvellous Me!	Understand the terms ‘same’ and ‘different’	Looking after ourselves; washing hands; oral health workshop
Autumn 2: Let’s Celebrate	Explore and ask questions about the natural world around them	Forest School visit to observe the seasons; changing states: freezing and melting
Spring 1: Once Upon a Time…	Talk about features of their environment and learn about different environments	Forest School visit; materials; STEM Week
Spring 2: Nature Detectives	Observe plants and discuss similarities and differences	Planting and observing seeds; minibeast hunt; welly walk to Town Gardens; life cycles
Summer 1: Dinosaurs	Observe animals and discuss similarities and differences	Fossil hunt in Town Gardens; prehistoric animals and their habitats
Summer 2: Pirates	Know some important processes and changes in the natural world, including states of matter	Floating and sinking; sea animals; looking after the ocean

Key stage 1. Years 1 and 2 follow our two-year cycle, so they learn the same unit at the same time.

Years 1 and 2	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3	Term 4	Term 5	Term 6
Cycle A	Animals, including humans, Materials and their properties	Seasonal changes	STEM - Working scientifically	Seasonal changes (follow-up observations)	Living things and their habitats	The human body - names of parts and knowing the importance of different types of food and exercise
Cycle B	Materials and their properties	Seasonal changes	STEM - Working scientifically	Life Processes, Identifying things that are dead, alive and have never been alive	Basic needs of animals – air, food, water Animal offspring	Plants including deciduous and evergreen trees

Key stage 2. From Year 3, science is taught year by year, so that knowledge builds in a clear sequence through lower and upper key stage 2.

Year	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3	Term 4	Term 5	Term 6
Year 3	Forces and magnets	Rocks	Animals, including humans	Plants	–	Light
Year 4	States of matter	Electricity	Animals, including humans	–	Sound	Living things and their habitats (classification)
Year 5	Properties and changes of materials	Earth and space	Forces	Animals, including humans	Living things and their habitats	–
Year 6	Evolution and inheritance	Light	Animals, including humans	Living things and their habitats	Electricity	Electricity

In Year 3, the forces and magnets and rocks units swap terms between the two cycles.

Working scientifically

Working scientifically is taught alongside the knowledge in every unit, so that pupils learn how scientists find things out, not just what they have found. Our skills overview, based on the national curriculum and the Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC) progression grids, sets out how each enquiry skill develops from Reception to Year 6.

Enquiry skill	Key stage 1	Lower key stage 2	Upper key stage 2
Asking questions and planning	Ask simple questions and recognise that they can be answered in different ways	Ask relevant questions and use different types of scientific enquiry to answer them	Plan different types of enquiry to answer their own or others’ questions, recognising and controlling variables
Setting up enquiries	Perform simple tests and comparative tests	Set up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests	Use test results to make predictions and set up further comparative and fair tests
Observing and measuring	Use simple equipment to observe closely, including changes over time	Make systematic and careful observations and accurate measurements in standard units, using equipment such as thermometers and data loggers	Take measurements with increasing accuracy and precision, taking repeat readings when appropriate
Recording	Gather and record data, including from secondary sources	Record findings using scientific language, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts and tables	Record data of increasing complexity using diagrams, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs
Reporting and concluding	Identify, group and classify, and use observations to suggest answers to questions	Report findings orally and in writing, draw simple conclusions, make predictions and suggest improvements	Report conclusions, causal relationships and how far results can be trusted, and identify evidence that supports or refutes ideas

Child-friendly ‘I can’ statements for each phase help pupils understand what they are learning and assess their own and each other’s enquiry skills.

How we teach science

• Hands-on enquiry. Lessons provide plenty of practical opportunities for pupils to investigate, using different types of enquiry: observing over time, identifying and classifying, looking for patterns, comparative and fair testing, and researching using secondary sources.
  
  
• Knowledge that builds. Each unit builds on what pupils learned before, so that knowledge of biology, chemistry and physics grows year on year and pupils are ready for the next stage.
  
  
• Scientific vocabulary. Pupils learn and embed scientific vocabulary in every unit and are expected to use it accurately when they explain their ideas.
  
  
• Revisiting and remembering. Teachers plan regular opportunities to recall earlier learning, so that knowledge is secure and pupils can connect new ideas to what they already know.
  
  
• Talk and reasoning. Pupils discuss their predictions, explain their thinking and use evidence to support their conclusions.
  
  
• STEM Week. Each year, a dedicated STEM week explores a whole-school question using science, technology, engineering and maths. It re-energises pupils’ curiosity and gives them a focused chance to develop their enquiry skills. Families are invited to a STEM fair to see what pupils have found out.
  
  
• Real-world science. During each school year, pupils meet scientists and STEM experts who share a real-world perspective and inspire them about the future possibilities of science.
  
  
• Links to secondary school. We build links with local secondary schools, so that our young scientists carry their enthusiasm with them when they move on.
  
  
• Links across the curriculum. Science connects with maths through measuring and handling data, with design and technology through electrical systems and structures, and with geography through habitats and the local environment.

Inclusion

Science is an entitlement for every pupil, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND.

• Teachers adapt how science is taught, not what is taught, using practical resources, visual supports, modelling and pre-taught vocabulary.
  
  
• Practical work is planned so that every pupil can take part safely and fully.
  
  
• Meeting real scientists and taking part in STEM Week give every pupil, whatever their background, the chance to see themselves as a scientist.

Assessment and impact

We measure impact by what pupils know, understand and can do as scientists.

• During lessons: teachers question, observe pupils’ enquiries and check understanding, and adjust teaching straight away.
  
  
• Working scientifically: ‘I can’ statements help teachers and pupils track how enquiry skills develop over time.
  
  
• End of unit: teachers check what pupils have learned and remembered against the national curriculum objectives for that unit.
  
  
• Subject leadership: the science lead looks at pupils’ work, talks with pupils, visits lessons and uses what they find to refine the curriculum and support staff.

By the end of Year 6, pupils w ill be independent scientists who use scientific vocabulary confidently and in context, and who naturally apply the principles of scientific investigation they have built up through enquiry-based learning. They will have a secure basis of knowledge and understanding that equips them to keep exploring the world around them. Science and STEM will be subjects pupils enjoy and feel inspired by, giving them a launch pad for a future career in science or a way to understand and care for the world.