Science

At Orchard Way Primary School, we believe that science should stimulate and excite our pupils’ curiosity about phenomena and events in the world around them. It should make them eager to ‘find answers,’ by experimenting and seeking new knowledge.

OWPS pupils are encouraged to think “like a scientist” by building on their natural curiosity for the world around them. As well as developing key foundational scientific knowledge, we aim to inspire the scientists of tomorrow by teaching children the importance of topics that currently affect the world around us, such as sustainability and climate change.

The Science Curriculum at Orchard Way uses the CUSP model and we revisit areas of Science more than once and in turn this allows us to build in progression and embed the children’s procedural knowledge and skills. When they revisit a topic area further along their journey in Primary, the lessons build upon and enhance what has previously been learnt.

Each unit begins with a knowledge organiser that highlights key vocabulary, key concepts and key skills. This is used as a reference throughout the topic. It is also used as a means of self-assessment by the pupils who can highlight or tick the text as they feel secure on those elements. At the start of each lesson, the pupils have a smaller version of that knowledge organiser that concentrates on key learning for that lesson. This contains the information needed to answer the question posed by the teacher for investigation.

We value the importance of having a key focus on scientific vocabulary. The children study the etymology of the word and identify root words, prefixes and suffixes. This gives them a foundation with which to build their understanding of why the word is used in this context. Understanding of language is explicitly taught and added to a word bank to support their work during the topic. Attention is also drawn to where Science lessons are cross curricular and skills from those subject areas used i.e. Data Handling in Maths and presentation and writing of reports in English.