Science

At The Oaks, it is our aim to provide our children with a high-quality science education that provides the foundations for independent thinking about the world through the appropriate teaching of biology, chemistry and physics. We strive for our children to articulate their observations and findings as well as critically reflect on their own or others theories. Science has changed our lives and it is vital to the world’s future prosperity that children believe in themselves and that they can improve the world around them. 

• Through oracy focussed tasks pupils are encouraged and supported to challenge scientific theory through discussion and use new and challenging terminology appropriately to articulate arguments.

• Children are encouraged to apply mathematical skills learnt to support the understanding of science through presenting and analysing data.

• They are supported to develop an understanding of nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them. 

• They are supported to use the correct equipment to set up fair tests which can be measured and observed over time.

We strive for children to be able to apply the languages of learning, knowledge and skills to a range of real-life contexts:

A reflective scientific approach - Children reflect and critically analyse work of scientists, their peers and of their own. They consider what improvements can be made to ensure progress. 

A resilient scientist - Pupils strive to recognise that mistakes are part of learning and improving as a scientist. Children will understand that testing  and identifying areas for improvement are integral to success.

An articulate scientist - All children develop the ability to justify their reasoning and ideas using examples and explanations which refer to scientific theory. We establish a safe environment so that children can respond to each other in a concise and respectful way.

A scientist who believes in themselves - The children set themselves goals and use prior learning to overcome problems they may face in a confident manner. 

A scientist who thinks independently  - Pupils strive to find solutions to a variety of scientific problems ensuring that they capitalise on prior learning and other strategies available to them.  

The science journey for every pupil starts on day one of EYFS with their learning of understanding the world around them helping them make sense of the physical aspects of the world, community and environment. It is here the child’s scientific language broadens by the enriching and widening children’s vocabulary. 

We relentlessly strive for improvement, keeping the highest expectations with their transition into and through key stage 1 . Here we, as teachers, try to enable pupils to experience and observe phenomena, looking more closely at the natural and humanly constructed world around them. Building on vocabulary learnt in EYFS pupils will begin 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. 

Key stage 2 enables our pupils to develop a deeper understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas. We strive for children to articulately ask their own questions about scientific phenomena as well as encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the wider world operates. Our curriculum allows for all pupils to observe changes over different periods of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out comparative and fair tests and finding things out using a wide range of practical testing.

For further information, please contact admin@theoaksprimary.co.uk FAO Mr Morley