Intent
At Freemantle, we recognise that science is a crucial part of our lives. We understand that science has been a significant part of our history and is both necessary and vital in order to preserve our future. For this reason, it is our mission to ensure children are provided with a rich, ambitious science education by not only delivering the curriculum, but also inspiring children to find out about the world around them. Through an exploratory, practical and text-led approach to science, which makes links to life to outside of school, we believe we can help to foster young scientists, who can continue to apply their knowledge and understanding throughout their lives.
It is our mission to help our children realise that science skills are transferrable and vital for many prospective career paths, including those in the STEM fields. With an engaging and inspiring approach to delivering our Freemantle curriculum, our aim is to create future scientists, emboldened and confident in the knowledge that they can achieve.
Furthermore, it is our aim to follow the Freemantle and National Curriculum to ensure that all pupils:
‘Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world’.
Louis Pasteur
Implementation
Teachers at Freemantle ensure science is taught weekly for a minimum of three hours over a fortnight in order to provide sufficient time for developing scientific understanding, skills and knowledge. It is block taught according to the curriculum, with an area of science assigned to each half term, linking to our class themes where possible, and the working scientifically elements of the curriculum taught through each of the individual strands.
At Freemantle, one of our key curriculum aims is ‘every child a reader’, ensuring that we plan a reading-rich curriculum which enhances learning, supports the development of communication skills and results in the acquisition of knowledge which is retained, so that our pupils know more, remember more and learn more. Science knowledge is gained through, where possible, high-quality texts that aid and support children’s understanding of scientific concepts. Alongside the use of texts, we ensure that scientific vocabulary is explicitly taught at the beginning of each lesson and is then displayed in classrooms so it can be continuously referred to and applied throughout a unit. To ensure secure prior knowledge, quickfire retrieval quizzes are also used at the start of each lesson.
As well as this, we understand the importance of a practical, investigative approach to science, with lessons logically sequenced using our Progression of Skills document. Investigations are purposeful and meaningful, allowing children to use their scientific knowledge and enquiry skills to conduct investigations effectively and to draw and evaluate conclusions. Where possible, lessons begin with a ‘big question’, either taken from the document mentioned above, or created by the teacher, in order to encourage scientific thinking and arouse curiosity.
At Freemantle we aim to use a ‘Talk for Science’ approach to teaching and learning. Lessons are language-rich, and allow children time to orally reason, justify and explain. Children are encouraged to verbalise their thinking collaboratively and to use key scientific vocabulary to aid their responses. It is particularly important that children are allowed to do this before being given a written response task and sentence stems are utilised both to support articulation of ideas as well as written responses.
Impact