Intent

At Preston Candover CE Primary, our vision is to give children an ambitious science curriculum that inspires our pupils to explore and discover the world around them. We aim to nurture children’s curiosity through a curriculum that uses purposeful exploration, observation, questioning and investigation to develop both scientific knowledge and an understanding of how science helps us to explain the world around us. Through these experiences, children develop a secure and connected body of scientific knowledge alongside an understanding of how scientific knowledge is developed, tested and refined, while nurturing a lifelong interest in science.

Key scientific concepts are carefully sequenced, revisited, consolidated and connected across the key stages, enabling pupils to build increasingly secure and sophisticated explanations of the world around them. Through and alongside this substantive knowledge, pupils progressively develop the disciplinary knowledge needed to work scientifically and understand how scientific knowledge is developed. Pupils develop their understanding through a range of scientific enquiry, including observing over time, identifying and classifying, pattern seeking, comparative and fair testing, and researching using secondary sources. They learn how to make careful observations and measurements, use scientific equipment, record and represent data, identify patterns, use evidence to draw conclusions and develop scientific explanations. Practical and fieldwork experiences are used purposefully to deepen scientific understanding and develop pupils’ knowledge of how scientists gather and use evidence.

Our children will leave Preston Candover CE Primary with a secure understanding of the key scientific ideas they have studied and an increasingly sophisticated understanding of what it means to think and work scientifically. They will be able to use their scientific knowledge, evidence and vocabulary to describe, explain and ask questions about the world around them, developing the scientific literacy needed to engage confidently with science in their everyday lives.

Implementation

Our science curriculum is based on the National Curriculum Science programme of study. We use the Hampshire Science Learning Journeys from HIAS to support our curriculum planning. These break down the National Curriculum objectives into Substantive and Disciplinary knowledge which are both taught within every unit of study. These break down the National Curriculum objectives into substantive and disciplinary knowledge, both of which are deliberately taught within every unit of study. Substantive knowledge (Key Ideas) is organised into knowledge blocks within each unit. Teachers progress through these knowledge blocks in a carefully sequenced order, explicitly building on pupils’ prior learning and making connections between key ideas so that pupils develop increasingly secure and connected scientific understanding. Teachers use pupils’ prior knowledge and understanding to identify potential misconceptions and adapt teaching where necessary, ensuring that pupils develop increasingly accurate scientific explanations.

Across the key stages, pupils encounter a range of enquiry approaches, including observing over time, identifying and classifying, pattern seeking, comparative and fair testing, and research using secondary sources. Through these enquiries, pupils develop both their scientific knowledge and their understanding of how science works. Rather than simply completing practical activities, pupils are explicitly taught the knowledge of how and why scientists work in particular ways. This corresponds directly to the ‘Working Scientifically’ expectations of the National Curriculum but further refines these expectations into four categories, ‘knowledge of scientific methods’, ‘knowledge of apparatus and techniques’, ‘knowledge of data analysis and presentation’, ‘knowledge of how science uses evidence to develop explanations’.

Practical and fieldwork experiences are planned with a clear learning purpose. Teachers select practical activities because of the substantive or disciplinary knowledge they enable pupils to develop, ensuring that practical work deepens scientific understanding rather than becoming an end in itself.

The science curriculum is planned over a two-year cycle through long- and medium-term planning, ensuring that pupils encounter the full breadth of the National Curriculum while following a coherent progression of substantive and disciplinary knowledge. The mixed-age structure is carefully considered when sequencing learning so that pupils build on prior knowledge and experience appropriate progression in their scientific knowledge and understanding. Science is taught every week.

Important scientific knowledge is regularly revisited and consolidated through questioning, discussion and retrieval opportunities, enabling pupils to retain key ideas and make connections with new learning.

Teachers use Oak National Academy science resources alongside the Hampshire Science Learning Journeys to support planning and teaching. These resources provide an evidence-informed foundation which teachers adapt and supplement to reflect our curriculum sequence, pupils’ prior knowledge and identified needs, ensuring appropriate depth and challenge.

Explorify is used purposefully to stimulate curiosity, elicit prior knowledge and misconceptions, develop scientific vocabulary and provide opportunities for pupils to observe, question, predict, reason and explain. Activities are selected and linked to the intended scientific learning rather than used as stand-alone enrichment.

Science teaching and learning at Preston Candover CE Primary School uses our local environment where possible to provide authentic contexts for observation, investigation and fieldwork, alongside a range of scientific resources to meet the needs of the curriculum. An annual STEM week provides additional opportunities for pupils to apply scientific knowledge and disciplinary thinking in unfamiliar and meaningful contexts, making connections between science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Please use the links below to explore our science curriculum further: