Our Approach: 

Our exploratory ethos places a strong emphasis on learning through play and active inquiry. We believe that young children learn best when they can:

• Explore their environment: We provide diverse and engaging materials, resources, and outdoor spaces for children to interact with and learn from.
• Ask questions: We encourage children to be curious, to wonder, and to ask "why" and "how," fostering a love for inquiry.
• Engage in hands-on experiences: Children conduct simple experiments and observe changes, using their senses to understand scientific concepts in a tangible, meaningful way.
• Collaborate and communicate: Working together, children learn to share their ideas, listen to others, and build on different viewpoints, developing their communication skills and fostering a sense of community.
• Build foundational knowledge of basic scientific concepts, such as the properties of materials, plant and animal life, and weather patterns.
• Encourage observation and experimentation, providing a basis for understanding the scientific method in a simplified, age-appropriate manner.
• Develop inquiry skills, such as making predictions, testing ideas, and drawing conclusions based on evidence.
• Promote a sense of wonder and respect for the natural world, instilling a lifelong appreciation for science and its relevance to everyday life.

Teaching Tools: 

• Outdoor learning
  We are incredibly fortunate to have rich natural environments within our school grounds. These outdoor spaces provide valuable opportunities for scientific exploration and support learning across key science topics.

  Our locality
  We make regular use of our local area, including a community growing space that supports both food production and wildlife. These visits help children to develop a real understanding of the natural world and their place within it.

  Working scientifically
  Children are given many opportunities to develop the skills needed to work scientifically. This includes asking questions about the world around them and exploring ways to find answers through a range of practical, hands-on scientific methods.

Diversity

Science naturally lends itself to diversity through:

• Studying a wide range of animals, plants and habitats from around the world

• Exploring how living things are adapted to different environments

• Recognising variation within species (including humans)

• Looking into sustainability and the responsibilities we have as a species to protect the planet. 

Supporting All Children:

We ensure the planning of our science curriculum reflects the children's learning needs. By providing a range of tailored learning experiences, all children are able to access and identify core subject knowledge and demonstrate key skills. This is done through using multisensory approaches that cater to diverse learning styles, such as visual aids, tactile resources, and hands-on experiments that allow children to engage through sight, touch, and movement. For children with communication difficulties, we can incorporate visual prompts, simplified language, and pictorial instructions to help them access the learning. Small group activities and one-on-one support can be used to provide additional guidance and encouragement, while adapted tools and resources, like large-grip tweezers or textured objects, can help children with fine motor difficulties participate fully.

By fostering a supportive, inclusive environment where each child’s unique needs are met, we ensure that all children have the opportunity to explore, enquire, and develop a love for science.

Assessment:

Assessment in Science is continuous and embedded within everyday teaching. Children are supported to develop key scientific skills, including classification, planning investigations, observing, measuring and interpreting results, through a wide range of practical activities. Core knowledge is revisited regularly to support retention and to help children make meaningful links in their learning.

As in other subjects, assessment is ongoing and responsive, taking place in the moment and used to inform next steps in teaching and learning. Scientific vocabulary also plays an important role in assessment; children demonstrate secure understanding of scientific concepts and core knowledge when they can explain their ideas clearly using appropriate subject-specific language, such as deciduous, habitat and mammal.

Above and Beyond:

As part of our curriculum offer, Reception children take part in the annual VEG POWER project. All children grow their own vegetable to take home and visit a local farm to learn more about where food comes from. We also work closely with a local community group, The Patch, to enrich children’s understanding of growing and sustainability.

In Year 1, children visit a local growing patch run by community volunteers throughout the year. These regular visits allow children to observe plants, trees, wildlife and weather changing across the seasons, supporting a deep, first-hand understanding of the natural world.

In Year 2, children take part in a sustainability project focused on reducing plastic in our oceans and exploring how everyone can play a role in protecting our planet.