Science

Science at Abbott Primary School:

Science will play a key part of the curriculum through your child’s entire school career. At Abbott primary school we work hard to develop your child’s scientific knowledge and understanding. Each year group has a timetable slot for science which allows the recommended time given for teaching science for each year group. At Abbott Primary school we follow the Rising Stars Schemes of work and adapt these to meet the needs of our pupils.

Children at Abbott Primary School are first introduced to science in the Foundation stage where it is called Knowledge and understanding of the world. Your child will learn to explore, problem solve, observe, predict, think, make decisions and talk about the world around them.

Children explore creatures, people, plants and objects in their natural environments. They observe and manipulate objects and materials to identify differences and similarities. Children also learn to use their senses, feeling dough or listening to sounds in the environment, such as sirens or farm animals.

Children are encouraged to ask questions about why things happen and how things work. Your child will also be asked questions about what they think will happen to help them communicate, plan, investigate, record and evaluate findings. They will also learn to recognise changes that happen to the body when they are active. Children will also learn about the importance of keeping healthy and the things that contribute to this.

Science at Key Stage 1

Throughout Key Stage 1 science lessons, children at Abbott Primary will be learning about the importance of asking questions, gathering evidence, carrying out experiments and looking at different ways of presenting their results. Lessons are practical and will focus on the world around them. 

Under the new 2014 National Curriculum children in Year 1 will cover the following topics

• Plants where they will look at identifying and naming plants and look at their basic structure
• Animals including humans, where they will be identifying and naming a range of animals and understanding how and why they are grouped
• Everyday materials, where they will look at materials and their properties
• Seasonal changes, where they observe changes across the four seasons and look at different types of weather

Under the new 2014 National Curriculum children in Year 2 will cover the following topics

• Living things and their habitats, including dependence within habitats and micro-habitats
• Plants, where they will be observing how seeds and bulbs grow into plants and what plants need to stay healthy
• Animals including humans, where they will be focusing on reproduction, nutrition and exercise
• Everyday materials, Where they will be comparing their uses and looking at how they can be changed by exerting force

Science at Key Stage 2

In Lower Key Stage 2 children are encouraged to ask questions about scientific concepts and then carry out experiments to find out the answers. As children enter Upper Key Stage 2 children will continue to practise these skills but with more depth and precision.

In Lower key stage 2 children learn what a 'fair test' is, they begin to take measurements from a range of equipment, Children begin to gather and record data and report their findings orally and in writing. Children are taught to understand what variables are and how to control them. In Upper Key Stage 2 children are given opportunities to take measurements from a range of equipment, understanding the need for repeated measures to increase accuracy. Children begin to gather and record data using labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs. Children use test results to make further predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests. Children make conclusions on the test carried out, orally and in writing.

Under the new 2014 National Curriculum children in Year 3 will cover the following topics

• Plants including parts of plants, needs of plants and their lifecycle.
• Animals including humans, focusing on nutrition, skeletons and muscles
• Rocks, iincluding comparing rocks, looking at fossils and understanding how soil is made
• Light, looking at how light is reflected, how shadows are formed and can change.
• Forces and magnets, focusing on attraction and repulsion of magnets, magnetic materials and the two poles of a magnet.

Under the new 2014 National Curriculum children in Year 4 will cover the following topics

• Living things and their habitats, including classifying living things and looking at changes to environments.
• Animals, including humans, focusing on eating: teeth, the digestive system and food chains.
• States of matter, including grouping materials, changing state, evaporation and condensation.
• Sound, looking at creation of sound through vibration and changes in pitch and volume.
• Electricity, including constructing a circuit and understanding conductors and insulators.

Under the new 2014 National Curriculum children in Year 5 will cover the following topics

• Living things and their habitats, including life cycles of a mammal, amphibian, insect and bird.
• Animals, including humans, focusing on changes from birth to old age.
• Properties and changes of materials, including dissolving, separating and reversible changes.
• Earth and space, looking at the movement of the sun, earth and moon.
• Forces, including gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction.

Under the new 2014 National Curriculum children in Year 6 will cover the following topics

• Living things and their habitats, including classifying micro-organisms, plants and animals.
• Animals, including humans, focusing mainly on diet and exercise.
• Evolution and inheritance, looking at fossils, reproduction and adaptation.
• Light, looking closely at how it travels and how shadows are made.
• Electricity, analysing the function of lamps, buzzers, cells and switches.

At Abbott Primary school we work hard to bring the awe and wonder to learning and we feel that we can do this strongly through well planned, practical lessons. Children are given lots of opportunities to develop their scientific skills as well explore and investigate.

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