Science at St Mark's

Curriculum Intent:

At St Mark's Primary School it is our intention to enthuse, inspire and engage the next generation of scientists through a challenging, explorative and practical science curriculum. We aim to provide a high-quality science curriculum which provides strong foundations for understanding the world through the key scientific principles of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world's future prosperity, and our curriculum aims to teach all pupils essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science. 

Our aims are that all pupils will: 

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
• develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
• be equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Curriculum Implementation: 

St Mark's Primary School uses the National Curriculum science objectives as the basis for delivering high-quality, interactive and practical science lessons. We are an inclusive school and recognise that children will be of different scientific abilities. All teachers are encouraged to incorporate as much practical working within science as possible. It is well researched that learning is stronger through experience and we value practical working, investigation and observation. We provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task. This includes:

• Setting common tasks which are open ended and can have a variety of responses
• Setting tasks of increasing difficulty
• Grouping children and setting different tasks to peer support and challenge
• Providing resources of different complexity according to the ability of the child to support their learning
• Using classroom assistants to support the work of individual and groups of children

We are committed to ensuring that all children have the opportunity to achieve.