Science

Subject Leaders:

Mrs Campion at Victoria Road Site

Mrs Akhtar at Orchard Site

Science across all ages at Victoria Community School

Science Vision

At Victoria Community School, an enriched science curriculum that provides opportunities for practical lessons on a weekly basis is key. The children are exposed to a wide variety of topics that support the children’s curiosity for learning. Our curriculum aims to broaden the children’s scientific view of the world around them, whilst promoting a love for enquiry and wanting to explore new things.

At Victoria School we promote cross-curricular learning and the teaching of Science gives us many opportunities to promote learning across the curriculum including: cultural, social and moral development, numeracy and problem solving, literacy and thinking skills. We believe science encompasses the acquisition of knowledge, concepts, skills and positive attitudes. Through the National Curriculum programme of study our children will acquire and develop these skills throughout their Primary years.

Non-Negotiables 

The Science Curriculum

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) and Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6)

The content of Science teaching and learning is set out in the 2014 National Curriculum for primary schools in England. Within this, certain topics and areas are repeated across year groups, meaning that children may revisit a particular topic in each year of primary school but with increasing difficulty and with a different focus each time.

For example, the area of animals, including humans is examined in every single year group, with a very clear progression of knowledge and understanding over the six years:
In Year 1 this involves: looking at the human body and labelling simple body parts such as; head, eyes, ears etc, recognising animal groups and sorting these animals.
By Year 6, this will have developed into knowing the internal structure of the human body in relation to circulation, classifying living things based on more complex characteristics and exploring scientific research into this classification.

The more detailed content for each year group is as follows:

Primary Science National Curriculum

Scientific Vocabulary

Marking

All work is marked in green pen. We use the symbols 'S' and 'I' within our marking to show if the work has been supported or completed independently . Work is marked in relation to the Learning Objective at the top of the completed piece of work. Children are given the opportunity to respond to their marking in Purple Pen and any feedback that can't be read by the child is discussed and shared with them so that it can be acted on.

Assessment

As a School we follow the 'Rising Stars' scheme for assessments. Assessments take place at the start of each unit and at the end of each unit. We are then able to compare the progress made for each child within the topic and the term. Children also complete mindmaps at the start of the unit of work to show what they already know and what they want to find out. This enables learning to be tailored to the children's interests. The mindmap is reviewed again at the end of the unit. 

As of January 2022, we are trialing the TAPs focused assessments and plans, which can be accessed below: 

Monitoring

Monitoring is completed on a regular basis by the Science coordinators. We use a variety of ways to monitor the teaching and learning of Science within Victoria Community School.  These include:

-Book monitoring

-Planning monitoring

-Pupil voice questionnaires

-Staff questionnaires

The two Science coordinators meet regularly to ensure consistency within Science across the two sites. We also meet regularly with other Schools within the area to compare Science teaching and learning and to keep up to date with important updates and initiatives. 

Science Week 2022- 'Growth' - March 14th-18th 2022

Coming soon...

We are excited about this years Science Week theme, Growth. 

Growth is all around us- It is part of people, plants, animals, materials, countries and other things in everyday life. 

During Science Week, we will take part in a variety of activities linking to Growth and other subjects across the curriculum. We will also be having some exciting workshops from 'Sublime Science'. Science Week will finish on Friday 18th March with a whole School theme about Environmental Issues, with a particular focus on Recycling. 

Here are the British Science Week themed packs for you to enjoy looking at:

Watch this space to find out more about the future fun learning activities that we have planned. Look out for some photographs of children enjoying their learning...

Science Week 2021- 'Innovating for the future'

We all really enjoyed our Science week. We had a whole School focus on the book 'The Most Magnificent Thing'. This linked well with the theme of inventors within Science. The Teachers also planned all of our lessons around this book. We were able to cover lots of different subjects through Cross Curricular learning. 

Enjoy watching the story...

We had a whole School competition to design and create an invention. We had so many wonderful entries but the winners were as follows:

Nursery/Reception: Faiz from Reception

Year 1/2 :Pria from Y2

Year 3/4: Zarnab from Y4

Year 5/6: Anaya from Y5

SLC: Kody

Congratulations!

Here is some of the work that was completed during the Science Week.

We all had to create a 'Balloon Racer' and investigate the different Variables to help make it travel further. 

We learnt more about the House Teams within School and the background behind these famous people.

Kingsley

Livingstone

Brunel

Edison

For example, we learnt that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.

Wallace and Grommit are some other well known fictional inventors.

Home/School links

A positive primary science experience is also key to encouraging future generations to not only study this at secondary school, but also potentially to follow it as a career.

How can I support my child in Science?

Be interested

Talk to your child and your child's class teacher about your child's termly topics. These can be found above on the 'curriculum overview'. 

Enjoy having the exciting conversations about what your child is learning. 

Take a trip

Why not take a trip to a science museum, a zoo or an aquarium? These don’t necessarily need to be completely related to what they are learning about at school. Any visit can help their curiosity and engagement with science generally.

Get hands-on

Look up fun, practical science experiments you can do at home with everyday objects.

For example:

• Ask ‘What happens when you mix food colouring in milk?’ Then add washing up liquid and watch what happens.
• Why not try making your own mini exploding volcano? Just add bicarbonate of soda, food colouring, washing up liquid and vinegar. Then stand back and watch the eruption!
• Cooking is also a great opportunity to mix ingredients, add heat and examine changing states.
• Try exploring changing states with ice and water to begin to see those changes that can be reversed and those that can’t.
• A real favourite would have to be ‘gloop’ — use water and cornflour (add food colouring too if needed) to explore solids and liquids. Just be prepared to get messy!
• Of course, there are also some wonderful science kits available to buy to push your scientists further – making crystals, rockets and even bouncy balls.

Anything where they can be hands-on and see the science happen in front of their eyes is guaranteed to be get them interested.

Games and Home Learning

National Geographic Kids | (natgeokids.com)

London Zoo webcam | ZSL

Live Animal Webcams | Paignton Zoo

ASE Coronavirus Hub: Primary Remote Learning Resources | www.ase.org.uk

Home learning support for families | STEM 

Homepage - British Science Week

Tree Tools for Schools – Woodland Trust

Other good links...