“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes,

but they are mistakes which it is useful to make,

because they lead little by little to the truth.”

Jules Verne

At HCA, we believe it is important that children are given the opportunity to explore and understand the world in which they live. Children are naturally fascinated by everything around them and Science makes a valuable contribution to their understanding. We help our children to develop their ideas in different ways; by talking together, children can be encouraged to explore and observe so that they can group objects and events and look for similarities and differences. We encourage the children to approach investigation with independence, resilience and enjoyment, so as they move through school, our children feel happy to face an investigation confidently and full of enthusiasm. Through science, pupils at HCA will continue to deepen their respect, care and appreciation for the natural world and all its phenomena.

To ensure the children experience high quality Science lessons, we use Unity’s two-year rolling programme of long-term plans detailing the coverage of each subject in KS1, LKS2 and UKS2. The scheme is knowledge-rich and includes impactful curriculum resources with long term teaching sequences that are interleaved and planned around the retrieval of prior knowledge from each year group. The progression skills are mapped out for each year group for Years 1 to 6. This ensues planning addresses the national curriculum content, but also shows progression of skills across the school.

Science is the investigation of the physical, chemical and biological aspects of the world, which encompasses every aspect of our lives and where possible, we will relate it to all areas of the curriculum. This provides more contextual and meaningful learning experiences, for example -

• English – opportunities to write for varied purposes, with the characteristics of different kinds of writing. For example, chronological reports and recounts.
• Mathematics – developing skills in data handling and measurements.
• Art – understanding of materials and their properties
• Geography – exploring physical processes
• History – researching Scientists and their discoveries
•  IT – data handling and research
• PSHE – health and safety education

At HCA, we look to integrate practical Science whenever possible, making learning engaging and fun. Children should be encouraged to predict, hypothesise, collect evidence, analyse and question the results they gather and evaluate what they have learnt.