We want our school community to SHINE as scientists .- investigate the world around them.

“Science has changed our lives and is vital to the worlds future prosperity and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of Science,”

At Cookham Rise we have spent a great deal of time developing a curriculum that is both relevant and exciting for the children, as well as being in line with the National Curriculum. We are passionate about what we teach and believe that all of our pupils should access a broad and balanced curriculum.

Intent

At Cookham Rise we engage and challenge our pupils, to encourage their understanding of how Science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, analyse causes and challenge findings. As Science understanding is constantly developing we teach the children to be open to these changes and foster and demonstrate the curiosity and excitement of all Science topics, creating a culture of awe!

“For young learners, science is just an extension of their everyday world… young children love to wonder, discover, and explore through play because they do it naturally, teachers are there to guide and increase the awe to learn”

All children at Cookham Rise are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including observations, planning and investigations, as well as being encouraged to question the world around them and become independent learners in exploring possible answers for their scientific based questions. With the use of Knowledge Organisers and specialist technical vocabulary for topics, key learning objectives, concepts and language is taught and built up, alongside effective questioning to communicate ideas is structured and encouraged. Concepts taught should be reinforced by focusing on the key features of scientific enquiry, so that pupils learn to use a variety of approaches to answer relevant scientific questions. 

In Science, we aim to provide a high quality education that provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics:

Our Science curriculum is divided into 4 main strands:

• Working Scientifically
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics

Implementation:

Cookham Rise teachers plan Science not as an isolated subject but always look for opportunities to breathe life into their topics from using cross-curricular links, to involving real life present day events happening around the world.

Lessons are carefully planned for to ensure curiosity, progression and depth of understanding. We plan lessons that enrich the children’s understanding of the topic they are studying, making sure there are hands-on opportunities to explore the concepts they study, giving real meaning to these processes and skills.

We use knowledge organisers to enhance our teaching and learning, they outlines knowledge (including vocabulary) that all children aim to master and help to increase working memory, which is appraised (formally and informally). Trips and Visit also enrich our teaching and enhance the learning experience.

Impact:

At Cookham Rise our Science Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate and allow good progression.

We track and assess our pupils, which allows us to ensure they make the best progress possible and it allows us to reflect and measure the impact of our teaching and learning.

• Children will work collaboratively and practically to investigate and experiment.
• Children will retain knowledge that is important to Science with a real life context.
• Children will be able to question ideas and reflect on knowledge.
• Children will be able to explain the process they have taken and be able to reason scientifically.
• Most children will achieve age related expectations in Science at the end of their cohort year.

Pupils leave Cookham Rise confident in the scientific skills they have learnt; we have fostered a positive learning environment where our pupils question the world they live in and are not scared to ask questions, we encourage them to be inquisitive and nurture their curiosities, they have researched notable Scientists that prepares them for KS3 ( Darwin / Linnaeus) and they are kept up to date with the latest science news.