At Tibshelf Infant and Nursery school, we strive to provide a high quality and engaging science curriculum which encourages and enables our children to explore and discover the world around them, sparking their curiosity so that they develop a deeper understanding of our world and beyond.
We strive to deliver lessons founded on scientific enquiry, enriched with practical experiences to spark curiosity and understanding through thoughtful questioning. Promoting vital transferable skills such as observation, communication, and teamwork is essential for nurturing the whole child as a lifelong learner. We seek to construct lessons that support prior knowledge, prompt deeper understanding, and are firmly grounded in scientific vocabulary.
In short, we aim to nurture a future generation of independent scientific thinkers and instil a passion for learning about the world around us that will continue to grow and enable children to think scientifically about some of the challenges we may face in the future.
The 2014 National Curriculum for Science aims to ensure that all children:
- 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
- are equipped with the scientific skills required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. We understand that it is important for lessons to have a skills-based focus, and that the knowledge can be taught through this.
At Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School, we encourage children to be inquisitive throughout their time at the school and beyond. The Science curriculum fosters a healthy curiosity in children about our universe and promotes respect for the living and non-living. We believe science encompasses the acquisition of knowledge, concepts, skills and positive attitudes. Throughout the programmes of study, the children will acquire and develop the key knowledge that has been identified within each unit and across each year group, as well as the application of scientific skills. Guided by the national curriculum, each year group’s key knowledge aligns with NC expectations, with key skills mapped for progress across the school. Designed to provide children with essential scientific knowledge through practical activities, the curriculum includes using tools, experimenting, developing arguments, and explaining ideas confidently. Our science programme considers the school’s unique setting, providing access to scientific places as part of our commitment to outdoor education. Cross-curricular opportunities are identified, mapped, and planned, primarily through Forest School sessions, to ensure meaningful connections. We encourage children to be curious about their world, nurturing a love of science through a whole-school ethos and a diverse curriculum.
At Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School we implement the Developing Experts scheme to craft our lesson plans, ensuring that every child engages with and retains knowledge throughout their studies. In each session, children encounter key facts and information presented through a variety of methods. Additionally, each lesson introduces Rocket Words, which are important terms and definitions emphasised multiple times—at the lesson’s beginning, quizzed on by the end, and reviewed in the next class. Our lessons encompass various ‘Working Scientifically Skills’ and ‘Scientific Enquiry’ types, allowing children to develop a broad array of abilities across the science curriculum. In Year 2 each child has an individual science book and in Year 1 and floor books captures collective and personal scientific reflections. These floor books are updated and shared weekly, reinforcing the idea that science is ever-present, not confined to scheduled lessons. When suitable, children enjoy the added benefit of going outside to gain hands-on learning experiences and school-wide events, such as Science Week.
Our aim of cultivating a positive attitude towards science, by nurturing the expectation for all pupils to achieve high standards remains at the forefront of our curriculum and delivery.
Within Science, we strive to instil an appreciation and enjoyment of Science to enrich the children’s learning experience. Our Science curriculum is high quality and is planned to demonstrate progression.
We measure the impact of our curriculum in the following ways –
- Pupil discussions about their work and what they have learnt.
- Assessment based and formed using formative strategies (Use of concept maps, verbal/written outcomes and reflection tasks).
- ‘Book looks’ – by the subject leader in order to monitor the content of teaching and quality of work
- Children in the EYFS are formally assessed against Development Matters, within Understanding of the world. At the end of the EYFS pupils are assessed against the ELG’s.
Children at Tibshelf Infant and Nursery School have opportunities to:
- develop a passion for science, inspiring interest in continued study and careers
- retain relevant scientific knowledge within real-life situations
- explore and question ideas, reflecting on knowledge gained
- effectively communicate their understanding of scientific concepts while reasoning with enriched scientific language
- excel in mathematical skills by organising, recording, and interpreting results
- participate in collaborative and hands-on investigations and experiments
- meet age-related expectations in Science by the time they complete their cohort year.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z7nygk7
Hosts a wealth of games and activities split into age and topic sections so it’s easy to find one that relates to your child’s learning at school.
https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html
NASA Kids’ Club provides a plethora of space focused games, videos, images and activities to introduce and help kids learn about the world of space.
https://www.brainpop.com/science/seeall
BrainPOP offers educational animated videos and lessons covering different science topics. Each featured science topic comes with illustrative videos, quizzes, and accompanying activities.
Nat Geo Kids enables science lovers to explore the world of science through a collection of apps, games, magazines, toys, videos, and many other materials
https://www.youtube.com/user/maddiemoate/featured
The popular children’s television presenter has her own YouTube channel and is delivering a daily science lesson “Let’s Go Live with Maddie & Greg”. Her channel has a wealth of educational videos.
https://www.rigb.org/learning/activities-and-resources?type=28
A series of short films, activities and resources making it fun, easy & cheap to do science experiments at home with children.
https://www.paigntonzoo.org.uk/wild-learning/resources/
A collection of downloadable resources to inspire and support science learning at school and home.
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/things-to-do/children-and-families
10 nature activities for children to do at home.
https://www.stem.org.uk/primary/resources/collections/home-learning-support
Primary science, maths, computing and DT resources and activities to support home learning.
https://learning.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/learning-resources
Lots of learning resources including activities, games and videos.
Primary science activities, games & videos.
https://pstt.org.uk/resources/science-fun-at-home
Fun science activities to try at home.
https://www.science-sparks.com
Science Experiments for Kids.
Sublime Science
101 fun science experiments you can do at home with ‘stuff’ you’ve already got.
Things to do
Encourage your children to be questioners (not always easy we know) these inquisitive instincts are vital to all areas of science.
Make observations both the natural world and the home environment is full of countless things to observe, from the changing of the seasons, the sound that fizzy pop bottle makes when you open to why does the TV remote not seem to work if I stand in the way? All these and countless more are opportunities to observe and do some real-world science and it can really help children appreciate science is all round us not just in the classroom.