At Irlam Endowed Primary School, we encourage children to be inquisitive throughout their time at the school and beyond.

Please find our school science policy below. This will show you how our 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.

At Irlam Endowed Primary School, we recognise the importance of a child’s education from Nursery to Year 6.

Planning in EYFS

The EYFS framework is organised across seven areas of learning. The skills taught across EYFS feed into national curriculum subjects.

The statements from the 2020 Development Matters are prerequisite skills for science within the national curriculum. The list below outlines the most relevant statements taken from the Early Learning Goals in the EYFS statutory framework and the Development Matters age ranges for Three and Four-Year-Olds and Reception to match the programme of study for science.

The most relevant statements for science are taken from the following areas of learning:

• Communication and Language
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
• Understanding the World

Communication and Language

By the end of their Nursery experience children may be able to:

• Understand ‘why’ questions, like: “Why do you think the caterpillar got so fat?”

By the end of their Reception experience children may be able to:

• Learn new vocabulary
• Ask questions to find out more and to check what has been said to them.
• Articulate their ideas and thoughts in well-formed
• Describe events in some
• Use talk to help work out problems and organise thinking and activities, and to explain how things work and why they might happen.
• Use new vocabulary in different
•  

Listening, Attention and Understanding

• Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

By the end of their Nursery experience children may be able to:

• Make healthy choices about food, drink, activity and tooth brushing.

By the end of their Reception experience children may be able to:

• Know and talk about the different factors that support their overall health and wellbeing:
  • regular physical activity
  • healthy eating
  • tooth brushing
  • sensible amounts of ‘screen time’
  • having a good sleep routine being a safe pedestrian

Managing Self

• Manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs, including dressing, going to the toilet and understanding the importance of healthy food choices.

Understanding the World

By the end of their Nursery experience children may be able to:

• Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials.
• Explore collections of materials with similar and/or different properties.
• Talk about what they see, using a wide vocabulary.
• Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family’s history.
• Explore how things work.
• Plant seeds and care for growing plants.
• Understand the key features of the life cycle of a plant and an animal.
• Begin to understand the need to respect and care for the natural environment and all living things.
• Explore and talk about different forces they can feel.
• Talk about the differences between materials and changes they notice.

By the end of their Reception experience children may be able to:

• Explore the natural world around them.
• Describe what they see, hear and feel while they are outside.
• Recognise some environments that are different to the one in which they live.
• Understand the effect of changing seasons on the natural world around them.

The Natural World

• Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants.
• Know some similarities and differences between the natural world around them and contrasting environments, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
• Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.

Planning in Years 1 to 6

We understand that it is important for lessons to have a knowledge based focus, and that the scientific skills can be taught through this. We use the DFES Science scheme of work and the Focus Science scheme of work inform teacher’s planning to create Science Knowledge Mats. The key knowledge and skills of each science topic is also informed by the Association of Science Education’s ‘Planning Matrices’. Teachers also have access to the Lancashire Inspiring Science resources.  

Over a year, six science topic units are taught in Years 1-6 with a knowledge based approach. Working Scientifically skills are embedded into lessons to ensure these skills are being developed throughout the children’s school career.

Please find below the six Science Knowledge mats for Years 1-6. 

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

At Irlam Endowed Primary School, we promote that science has a WOW FACTOR. The following websites offer a range of resources to promote a sense of awe and wonder and support the teaching and learning of science at school and at home.

USEFUL WEBSITES INCLUDE:

Blog for How to STEM and Emily Hunt`s 15-Minute STEM

Kitchen Science - Guest Post by Dr Jo Science Solutions (theworldistheirclassroom.blogspot.com)

Science Experiments for Kids - Science Sparks (science-sparks.com)

Lockdown science (whizzpopbang.com)