Curriculum Leaders

Mrs A Gregory

Curriculum

Science is the means through which we understand the world around us, it generates solutions for everyday life. The HMS science curriculum seeks to enable pupils to understand the contributions science has made to our society but to also equip them skills such as enquiry, objectivity, and critical thinking and to inspire our pupils as the next generation of scientists.  

Our aim in science, is to deliver an engaging and challenging curriculum that promotes teaching for understanding and retention. The sequence of learning throughout each key stage is designed so that pupils can build on their knowledge from previous stages, revisiting and building on key concepts in each area of the curriculum.  

Pupils in each year group will be given regular opportunities to work as scientists, through carrying out a range of different types of scientific enquiry. Working scientifically not only supports and strengthens pupil’s understanding of the concepts they learn about but also helps pupils to develop practical skills and scientific attitudes such as working objectively and using evidence to support their ideas, that will prepare them for key stage four and beyond. 

The HMS science curriculum is based around the theme of ‘Big Ideas’ in science, across Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 there are ten broad areas of substantive knowledge or Big Ideas that pupils will learn. These are: Forces, Electromagnetism, Waves, Matter, Reactions, Earth, Organisms (Animals including humans), Ecosystems (living things and their habitats) and Genes (reproduction and inheritance).  

It is easier for a pupil to develop an understanding of a big idea and recall essential knowledge, if there are opportunities for repeated interactions with the concepts within that idea. Therefore, pupils will study topics related to these ideas which build on complexity throughout the key stages. From simpler more concrete topics such as Properties of Materials to more abstract ones such as Particles or Atoms and Elements. This spiral design to the curriculum seeks to ensure that all pupils have a secure knowledge of the concepts within each big idea. 

Procedural knowledge or ‘working scientifically’ is taught through and is clearly related to the substantive content of the HMS science curriculum. Working scientifically skills can be divided into the areas of: Scientific Attitudes, Experimental Skills and Investigation, Analysis and Evaluation and Measurement. Pupils will have the opportunity to develop each area of their working scientifically skills throughout each stage of the HMS science curriculum. 

Year 5 Science

  • Living things and their habitats, including life cycles of a mammal, amphibian, insect and bird.
  • Animals, including humans, focusing on changes from birth to old age.
  • Properties of materials, separating mixtures including filtration, dissolving and evaporation
  • Changes of materials, including physical and chemical change and chemical reactions.
  • Earth and space, looking at the movement of the sun, earth and moon.
  • Forces, including gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction.

Year 6 Science

  • Living things and their habitats, including classifying micro-organisms, plants and animals.
  • Animals, including humans, focusing on the circulatory and digestive systems, diet and exercise
  • Evolution and inheritance, looking at fossils, reproduction and adaptation.
  • Light, looking closely at how it travels and how shadows are made.
  • Electricity, analysing the function of lamps, buzzers, cells and switches.

In Years 5 and 6, children will practise their scientific skills with depth and precision. When carrying out experiments they will:

  • understand what variables are and how to control them
  • take measurements from a range of equipment, understanding the need for repeated measures to increase accuracy
  • gather and record data using labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs
  • use test results to make further predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests
  • make conclusions on the test carried out, orally and in writing.

Year 7 Science

  • Cells and organisation
  • The skeletal and muscular systems
  • Reproduction
  • The particulate nature of matter
  • Atoms, elements, compounds and mixtures and separating mixtures
  • Balanced and unbalanced forces and speed
  • Light and sound
  • Signs of a chemical reaction and acids and alkalis
  • Relationships in an ecosystem
  • Energy stores and transfers

 Year 8 Science

  • Atoms, elements and compound (naming compounds and chemical formula)
  • Nutrition and digestion
  • Gas exchange systems
  • Health including drug and alcohol
  • Photosynthesis
  • Cellular respiration
  • The periodic table
  • Electromagnetism
  • Energy transfers in solids, liquids and gases
  • Contact forces and pressure
  • Earth’s atmosphere and climate change
  • The structure of the Earth and the rock cycle

HMS Long Term Curriculum​

You can view the long term curriculum plan below or download a PDF copy by clicking here.

Curriculum Policy

You can view the curriculum policy below or download it by clicking here. 

Assessment

Assessment in science is regular and continuous. In each year group, there is assessment every lesson, pupils’ understanding of previous learning is assessed through recap ‘do now’ tasks and regular check points and questioning though out the lesson.

Pupils complete regular pieces of assessed written work in their books such as ‘QWC’ questions and practical investigations each half term, which are then assessed by the teacher using success criteria based on age related expectations. Pupils in both key stages also complete a summative assessment each half term. Teachers use judgement from all areas of assessment to inform their next steps.

Personal Development

Health and wellbeing

The science curriculum has a strong focus on health and wellbeing – pupils learn about their own body and how it changes at various life stages. They learn about the impact of diet, drugs and alcohol on their health. They also learn about the world around them and the impact of human intervention on the planet such as climate change.

British Values

Pupils learn about the contribution of British scientists such as Isaac Newton, Joseph Swan and Mary Anning –  they learn to understand the importance of these scientists in a changing world.

Careers

Pupils take part in workshops delivered by agencies such as Newcastle University and STEM ambassadors. The focus on STEM learning features throughout the year and pupils understand the place of science in the wider world.

Staying safe

Staying safe is of major importance in science. Pupils are taught how to keep themselves safe in a science lab but also learn about risks associated with fire, electricity, drugs and alcohol. They understand how scientists maintain a safe working environment to undertake their work and replicate these practices in the lab.Developing character:

The science curriculum seeks to develop pupils’ skills of enquiry, to encourage them to ask questions and to seek evidence to form their judgements. Our pupils learn to think like scientists and to question and discover. When working in practical situations, pupils develop their resilience and problem solving, often while collaborating with peers.

Meaningful cultural experiences

Pupils have a rich curriculum experience in science through well-planned opportunities to deepen their learning by working with experts from the world of STEM. This includes opportunities to work with local universities in STEM workshops and through learning about careers in STEM.

Useful Links (External)

SEND

All learners with additional needs access a broad and rich classroom experience with a well-planned curriculum both within and beyond the classroom. Pupils with additional needs are enabled to achieve well by:

      • High quality planning, teaching and learning across the curriculum.
      • Adaptations made in teaching and learning to ensure all pupils succeed and learn well. 
      • Staff responding to learners’ needs and adapting teaching as a result. 
      • Teaching staff planning and delivering a wide range of high-quality interventions and support sessions. 
      • High-quality ‘Pupil Profiles’ which ensure staff know each child as an individual, including how to support their learning. 
      • Where appropriate, an ‘Individual Education Plan’ with bespoke and individualised targets is implemented, and regularly reviewed. 
      • For learners with an ‘Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)’, a wide range of individualised targets and support strategies are implemented in a multi-agency approach. 
      • Coordinating our ambitious support in school alongside a multi-agency approach to ensure that all pupils achieve their full potential. 

As part of our implementation model – the ’10 Elements of Great Teaching’ – our teaching and support staff will enable pupils with additional needs to thrive by: 

      • Planning well-sequenced lessons which build progressively in small steps. 
      • Implementing the school’s lesson design principles so that teachers gradually handover the learning through guided and independent practice. 
      • Maintaining a calm, focused, inclusive and positive environment for learning in all classrooms. 
      • Implementing a wide range of strategies to empower pupils to remember more over time and to check that this is the case. 
      • Using metacognitive strategies to encourage self-regulation and to plan, monitor and evaluate learning. 
      • Delivering expectations and instructions clearly in small steps. 
      • Teaching subject-specific vocabulary (tier 3), alongside tier 2 vocabulary, and ensuring that it is used and retained. 
      • Using a wide range of teaching resources and materials to support all learners including visual and audio resources. 
      • Using high-quality modelling in lessons through the ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach. 
      • Using a wide range of scaffolds to support learning including writing frames, planning structures, word processing. 
      • Providing high-quality worked examples which narrate the learning, steps and processes so that pupils develop their independence of learning. 
      • Using organisers such as ‘Knowledge Organisers’, diagrams, planning structures and writing frames to support pupils’ learning. 
      • Allowing pupils to record their ideas in a range of ways including, where necessary, by using online resources and visual/audio support. 
      • Providing word lists/vocabulary banks to support pupils’ access to learning. 
      • Using sentence stems to promote positive talk and discussion. 
      • Using flexible groupings in the classroom so that pupils can learn alongside and from each other. 
      • Implementing dyslexia-friendly approach to reading and writing tasks. 
      • Modelling thinking out loud strategies across the curriculum. 
      • Using a wide range of technologies including online resources, voice recording and visualisers to model worked examples.