Weston Village Primary SchoolScience
Science at Weston
At Weston Village Primary School, Science helps children make sense of the world around them.
We want pupils to be curious, knowledgeable and increasingly independent scientific thinkers. Children learn important scientific ideas about living things, materials, forces, light, sound, electricity, Earth and space, while also learning how scientific knowledge is developed through observation, investigation and evidence.
Our curriculum combines secure subject knowledge with practical enquiry so that children learn not only what we know, but also how we can find things out.
What Children Learn
Science is organised so that important ideas are introduced, revisited and developed as children move through school.
Children develop knowledge across the main areas of:
biology, including plants, animals, humans, habitats, life cycles, evolution and inheritance
chemistry, including materials, rocks, states of matter and changes of materials
physics, including forces, magnets, light, sound, electricity and Earth and space.
These areas are connected by recurring scientific ideas and vocabulary, allowing children to make links between new learning and what they already know.
For example, pupils move from exploring everyday materials in Key Stage 1 to investigating states of matter in Year 4 and reversible and irreversible changes in Year 5.
Working Scientifically
Scientific enquiry is taught through the science curriculum, rather than as a separate collection of skills.
Children learn different ways of answering scientific questions, including:
observing changes over time
identifying, classifying and grouping
looking for patterns
carrying out comparative and fair tests
researching using secondary sources.
They learn to ask questions, make predictions, observe carefully, measure and record information, identify patterns, draw conclusions and evaluate evidence.
The level of independence increases as children move through school. Younger pupils might make a simple prediction and carry out a straightforward test, while older pupils identify variables, plan investigations and evaluate the strength of their conclusions. The current Year 6 electricity unit, for example, expects pupils to identify variables and plan, carry out and evaluate a scientific enquiry.
Practical Science
Practical work is an important part of learning science at Weston.
Children investigate ideas directly wherever this helps them understand the underlying concept. This may include growing plants, observing seasonal change, comparing materials, exploring magnets, constructing circuits, investigating shadows or testing the effects of forces.
Practical activity is not an end in itself. Children are taught to connect what they observe with the scientific knowledge being developed.
For example, Year 3 pupils investigate friction and magnetism, while Year 5 pupils explore gravity, air resistance and water resistance and draw conclusions from their results.
Science in Reception
Science foundations begin in Reception through Understanding the World and purposeful exploration.
Children investigate themselves and their senses, seasonal change, everyday materials, magnets and forces, plants and life cycles, animals and habitats, and changes involving water.
Learning is practical and rooted in first-hand experience. Children observe, compare, sort, predict, test ideas and talk about what they notice.
This gives them the language, curiosity and early enquiry habits on which the Year 1 Science curriculum builds.
How Scientific Knowledge Develops
Children revisit important scientific ideas at increasing levels of sophistication.
In Key Stage 1, they build essential foundations by observing the natural world, naming and classifying living things and materials, noticing seasonal change and beginning to carry out simple investigations.
In Lower Key Stage 2, concepts become more demanding. Children investigate rocks, forces and magnets, light, electricity, sound, states of matter, digestion and classification.
In Upper Key Stage 2, pupils develop increasingly abstract scientific understanding through areas including properties and changes of materials, Earth and space, forces, human development, life cycles, classification, electricity, the circulatory system and evolution.
The aim is that pupils do not simply encounter a series of disconnected topics. They build a connected body of scientific knowledge that can be recalled and applied to increasingly complex questions.
Scientists and Scientific Discovery
Children also learn that scientific knowledge has developed through the work of people over time.
They encounter scientists and inventors and consider how discoveries and inventions have changed people's lives and our understanding of the world.
This includes learning about figures connected directly to particular areas of study. For example, Year 6 pupils encounter Carl Linnaeus through classification and Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace through evolution and inheritance.
This helps children understand science as a developing human endeavour rather than simply a fixed collection of facts.
Science and Our Environment
Understanding our relationship with the natural world is a deliberate thread through the Weston Science curriculum.
Children progressively explore:
caring for nature and reducing waste
habitats and biodiversity
protecting birds and other wildlife
sustainability and carbon footprints
the impact of pollution on oceans
climate change and ways people can reduce their environmental impact.
This learning develops scientific knowledge while also helping children understand how evidence can inform decisions about the world around them.
Vocabulary and Scientific Communication
Science has its own precise vocabulary, and children need to understand and use this language accurately.
Teachers explicitly introduce scientific terms and give pupils opportunities to hear, say, read and use them when explaining ideas and discussing evidence.
Our whole-school Words & Visuals routine supports this, particularly where new scientific concepts or vocabulary are abstract.
Children are increasingly expected to explain their thinking clearly, describe observations precisely and use evidence to support conclusions.
How We Teach Science
Our whole-school teaching routines are used in Science as they are across the curriculum.
I → We → You allows teachers to model new concepts and processes before children practise with support and then apply their understanding independently.
Scaffold → Fade means diagrams, vocabulary, prompts, practical resources or worked examples are used where useful and gradually removed as pupils become secure.
Retrieval, little and often helps children revisit important scientific vocabulary and knowledge so that new learning can connect to what they already know.
Words & Visuals supports understanding of new vocabulary, diagrams, processes and abstract scientific concepts.
This consistency helps all pupils access ambitious scientific learning while still allowing teachers to respond flexibly to individual need.
Inclusion in Science
Science is for every child.
Teachers anticipate barriers and adapt teaching so that pupils can participate in practical investigation, discussion and scientific thinking.
Support may include:
explicit vocabulary teaching
visual representations and diagrams
practical resources
chunking complex processes into manageable steps
structured recording
oral rehearsal
additional modelling or guided practice.
Adaptations are designed to give pupils access to the important scientific concept rather than unnecessarily reducing the ambition of the curriculum.
Assessment
Assessment takes place throughout science teaching.
Teachers use questioning, discussion, observations during practical work, pupils' explanations and written outcomes to identify what children understand and where misconceptions remain.
Retrieval activities help teachers check whether important prior knowledge has been remembered.
Assessment focuses on both pupils' scientific knowledge and their ability to use that knowledge when observing, explaining, investigating and drawing conclusions.
This information helps teachers decide what needs to be revisited, practised or developed next.
Our Science Curriculum
The document below shows the science children learn from Reception to Year 6: