At Gedney Church End Primary Academy, we believe that Science helps children to understand, question and explore the world around them. We want children to be curious about how and why things happen and to develop the scientific knowledge, vocabulary and enquiry skills they need to investigate their ideas and explain what they discover.

Through our Science curriculum, children develop an increasingly connected understanding of living things, the human body, plants, materials, physical processes and the Earth and beyond. We want every child to see themselves as a scientist and develop the confidence to ask questions, investigate and use evidence to deepen their understanding.

Our Curriculum

Scientific learning begins in EYFS, where children develop curiosity about the natural world through observation, first-hand exploration, discussion and practical experiences. Children explore materials, seasonal change, plants, living things and animals, including humans. They are encouraged to notice similarities, differences, patterns and change and to talk about what they observe.

Our Science curriculum is carefully planned so that children's scientific knowledge builds, connects and deepens from EYFS to Year 6. Important ideas are revisited in increasingly complex contexts, enabling children to draw upon what they already know when encountering new scientific concepts.

In KS1, children establish important foundations through learning about plants, animals including humans, living things and their habitats, materials, seasonal change and electricity. They learn to identify, name, describe, compare and classify, while beginning to investigate how and why things happen.

As children move into LKS2, their understanding develops through increasingly complex learning about light, forces and magnetism, animals including humans, habitats, plants, sound, rocks and soils, electricity and states of matter. Children explore relationships between scientific ideas, including how bodies function, how forces affect movement, how sound and light behave and how materials and substances can change.

In UKS2, children draw upon these foundations to understand increasingly sophisticated concepts including Earth and space, light, classification, human development and circulation, properties and changes of materials, electricity, reproduction, evolution and inheritance, and forces. Children make connections with earlier learning while developing increasingly detailed explanations of scientific processes and relationships.

Thinking and Working Scientifically

We want children to do more than remember scientific facts. They are encouraged to ask questions, make observations, investigate, compare, classify, identify patterns and use evidence to develop explanations.

Practical experiences provide opportunities for children to explore scientific ideas and test their understanding. As children progress through the academy, they encounter increasingly challenging investigations, such as testing material properties, exploring how conditions affect plant growth, building electrical circuits and investigating conductivity, shadows, forces and changes of state.

Children are encouraged to use increasingly precise scientific vocabulary when discussing their ideas, describing observations and explaining what they have learned. They learn that scientific understanding develops through careful observation, questioning, investigation and the use of evidence.

Building and Connecting Knowledge

Our curriculum enables children to revisit important scientific ideas so that new learning builds upon secure foundations. For example, children's early learning about animals and their bodies develops into understanding skeletons, muscles and nutrition, before progressing to human development and the circulatory system. Learning about materials similarly progresses from identifying and comparing their properties towards understanding states of matter and, eventually, dissolving, separation and reversible and irreversible changes.

This cumulative approach helps children to remember important knowledge, recognise connections between scientific ideas and use previous learning to make sense of increasingly complex concepts.

Science in the Wider World

We want children to recognise that Science extends far beyond the classroom. Their learning helps them to understand their own bodies and health, living things and environments, materials and energy, the forces acting around them and the wider universe.

As children progress, they also encounter examples of how scientific understanding has developed, including discoveries relating to electricity and research into the human body. Through topics including habitats, evolution and inheritance, climate and the natural environment, children are encouraged to recognise the importance of scientific understanding in making sense of our changing world.

Science and Our SPARK Values

Our SPARK values are naturally reflected throughout Science. Children develop Self-belief by asking questions and sharing their ideas, Perseverance when investigations do not produce the results they initially expect, and Aspiration through discovering the possibilities that scientific knowledge and thinking can offer.

Respect and Kindness are developed through working collaboratively, listening to the ideas of others and considering our responsibilities towards living things, people and the environment.

Our Ambition for Every Child

Ultimately, we want children to leave Gedney Church End as curious, knowledgeable and confident young scientists. We want them to possess secure scientific knowledge, make connections between what they have learned and use scientific vocabulary to communicate their understanding clearly.

Most importantly, we want children to retain their natural curiosity about the world and have the confidence to question, investigate, use evidence and explain, providing strong foundations for the next stage of their scientific education.