Science

Welcome to our Science learning page!

The curriculum lead for Science is Miss Bamrah. If you have any ideas or queries relating to this area of the curriculum, please contact her by email: hbamrah@hogarth.essex.sch.uk

Science at Hogarth

Intent

At Hogarth Primary School, we are committed to creating 'Confident' life-long learners who will be equipped with the skills, knowledge and drive to positively contribute to an ever-evolving world.

We recognise the important role science plays in every aspect of daily life. We have therefore shaped a curriculum with the aim to foster engaged exploration, considered inquiry and reflective evaluation. Vitally, this is all based on the national curriculum.

All children and staff are encouraged to be analytical throughout their time at Hogarth school and beyond. Children develop a mastery of science through continual revisiting of prior-learning. This is with a clear vision to create growing 'confident' scientists with inquisitive critical-thinking skills.

Implementation

Teachers create a positive attitude to science learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation, that all children are capable of achieving high standards in science. Lessons are planned weekly and taught every week for two hours.

Planning involves teachers creating engaging lessons, often including high-quality resources and scientific questioning to aid understanding of conceptual knowledge.

Regular assessment is also undertaken to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all children keep up.

In addition, at Hogarth we measure the impact of the science curriculum through standards of work in books, monitoring of knowledge using our Rising Stars formative and summative assessment system, along with pupil discussions about their learning.

Scientific enquiry skills are embedded into lessons, to ensure these skills are being developed throughout the pupil’s school career – this is where new vocabulary, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), sentence structures and challenging concepts are introduced.

Additional methods include:

Investigating
Systematic observations
Use of a range of equipment
Building arguments / in-depth discussions
Recording and presenting findings confidently, whilst using scientific vocabulary

Teachers also find opportunities, to link children’s scientific understanding of their surroundings to our school’s weekly engaging forest school lessons.

Some of these methods include:

Seed planting
Bird watching
Foraging for insects and plants
Habitat understanding
Environmental discussion (i.e., climate change and exploration of rocks and soils)

Impact

The approach chosen for Hogarth Primary School aims to result in a fun, engaging and high-quality science education. This provides children with the foundation and knowledge required for understanding the world around us.

Our engagement with the local environment within and external to school, ensures that children learn through varied and first-hand experiences. Frequent, continuous and progressive learning outside of the classroom, through linked forest school sessions’ is embedded throughout our science curriculum.

Through various workshops, trips and interactions with experts, children develop the awareness that science has the ability to change our lives and landscape in which we live. Children also gain the understanding that science is a pivotal link to unlocking innovation, which is critical to the development of our planet’s future.

Hogarth provides children with exposure to a range of different scientists from various ethnic and diverse backgrounds. All with the objective of giving insight about possible scientific career paths to students. These interactions give a sense of empowerment to all children and allow them to feel they are all capable of achieving these professions.

Children at Hogarth Primary School confidently leave with a broad skill set and knowledge of the science curriculum, whilst being able to apply these skills successfully to future endeavours.