Curriculum Aims

At Gade Valley Primary School we believe that a high quality collaborative and practical science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of early physics (e.g. forces) chemistry (e.g. reversible and irreversible change) and biology (e.g. growing plants).  We intend to provide all pupils with a broad and balanced Science curriculum.

Gade Valley strive to:

• Prepare our pupils for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world today and in the future.

• Help our pupils acquire a growing understanding of the nature, processes and methods of scientific ideas using practical activities where ever possibly.
• Help develop and extend our pupils' scientific concept of their world.
• Build on our pupils' natural curiosity and developing a scientific approach to problems.
• Encourage the use of our CHAMP skills when developing the skills of investigation – including: observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating.
• Develop the use of scientific language when recording.
• Make links between science and other subjects through cross curricular work.

How We Teach Science

At Gade Valley Primary School we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Science is consistently taught as discrete lessons for up to 2 hours per week. Planning for science ensures that the school gives full coverage of ‘The National Curriculum programmes of study for Science 2014’.  In Early Years, busy-fingers and active learning sessions cover many aspects relating to ‘understanding the world’ in the early learning goals.   Herts for Learning Science maps are used to guide planning and coverage for each year group. At the beginning of each unit, teachers ensure that children start by recapping their prior knowledge of the topic and thinking about what new learning they would like to undertake.  Throughout each unit, the pupils are encouraged to work collaboratively and scientifically, using a range of practical resources such as creating their own circuits to demonstrate their understanding of how electricity works.  Pupils will also have opportunities to explore their outdoor environment and locality to further develop their scientific skills such as questioning, predicting, hypothesising and making conclusions.  All Science lessons include the ‘Gade Valley Principles of Teaching and Learning’, which are a set of non-negotiables for each lesson.  For example, all pupils will be challenged and display good learning behaviours.  Assessment for learning strategies are used to help pupils gain confidence about what they are expected to learn and inform teachers about which children have a secure understanding and where additional support may be required.  

Key Developments and Information for 2024/25

Up to September 2024, the following measurable impact includes:

• In 2023/24 the majority of pupils achieved age related expectations, with a small minority achieving greater depth.
• Children were given the opportunity to work collaboratively in small groups and the freedom to record their work in floor books making their own decisions about how to show their developing knowledge in creative ways.
• Subject Leader scrutinised floor books in each year group to ensure regular lessons are taking place. There was an good variety of recording including practical tasks and outdoor learning where appropriate.  There was also some evidence of teachers giving verbal feedback throughout lessons and offering activities to extend learning to in all year groups.
• Teachers give verbal feedback during lessons, highlight spelling errors of scientific vocabulary.
• Subject Leader will continued attending meetings half termly with subject leaders from local schools to share creative ideas, share resources.
• GOAL Days will continue to be used to develop scientific enquiry skills through outdoor activities linked to curriculum aims.