Teaching Science at Templars Primary School

At Templars Primary School, our tailor-made, knowledge-rich Science curriculum has been written with belonging at its core. Pupils are encouraged to question and explore the world around them and how it works, whilst investigating their place in the world and what contributions they can make to knowledge and understanding, both as part of a local community and on a global level!

Beginning in the Early Years, pupils are encouraged to explore their surroundings in school and our local area – Tile Hill – using their learning through continuous provision to begin to observe changes in the environment and in the resources they have available around them. They are also encouraged to begin considering why things happen and to ask questions about what they notice to begin to further their understanding of the world.

Across KS1 and KS2, the working scientifically skills are embedded across all areas of scientific enquiry. As we have aimed to make the individual Science topics knowledge and vocabulary-rich, we felt that the skills which enable all children to access this learning needed to be explicitly taught by all year groups at the start of the year. This provides our children with the skills-base to know how to observe, test, classify, research and record prior to moving forward to more knowledge-based topic learning. This grounding in scientific skills enables our pupils to approach their learning with the confidence and assurance needed to question, investigate and reflect more independently.

Throughout KS1, pupils continue to explore and investigate our school environment and the local area through our work on habitats and plants, while linking learning on materials science and physics with our historical and geographical theme topics of Fire, Fire and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Overlapping learning between Science and other subjects helps to reinforce the key role that Science plays within the world and how far-reaching and inclusive scientific enquiry can be, whilst aiming to enhance a sense of wonder and curiosity in our pupils.

In KS2, our curriculum broadens to encompass scientific understanding beyond our school environment and local area, to help our pupils appreciate the global scale of scientific learning and enquiry and where they fit within it. For example, children are encouraged to compare local habitats with international ones, to understand how our local area differs from others due to changes in the water and rock cycles, to trace the evolution and adaptation of our species and others through time and to contemplate our role and place in the Universe.

Across both KS1 and KS2, we aim to provide a sense of context for our children’s understanding of Science, through the inclusion on our curriculum of two Key Scientists for every topic that the children study. The inclusion of these historical and contemporary scientists from a range of diverse backgrounds – including local scientists – aims to help our children recognise how Science in the past has impacted on our modern lives and scientific knowledge, including the implications that new scientific discoveries have had socially and culturally. while understanding that Science investigation is a continuously evolving field with new discoveries and applications being found every year.

We hope that this additional insight into modern scientific practices will increase our children’s understanding that Science investigation is a continuously evolving field with new discoveries and applications being found every year. We aim to encourage Templars’ children to think of themselves as scientists with contributions to make to the field through their learning and to increase awareness of the range of scientific roles academically and through employment to help inspire and raise their future aspirations.

We envision that with a secure knowledge of our Science curriculum, pupils will develop transferrable skills of enquiry and investigation which can be applied to other subjects and to daily life. Our curriculum’s flexibility reflects the continually progressive nature of scientific development, while aiming to ground our pupils’ understanding of the subject through our key ‘Big Ideas’ in physics, biology, chemistry and Earth sciences.

We want Templars’ pupils to know that they have a place where they belong, both on a small scale, within our school community, and on a much larger one, while understanding that through Science they also have the ability to enquire and discover more about the world and themselves, thus enriching their lives.

Natalie Pryor (Science Co-ordinator)