At Lyndhurst, we believe that planning and delivering an exciting Science curriculum to achieve the National Curriculum objectives, helps to develop children’s curiosity and motivates them to want to learn and improve their understanding of the world around them.

Science at Lyndhurst is taught using the Switched On Science scheme from Rising Stars. Certain topics and areas are repeated across year groups, meaning that children may revisit a particular topic in each year of primary school but with increasing difficulty and with a different focus each time. We encourage the children to ask, as well as answer, scientific questions. They have the opportunity to use a variety of data, such as statistics, graphs, pictures, and photographs.

Wherever possible, we involve the pupils in practical activities as these increase enthusiasm and motivation and provide first-hand experience. In these sessions, children have the opportunity to test hypotheses and take part in full scientific enquiries, involving the concept of fair testing. This is in line with ‘working scientifically’ from the NC objectives. These sessions focus on the skills the children need to become accurate, careful and confident practical scientists. Children are expected to master certain skills in each year group and there is a very clear progression of these set out for each year group to refer to.

In order to enrich our Science curriculum even further, an exciting whole-school Science Week is planned annually which aims to deliver fun, informative and cross curricular sessions based on the theme for that year. Science Week encompasses a variety of scientific elements from physics to biology from Space to the Human Body. This week successfully enthuses and engages the children (and adults alike!) and enhances their love for science; it is a particularly inspiring week of the academic year!

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Experiment! 

Any chance you have of unpicking how things work is great as it develops a sense of curiosity. We are so used to purchasing things that are already produced we often do not understand how things work. Taking apart old, broken items helps close that gap as does talking about the raw materials and processes of end-products. If you don't know the answer to questions, look them up together (BBC bitesize is a great resource).