Science helps us to understand and make sense of the world around us. It is vital to our development as a society and for us to continue to succeed as a race. Without scientific developments, the world would be a very different place.

Children are naturally curious and want to understand and make sense of things. Science teaching should foster this curiosity and encourage children to explore and investigate their environment.

 

The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions. ~Claude Lévi-Strauss

 

Intent

At Mudeford Junior School, our science curriculum has been designed to create excited, engaged and curious learners who are keen to explore and question the world around them. We want our children to develop the confidence to take risks, be curious and feel inspired through purposeful application of skills in real-life contexts.

Through largely practical activities, our curriculum is designed to engage children’s interests from the start of every lesson. It has been planned to ensure that the children’s skills in each of the five areas of scientific enquiry are carefully developed and interwoven with the scientific knowledge. The children are continually challenged to ask ‘why’ and become increasingly confident in making decisions about how they can find answers to their questions. The curriculum provides opportunities for children to apply their knowledge to real life situations across a range of contexts, deepening and embedding their knowledge and understanding. We have high aspirations of all our children and careful consideration of prior learning, assessment and future learning is used to allow all our pupils to achieve their potential. Through regular group activities, our children develop the ability to work successfully in collaboration to achieve a shared goal.

In order to deliver a curriculum that is broad and balanced, biology, chemistry and physics objectives are taught every year. Working Scientifically runs through each unit of work and each of the five types of scientific enquiry are covered at least once each year. Where possible, the objectives are built upon every two years, in order to secure a deep understanding by the end of Key Stage 2. Our links with the local community support a curriculum that is relevant and personalised to the children of Mudeford, offering them the opportunities to explore and understand our biologically diverse and rich local area. Our studies of rocks and fossils with reference to and resources from our neighbouring Jurassic Coast is an example of this. We enjoy links with the Hengistbury Head Outdoor Education Centre, the New Forest Commission, Wessex Water and the RSPB. Our pupils also learn to recognise the application of science in the wider and global community through their learning of significant scientists and events.

By the end of their time at Mudeford Junior School, the children leave us equipped with a broad range of knowledge and skills that they are able to independently use and apply in the real world and that gives them a strong foundation to build upon in their future.

 

Below, are some links to websites which will help to reinforce some of the work your child covers in school. Just click on the relevant year group.