Science

At Harris Primary Academy Orpington, science is taught through observing, investigating, experimenting, questioning and exploring. Children's scientific skills are developed through a variety of knowledge and enquiry-based lessons. Each science topic is taken from the new National Curriculum and taught alongside our Harris Federation curriculum so that each science unit concludes with an enquiry linked to the topic. At Harris Primary Orpington, we want our children to be involved in an engaging curriculum that will build, develop and promote their knowledge. Science is about improving on the investigative and experimenting skills necessary to challenge ideas and theories. Children need to be armed with the knowledge on which to build; the knowledge is a platform to springboard their own point of inquiry. We want our pupils not merely to be able to repeat facts and memorised knowledge. We want them to be driven on to question, ‘What next...?’ or ‘What if...?’ Science is also a practical way of finding reliable answers to questions we may ask about the world around us through experimental testing of ideas. Science in our school is about developing children’s ideas through their own curiosity and questioning.

The order in which we have chosen to teach the units in science has been agreed in conjunction with our science specialists working in the HF secondary schools. They have used their subject specific expertise to outline a suggested progression of learning. For example, it is important children know the properties of materials before moving on the learn about changes in materials. Likewise, learning about animals and plants before habitats allows children to build on prior knowledge. Some units have been placed in particular half terms due to seasonality, plants for example- learning about plants in the spring and summer terms allows children to grow their own plants. The plants will grow more quickly in the warmer weather, meaning experiments can produce meaningful results. In each science lesson we aim to cover scientific knowledge, the big science concepts, scientific thinking (how scientists find answers) and working scientifically.

 

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Year 6
Plants + Seasons	Plants	Light	Electricity	Space	Living things + Habitats
Plants + Seasons	Plants	Light	Electricity	Space	Living things + Habitats
Animals including humans	Animals including humans	Animals including humans	Animals including humans	Animals including humans	Animals including humans
Animals including humans	Animals including humans	Plants	Living things + Habitats	Living things + Habitats	Animals including humans
Plants	Plants	Rocks	States of Matter	Forces	Light
Materials	Materials	Forces and Magnets	Sound	Materials	Evolution and Inheritance