Science
From year one, science is taught in regular science lessons. In Key Stage Two it is taught in weekly science lessons and science days where children can spend extended periods of time investigating scientific ideas and concepts in a more focused way.
Key stage 1: Working scientifically
During years 1 and 2, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:
- Asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways.
- Observing closely, using simple equipment.
- Performing simple tests.
- Identifying and classifying.
- Using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions.
- Gathering and recording data to help in answering questions.
Year 1
Autumn Term 1 – Seasonal Changes
- Name the 4 seasons.
- Describe the type of weather for each season
- Comparing Autumn and Winter.
Autumn Term 2 – Materials (Chemistry)
- Know the name of the materials an object is made from.
- Know about the properties of everyday materials
- Grouping materials.
Spring Term 1- Animals and Humans (Biology)
- Know how to classify a range of animals by amphibian, reptile, mammal, fish and birds.
- Know and classify animals by what they eat (carnivore, herbivore and omnivore).
- Know how to sort by living and non-living things.
Spring Term 2- Human body and senses (Biology)
- Know the name of parts of the human body that can be seen.
Summer Term 1- Transport (Chemistry)
- Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made.
- Identify and name a variety of everyday materials e.g. wood.
- Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials.
- Compare and group materials..
Summer Term 2- Plants (Biology)
- Know and name a variety of common wild and garden plants.
- Know and name the petals, stem, leaves and root of a plant.
- Know and name the roots, trunk, branches and leaves of a tree.
Year 2
Autumn Term 1- All living things and their habitats. (biology)
Living things and their habitats
- Know how a specific habitat provides for the basic needs of things living there (plants and animals).
- Match living things to their habitat.
- Classify things by living, dead or never lived.
Autumn Term 2- Animals- including humans. (biology)
- Name some different sources of food for animals.
- Know about and explain a simple food chain.
Spring Term- Everyday materials (chemistry)
- Know how materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.
- Know why a material might or might not be used for a specific job.
Summer Term – Plant and seed growth (biology)
- Know and explain how seeds and bulbs grow into plants.
- Know what plants need in order to grow and stat healthy (water, light & suitable temperature).
Lower Key stage 2: Working scientifically
During years 3 and 4, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:
- Asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them.
- Setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests.
- Making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers.
- Gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions.
- Recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables.
- Reporting on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions.
- Using results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions.
- Identifying differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes.
- Using straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings.
Year 3
Autumn Term 1- “How is an ox like a human?” (Biology)
- Know about the importance of a nutritious, balanced diet.
- What is a carbohydrate. Fat, protein, dairy, fruit, vegetable.
- Know how nutrients, water and oxygen are transported within animals and humans.
- Know about the skeletal and muscular system of a human.
Autumn Term 2- “What forces do we use every day?” (Physics)
- Know about and describe how objects move on different surfaces.
- Know how a simple pulley works and use to on to lift an object.
- Know how some forces require contact and some do not, giving examples.
- Know about and explain how magnets attract and repel Predict whether magnets will attract or repel and give a reason.
Spring Term – “What do rocks tell us about the way the Earth was formed?” (Chemistry)
- Compare and group rocks based on their appearance and physical properties, giving reasons.
- Know how soil is made and how fossils are formed.
- Know about and explain the difference between sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rock.
Summer Term 1- “How far can you throw your shadow?” (Physics)
- Know that dark is the absence of light.
- Know that light is needed in order to see and is reflected from a surface.
- Know and demonstrate how a shadow is formed and explain how a shadow changes shape.
- Know about the danger of direct sunlight and describe how to keep protected.
Summer Term 2- “How did the blossom become an apple?” (Biology)
Plants
- Know the function of different parts of flowing plants and trees.
- Know how water is transported within plants.
- Know the plant life cycle, especially the importance of flowers.
Year 4
Autumn Term 1- “How would we survive without water?” Chemistry)
States of matter
- Know the temperature at which materials change state
- Know about and explore how some materials can change state
- Know the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle
Autumn Term 2- “Which wild animals and plants thrive in your locality?” (Biology)
Living things and habitats
- Use classification keys to group, identify and name living things.
- Know how changes to an environment could endanger living things.
Spring Term- “How could we cope without electricity for one day?” (Physics)
Electricity
- Identify and name appliances that require electricity to function.
- Construct a series circuit.
- Identify and name the components in a series circuit (including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers).
- Predict and test whether a lamp will light within a circuit.
- Know the difference between a conductor and an insulator; giving examples of each.
Summer Term 1- “What’s that sound?” (Physics)
Sound
- Know how sound is made, associating some of them with vibrating.
- Know how sound travels from a source to our ears.
- Know the correlation between pitch and the object producing a sound.
- Know the correlation between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it.
- Know what happens to a sound as it travels away from its source.
Summer Term 2- “What happens to the food we eat?” (Biology)
Animals (including humans)
- Identify and name the parts of the human digestive system.
- Know the functions of the organs in the human digestive system.
- Identify and know the different types of human teeth.
- Know the functions of different human teeth.
- Use and construct food chains to identify producers, predators and prey.
Upper Key stage 2: Working scientifically
During years 5 and 6, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:
- Planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary.
- Taking measurements, using a range of scientific equipment, with increasing accuracy and precision, taking repeat readings when appropriate.
- Recording data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs.
- Using test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests.
- Reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and a degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations.
- Identifying scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments.
Year 5
Autumn Term 1- “Could you be the next CSI investigator?” (Chemistry)
Properties and changes of materials
- Compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity (electrical and thermal), and response to magnets.
- Know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution.
- Use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating.
- Give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic.
- Demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes.
- Explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda.
Autumn Term 2- “What will I look like when I’m older?” (Biology)
Animals including humans.
- Describe the changes as humans develop to old age.
Spring Term – “Is there anybody out there?”
Earth and Space, Forces, Light/Shadow
- Describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the sun in the solar system.
- Describe the movement of the moon relative to the Earth.
- Describe the sun, Earth and moon as approximately spherical bodies.
- Use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky.
Summer Term 1- “Do all plants and animals start life as an egg?” (Biology)
Living Things and their habitats.
- Describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird.
- Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.
Summer Term 2- “Can you feel the force?” (Physics)
Forces
- Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object.
- Identify the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces.
- Recognise that some mechanisms including levers, pulleys and gears allow a smaller force to have a greater effect.
Year 6
Autumn Term 1- “Could Spiderman really exist?” (Biology)
Living things and their habitats
- describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including microorganisms, plants and animals .
- give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics.
Autumn Term 2- “Could you be the next Nintendo apprentice?” (Physics)
Electricity
- associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.
- compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches.
- use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.
Spring Term 1- “Have we always looked like this?” (Biology)
Evolution and inheritance
- Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago
- Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents
- Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution
Spring Term 2- “How can you light up your life?” (Physics)
Light
- Recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines.
- Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye.
- Explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes.
- Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them.
Summer 1 Term – “What would a journey through your body be like?” (Biology)
Animals including humans
- Identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood.
- Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function.
- Describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.