Curriculum Intent for Science

At Halifax Primary School we have designed a science curriculum to meet the expectations of the National Curriculum whilst nurturing curious minds, promoting inclusivity, and providing hands-on learning experiences. Through carefully sequencing how we teach our pupils to work as scientists we strive to lay a solid foundation for future scientific exploration and empower students to become informed, responsible citizens of the world who want to discover more and continue their studies in science.

Aspiration – Through providing a range of opportunities in the three disciplines of science, we want all pupils to understand that a scientist can be anyone and aspire themselves to be a scientist. We aim to showcase a variety of scientists through shared reading, assemblies, and our science lessons, highlighting the contributions of scientists from various backgrounds from the past and present day.
Curiosity - Through posing thought-provoking questions and supporting pupils to ask their own questions we conduct intriguing experiments to inspire students to question and explore.
Collaboration – Our curriculum is designed with practical exploration and experimentation at the heart of it. From conducting a variety of experiments to using our Forest Schools area for closer studies of living things and their habitats, we strive to make science come alive through immersive, hands-on experiences and we do this through our pupils working together and supporting one-another.
Nurture – Our lessons are carefully planned with relevant adaptations in place to create an environment where every child feels empowered to participate and contribute through partner work, group work and adapted resources.

At Halifax, our progressive curriculum seamlessly builds on prior content with opportunities to recap key prior knowledge. We have carefully sequenced how pupils are working as a scientist which is progressive and clearly sets out how our Halifax scientists are going to classify, learn to lead their own scientific enquiry, use evidence either generated by themselves or through sources to answer questions, present their findings, and of course participate and lead practical inquiries.

Curriculum Map

Impact – What our pupils say about science at Halifax

In all subjects at Halifax, we have Quality of Education reviews where our pupils share their learning and experiences in different subjects. Below is just a small sample of what our Halifax pupils think about science.

Grace in Year 2 said “I loved doing experiments because that’s how we get more knowledge.”

Leah in Year 3 said, “I like presenting new vocabulary and findings in my own way, like my fossilisation poster.”

Antonia in Year 4 said, “I enjoyed using different sources to find out about the water cycle.”