Science Curriculum Intent at Whitstone 

At Whitstone CP School, we want all of our students to have a solid understanding of the world, to be inspired to , ask questions, and to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to  like scientists, to comprehend how science works, and to recognise its implications in our everyday lives and how this can be developed in the future.

We aim to ensure that our projects are sequenced to , develop and build on the our children’s prior knowledge and where possible, allow them to make links to other areas of learning to comprehend ideas fully.

The termly sequencing of our projects has been carefully considered so that  and so that the objectives covering certain areas of learning such as growing plants or observing animals are positioned at a suitable time of year to allow the children the best opportunity to make first-hand observations and discoveries, to support their scientific questioning.

       Everyday Materials            Human Senses            Seasonal Changes               Plant Parts                    Animal Parts

The children start the autumn term with Everyday Materials, which teaches the children that objects are made from different materials and they will begin to explore the sources of these materials. Moving onto Human Senses topic where the children will begin to identify different body parts and their senses and how they play a role in keep us safe. As we enter spring term at Whitstone this is a great time to explore Seasonal Changes, they learn broadly about seasonal changes linked to weather, living things and the science behind day and night. The children will then revisit some prior learning in  of this learning in summer term with the project Plant Parts, where they will begin to identify the different parts of a plant and how they adapt. Acorns will then finish the cycle with Animal Parts, linking back to their knowledge about body parts and senses and identifying commonalities.

           Human Survival                     Habitats                  Uses of Materials              Plant Survival                Animal Survival

The children begin the autumn term with the project Human Survival, learning about the basic survival needs of humans, before expanding to identifying and naming living things within the topic Habitats. Building on learning from the previous year, the children will learn about the uses of materials in the spring project Uses of Materials and begin to understand changes of materials through simple physical manipulation, such as bending and twisting. The spring Plant Survival project also explores survival, with children observing what plants need to grow and stay healthy. Finally, in the project Animal Survival, children bring together learning from the autumn term, thinking about what animals need to survive.

Having learned about human body parts, the senses and survival in Key Stage 1, in Sapling class the children will now focus on specific body systems and nutrition in Key Stage 2.

In the autumn term, they learn about the importance of nutrition for humans, the role of the skeleton and muscles, whilst identifying animals with different types of skeletons during the topic Skeletal and Muscular Systems. This learning again links to other animals, with the children being able to identify similarities and differences. Alongside this the children will also learn about healthy diets through the autumn term design and technology project Cook Well, Eatwell. In the spring term, properties of materials are revisited in the project Forces and Magnets, with children identifying magnetic materials and learning about the non-contact force of magnetism. They also begin to learn about contact forces, investigating how things move over surfaces. Our science knowledge of rocks and soils will be delivered through the geography project Rocks, Relics and Rumbles during this term also. The children then begin to link structure to function in the summer Plant Nutrition and Reproduction project, identifying the plant parts associated with reproduction and water transport. The year will then finish with the project Light and Shadows, where they are explicitly introduced to the subject of light, with the children learning about shadows and reflections, revisiting language from Key Stage 1, including opaque and transparent.

            Food and the                       Sound                       States of Matter              Grouping and               Electrical Circuits                     Digestive System                                                                                                   Classifying                   and Conductors

In the autumn term, children learn about Food and the Digestive System, again making comparisons to other animals, whilst also exploring teeth and how to keep these healthy. The second autumn term project Sound introduces the concept of sound, with children identifying how sounds are made and travel. They will learn and use new vocabulary, such as pitch and volume, and identify properties of materials associated with these concepts. In the spring term when looking at States of Matter, the children will learn about solids, liquids and gases and their characteristics. They will gain an understanding of how temperature drives change of state and link this learning to their geography driver topic Misty Mountain, Winding River, in which children learn about the water cycle. Up to this point, children have had many opportunities for grouping and sorting living things and during Grouping and Classifying the children will recognise different animal types and explore the use of classification keys. Finally, in the summer term, the children study electricity by creating and recording simple circuits in the project Electrical Circuits and Conductors. They also build on their knowledge of the properties of materials, identifying electrical conductors and insulators.

In the autumn term, the children broaden their knowledge of forces, including gravity and air and water resistance, in the project Forces and Mechanisms. They revisit learning from design and technology projects, including Making It Move in Lower Key Stage 2, to explore various mechanisms and their uses. Their knowledge of gravity then supports their understanding for the other autumn term project Earth and Space, so they can understand the forces that shape planets and our solar system. They also develop their understanding of day and night, first explored in the Year 1 project Seasonal Changes.

Having learned that animals and plants produce offspring in earlier projects and studied plant and animal life cycles, the children will then focus on the human life cycle and sexual reproduction in the spring term project Human Reproduction and Ageing. In the summer term project Properties and Changes of Materials, children revisit much of their prior learning about materials’ properties and learn new properties, including thermal conductivity and solubility. To this point, children have learned much about reversible changes, such as melting and freezing, but now extend their learning to irreversible changes, including chemical changes.

The final body system children learn about is the circulatory system and its roles in transporting water, nutrients and gases as part of Oaks autumn term project Circulatory System. Upper Key Stage 2 knowledge about classification is delivered through the spring term geography driver topic Frozen Kingdoms. In the spring term, children also build on their knowledge about electrical circuits from Lower Key Stage 2, now learning and recording standard symbols for circuit components and investigating the function of components and the effects of voltage on a circuit in Electrical Circuits and Components. In the summer project Light Theory, the children recognise that light travels in straight lines from a source or reflector to the eye and explain the shape of shadows. Finally, in the project Evolution and Inheritance, children learn about inheritance and understand why offspring are not identical to their parents. They also learn about natural selection and how this can lead to the evolution of a species.