Science

Intent

The science curriculum aims to develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics. We aim for students to develop an understanding of how science works in the world around them. Our students should be able to identify scientific concepts and apply these to everyday situations. This aims to equip students with the knowledge to understand the implications of scientific concepts. The science curriculum is not just focused on exams but aims to excite and engage life-long learners in science.

Implementation

Lessons are based around Rosenshine’s principles. Scaffolds are provided to support students in their learning and challenge activities are embedded to stretch students of all abilities. The department has a key focus on the use of correct scientific language. Regular reviews, interleaving of ideas and the retention and recall of knowledge is designed to support students in their retention for external, or internal, assessments. Further information about implementation of the science curriculum can be found in the link to our learning map below.

Impact

In science, we use KPI activities to measure the progress of our Key Stage 3 students. Each activity comes with success criteria that teachers will use to mark the students work. Students are graded with ‘not met,’ ‘partially met’ and ‘met.’ During feedback teachers discuss the common misconceptions and pose learning questions to close the gap in knowledge. Analysis of assessment and mock data helps teachers decide which units may need to be re-taught; teachers will make a decision on whether to teach units again if students have poorly performed or challenge students by looking at units from a different perspective. In Key Stage 3, data is used to make changes to class sets, those students that consistently perform well in assessments and KPI activities will be able to move to a set where the work is more challenging. Knowledge organisers are used in Key Stage 3 and teachers use them to set homework activities. Students need to learn a set of keywords and their definitions. Students are tested on these keywords with regular short quizzes. Extra-curricular clubs have been introduced at the academy and science offers a STEM club. Students get to do a STEM club that focuses on the Key Stage 3 curriculum and links the learning of information to fun, interactive science experiments. The impact of the curriculum in terms of students understanding the practical importance of science in our every- day life is measured through participation and engagement in science extra-curricular activities.

Curriculum Map

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