Science and STEM Curriculum Statement

Intent

At Alpha Preparatory School, we believe that teaching and learning in science and STEM should excite and stimulate children’s natural curiosity to enable them to make sense of the world in which they live.
We aim to provide children with opportunities to ask questions, make observations, investigate their ideas and ultimately improve their understanding. By providing a range of practical experiences, we develop pupils’ investigative skills and allow children to take risks and learn from their mistakes; enabling them to become more confident, independent learners.

Through careful planning, we involve problem solving opportunities that allow children to apply their knowledge, and find out answers for themselves. Children are encouraged to ask their own questions and be given opportunities to use their scientific skills and research to discover answers.
We build upon the knowledge and skill development gained in previous years. As the children’s knowledge and understanding increases, they become more proficient in selecting, using scientific equipment, collating and interpreting results, they become increasingly confident in their growing ability to come to conclusions based on real evidence.

Curiosity is celebrated within the classroom. Planning involves class teachers and specialist teachers creating engaging lessons, often involving high-quality resources to aid understanding of conceptual knowledge. STEM lessons encourage practical science testing and engineering processes to take place as well as securing links between computing and maths within lessons. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual knowledge and skills, and assess pupils regularly to identify those children with gaps in learning, so that all pupils keep up. Tasks are selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners and whenever possible ICT, DT, computing and STEM links are shown to enhance cross-curricular learning.

We aim to ensure all pupils:

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry, physics and Earth science.
  develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them
  are equipped with the scientific skills required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Implementation

Working scientifically is embedded into lessons to ensure that skills are systematically developed throughout the children’s school career and new vocabulary and challenging concepts are introduced through direct teaching. This is developed through the years, in-keeping with the topics.

We demonstrate how to use scientific equipment, and the various Working Scientifically skills in order to embed scientific understanding. Teachers find opportunities to develop children’s understanding of their surroundings by accessing outdoor learning and workshops with experts.

We offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities, visits, trips and visitors to complement and broaden the curriculum. These are purposeful and link with the knowledge being taught in class.

Regular events, such as Science Projects and charity days such as Jeans for Genes day, allow all pupils to come off-timetable, to provide broader provision and the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills. These events often involve families and the wider community.
At the end of each topic, key knowledge is reviewed by the children and checked by the teacher and consolidated as necessary.

 Impact

The successful approach at Alpha Preparatory School results in a fun, engaging, high-quality science education, that provides children with the foundations and knowledge for understanding the world. Through various lessons, workshops, trips and interactions with experts and local charities, children have the understanding that science has changed our lives and that it is vital to the world’s future prosperity.

Children learn the possibilities for careers in science, as a result of our community links. They learn from and work with other children as well as learn about famous scientist from all backgrounds and cultures. From this exposure to a range of different scientists from various backgrounds, all children feel they are scientists and capable of achieving. Children at Alpha Preparatory School overwhelmingly enjoy science which has resulted in motivated learners with sound scientific understanding. The school’s science provision is recognised by the achievement of national and international awards from BIEA, Discovery Education, Lockheed Martin, Quiz Club and the Tim Peake Project.