At Robert Miles Junior School we want our children to be inspired by science and develop their understanding of the world in which they live. We will champion the enjoyment of science with positive experiences throughout their primary school education.

Science is continually changing and developing over time, and it is important that this is reflected in our science curriculum. As a school, we follow the National Curriculum with the three areas of focus:

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

As a result of our science teaching, we want to develop children who:

• See science as an enjoyable experience.
• Can work individually and cooperatively, listening to, and valuing, the opinions of others.
• Can observe, question, hypothesise, plan, measure, construct a fair test, communicate, and draw conclusions.
• Are observant, curious, and caring about our environment.
• Can relate science to everyday life and appreciate its contribution both in the present, and historically, to our society and other cultures.
• Appreciate the nature of science and the importance of collecting evidence.

We have carefully designed the curriculum to cover the knowledge and understanding in all the key areas as identified in the ‘Elements of our Science Curriculum’. Working scientifically will be taught through and clearly related to the substantive science content. We will ensure that children have opportunities to make detailed observations, design experiments to ensure a fair test, predict, interpret results, reflect, and evaluate. This will enable children to make predictions about new situations based on existing scientific knowledge.

Substantive concepts form an integral part of our science learning; they have been carefully mapped out to ensure key concepts are revisited and developed, allowing children to hook onto previous learning and deepen their scientific knowledge and understanding.  The topics to be covered in each year group and the related learning objectives are carefully planned, ensuring an awareness of the content and links across the key stage and the progression of knowledge and skills.

Planning includes outlines of units of work with a progression of activities to build knowledge and skills. The enquiry question forms the basis of each activity and the working scientifically skills to focus upon are identified. Lessons are individualised by the teacher to facilitate effective teaching of the learning objective or identified skill, matched to the children’s needs.

 We believe Science is for everyone at Robert Miles Junior School. Through careful planning, we ensure that all learning is appropriately constructed to enable all learners to meet the intended learning outcome.  All children are encouraged and supported to develop their full potential in science with strategies in place to meet the needs of individual children; if necessary, extra support in the classroom is provided and opportunities for consolidation and reinforcement. Children engage in meaningful discussions, developing appropriate, accurate vocabulary, and talk enthusiastically about their learning. 

Events such as the Science and Technology Competition, educational visits to the National Space Centre, Twycross Zoo and Science Challenges to grow the tallest sunflower provide broader provision and allow for the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills in a real-life situation. These events often involve the wider community.

When they leave our school, we aim for children to have a secure grasp of the concepts outlined in our curriculum, ready to be built on further in KS3 and beyond.  We hope that through learning science at Robert Miles Junior School, some children will be inspired to study science at a higher level or develop a lifelong interest in the impact of scientific advancements on environment and lifestyle.