'Science is fun. Science is a curiosity. We all have a natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in.'

Sally Ride 

Why we teach your child Science:

Science helps us understand how the world works – it helps us answer and consider some of life’s greatest questions. We want your child to develop a secure understanding of biology, physics and chemistry as well as how to work and think scientifically. By teaching your child science in primary school, we inspire them to continue enjoying these subjects as they enter KS3 and hope many of them see an element of science in a future career.

What our curriculum looks like:

We use CUSP Science as to guide our teaching and learning of science in all year groups. 

CUSP Science pays close attention to guidance provided by the National Curriculum sequence and content. It is infused with evidence-led practice and enriched with retrieval studies to ensure long-term retention of foundational knowledge. The foundations of CUSP science are cemented in the EYFS through learning within the Natural World, and People, Culture and Communities.

WHAT PUPILS WILL KNOW

Substantive knowledge - this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used to learn about the content. Common misconceptions are explicitly revealed as non-examples and positioned against known and accurate content.

In CUSP Science, an extensive and connected knowledge base is constructed so that pupils can use these foundations and integrate it with what they already know. 

WHAT PUPILS WILL DO

Disciplinary knowledge – this is knowing how to collect, use, interpret, understand and evaluate the evidence from scientific processes. This is taught. It is not assumed that pupils will acquire these skills by luck or hope. Pupils construct understanding by applying substantive knowledge to questioning and planning, observing, performing a range of tests, accurately measuring, comparing through identifying and classifying, using observations and gathering data to help answer questions, explaining and reporting, predicting, concluding, improving, and seeking patterns.

CUSP call it ‘Working Scientifically.’ 

Scientific analysis is developed through IPROF criteria. We call it ‘Thinking Scientifically.’

• identifying and classifying

• pattern seeking

• research

• observing over time

• fair and comparative testing

PRINCIPLES

A guiding principle of CUSP Science is that each study draws upon prior learning. For example, in the EYFS, pupils may learn about The Natural World through daily activities and exploring their locality and immediate environment. This is revisited and positioned so that new and potentially abstract content in Year 1, such as Animals, including humans, is related to what children already know. This makes it easier to cognitively process. This helps to accelerate new learning as children integrate prior understanding.

CUSP Science is organised into three distinct subject domains: biology, physics and chemistry. Where inter-disciplinary concepts are encountered, such as the particle model, these are taught explicitly and connected across science domains.

CUSP Science has sequenced the national curriculum into meaningful and connected ‘chunks’ of content to reduce the load on the working memory as well as creating coherent and strong long-term memories. The sequence of substantive and disciplinary knowledge enables pupils to become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever broadening and coherent mental model of the subject. This guards against superficial, disconnected and fragmented scientific knowledge and weak disciplinary knowledge. High frequency, multiple meaning words (Tier 2) are taught explicitly and help make sense of subject specific words (Tier 3).

Each learning module in CUSP Science has a vocabulary module with teacher guidance, tasks and resources to enhance and deepen understanding. CUSP Science is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge’. The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the implementation of Bjork’s desirable difficulties, including retrieval and spaced retrieval practice, word building and deliberate practice tasks.

This powerful interrelationship between structure and research-led practice is designed to increase substantive knowledge and accelerate learning within and between study modules. That means the foundational knowledge of the curriculum is positioned to ease the load on the working memory: new content is connected to prior learning. The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect significant scientific concepts, over time, and with increasing expertise and knowledge.

CUSP Science deliberately pays attention and values the importance of subject content as well as the context it is taught in. Common scientific misconceptions are identified in all CUSP Science learning modules. These misconceptions are made explicit to pupils. Children draw upon substantive and disciplinary knowledge to reason and practise acquiring the conception, whilst repelling the misconceptions. Examples and non-examples are powerful ways of saying what something is and what something isn’t.

CUSP Science values the study of scientists from the past as well as promoting diverse present-day role models in the field. These studies help us to learn how they used, at that time, their substantive and disciplinary knowledge to develop a conception. This illuminates how misconceptions can permeate substantive knowledge and appear to be a known truth. An example of this is the study of Maria Merion in Year 5, who was born in Germany in 1667. She observed and drew insects going through biochemical metamorphosis. She challenged the misconception that all insects were evil, born from mud and were the work of the devil. Further examples of contextual misconceptions and refinement of conceptions can be seen in the study of Galen’s views about blood circulation in AD 157 and William Harvey’s findings in 1602.

CUSP fulfils and goes well beyond the expectations of the National Curriculum. CUSP science was the right choice for St. Joseph's, as we believe there is no ceiling to what pupils can learn if the architecture and practice is founded in evidence-led principles.

We have mapped our curriculum, carefully considering some of the following:

• What scientific experiences to children have in EYFS that we can build on?
• How are the components of physics, chemistry and biology developed overtime?
• How do our children become better at working scientifically?
• Is the curriculum planned in accessible step-by-step manner so all children can build on previous learning?
• What misconceptions might children have?
• Are we enabling children to remember what is most important?
• How do trips help enhance science learning?

Our science curriculum long-term plan can be found below:

How you can help your child at home:

• Why not visit the science museum – it is free of charge and has a great range of exhibits to excite your children and develop their scientific curiosity.
• BBC bitesize has a great range of resources to support science – you can find KS2 resources here and KS1 resources here.
• Go on walks with your child and encourage them to ask questions which might develop their scientific knowledge – some questions you could ask include: Why do you think the trees have no leaves at this time of the year? How can we keep our plants alive? What could we cook together to make a healthy dinner? How do the lights in our house get electricity?
• STEM has a range of home activities which you can find here.