Trust Curriculum Intent

Our mission is to provide a cradle to career education that allows our children to enjoy lives of choice and opportunity. By the age of 18, we want every child to have the option of university or a high quality alternative. 

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Subject Curriculum Intent

Through immersion in a broad range of topics centred around the “Big Ideas of Science” across the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics pupils will not just acquire scientific knowledge but will form a deep understanding of how the world around them works and an appreciation of the beauty of science and the patterns within and between its disciplines.  Through explicit teaching of vocabulary, opportunities for pupils to develop their thinking and discuss their ideas, and the use of probing questioning it is our conviction that every student will be able to master the threshold concepts within each discipline and confidently articulate their understanding of natural phenomena using scientific vocabulary and technical language.  

By placing scientific enquiry at the heart of our curriculum every student will experience the joy of discovering the answer to a question, the excitement of personally experiencing scientific phenomena, and a sense of awe about how scientific thinking and ground breaking discoveries have led to humans understanding as much as we do today about the world in which we live.  Our students will be resilient when faced with problems, and able to work as a team to overcome them.  

Making science relevant to students will instill in every student a belief that science is a central part of their life, and that everything around them including themselves is touched by science, and can be explained by science.  Every student will be scientifically literate, ensuring they are well prepared for the global issues faced by humanity such as climate change, health issues and population growth. This will enable them as future citizens to live happy and healthy lives, making informed choices and decisions and thriving in a world of scientific advances and innovation.

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Curriculum Principles

• Reverse Planning  Substantive and disciplinary knowledge are carefully mapped across the curriculum to ensure that students have the necessary knowledge, understanding and skills to be successful at A Level. Our spiral curriculum means that this process begins in Year 7 and builds throughout the following 7 years
• ‍Powerful Knowledge  We teach for understanding, focussing on clearly explaining concepts and processes so that they build on what students already know and enable them to make connections between new and prior learning both within and across the science disciplines.  Students regularly work independently to complete extended writing tasks which require them to explain how or why complex scientific processes occur using subject specific vocabulary.     This specialised knowledge empowers students to complete high challenge descriptions and explanations covered in  topics such as Electrolysis and Magnetism. 
• ‍Cultural Capital Students are given the opportunity to experience scientific phenomena first hand through the regular use of practical work and demonstrations. Links are made within lessons to the application of science in everyday life, and careers which depend on scientific knowledge and skills.  All students participate in a range of enrichment activities, including visiting guest speakers, entry into national science competitions, and research projects. 
• ‍Substantive (“Know That”) knowledge  The Big Ideas of Science are mapped across the curriculum so each one is regularly revisited and built upon allowing students to revisit prior learning and build upon it.  In Biology, students develop an in-depth understanding of the cellular basis of life, the way in which genetic information is passed from generation to the next, and the role of evolution in creating the diversity of life on Earth today.   In Chemistry, students learn about atoms as the building blocks of matter, and how the rearrangement of atoms forms new substances in chemical reactions.    In Physics, students learn about our place in the Universe and how objects can interact with each other as a result of contact and non-contact forces.  They study the ways in which energy can be transferred from one store to another but cannot be created or destroyed. 
• ‍Procedural and Disciplinary (“Know How”) Knowledge  Disciplinary knowledge is embedded throughout the curriculum, and taught alongside substantive knowledge. Students learn about the different methods scientists use to answer questions such as modelling, classifying, fair testing, and peer review.  They learn how scientists analyse data and evaluate the approach taken. 
• ‍Cognitive Psychology Models and analogies are carefully selected to support students in visualising and understanding abstract processes, and pupils are given the opportunity to directly experience scientific phenomena through practical activities and demonstrations.   The use of integrated instructions for practical work reduces the extraneous load on students and increases the capacity of their working memory to think about what they are doing and why.  The purpose of each practical is carefully considered and identified within lesson objectives along with prerequisite knowledge and understanding to ensure conceptually difficult ideas are not being introduced at the same time as procedurally difficult skills.   New content is taught in small chunks, with opportunities for students to practise and consolidate what they have learnt before moving on.  An “I do, we do, you do” approach is used to teach calculation skills, and the use of model answers and scaffolded writing frames used for extended writing tasks.    

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What will this look like at implementation?

Please use the links below to explore how our curriculum looks, for each year group, as a result of these guiding principles

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How can you support students’ learning from home?

Watch documentaries and news programmes which are about current or past scientific discoveries and developments.  

Discuss with them the positive impact science has had on the world, and its potential for solving global problems in the future.  

Encourage them to tell you what they have been learning about in science lessons and to explain it to you.

Help them remember and recall their knowledge using scientific vocabulary, test them using flash cards or quizzes before tests or assessments.