Broomfields Junior School

At Broomfields Junior School, it is our intention to provide a high-quality science education that provides children with the foundations they need to recognise the importance of science in every aspect of daily life. We give the teaching and learning of science high prominence.

Our science curriculum will enable children to become enquiry-based learners collaborating through researching, investigating and evaluating experiences. It will encourage respect for living organisms and for the physical environment.

In our school, science is about developing children’s ideas and curiosity, and working with them to make sense of the world in which they live, both through investigation and using and applying their scientific skills. We believe that a broad and balanced science education is the entitlement of all children, regardless of ethnic origin, gender, class, aptitude or disability.

Our aims in teaching science include the following:

• Preparing our children for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world today and in the future.
• Recognising the importance of providing opportunities for pupils to understand how science can lead to a number of varied employment professions in their future.

• Helping our children acquire a growing understanding of the nature, processes and methods of scientific ideas.
• Helping develop and extend our children’s scientific concept of their world.
• Building on our children’s natural curiosity and developing a scientific approach to problems.
• Encouraging open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance, resilience and developing the skills of investigation – including observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating.
• Developing the use of scientific language, recording and techniques allowing our children to ‘talk like scientists’.
• Developing the use of computing, including data loggers, in investigating and recording.
• Making links between science and other subjects.

At Broomfields Junior School, our science curriculum is underpinned by the Essentials Curriculum by Chris Quigley. The Essentials Curriculum sets out the essential coverage, learning objectives and standards which are required for science.  One of the primary reasons we chose this curriculum is because it emphasises the importance of developing the depth of children’s learning.  The curriculum is aligned to the National Curriculum, following the programmes of study for each year group carefully. It provides the right balance between working scientifically and learning scientific facts.  Teachers plan lessons using our personalised Milestone documents.  The Milestones ensure that the curriculum is covered and the skills, knowledge and vocabulary taught is progressive throughout each phase. In addition, they allow teachers to plan lessons that build upon previous knowledge and regular retrieval activities are planned in to assess how well the children are retaining previously taught knowledge.  Use of ‘Science Learning Journey’ displays in every classroom, knowledge organisers and fun games are used to secure scientific vocabulary. 

Assessment at Broomfields Junior School is teacher based and formed using a range of informal strategies which include;

• Children’s contributions to class discussions
• Quiz style questions
• Verbal and written outcomes from learning
• Initial and final concept maps
• Observations and careful questioning of pupils working scientifically
• ‘Brain dump’ pages

A variety of learning opportunities are used to deliver our curriculum, and teachers are encouraged to make learning in science as hands on and creative as possible whilst still making learning explicit. 

Finally, at Broomfields Junior School, we ensure that our science curriculum equips all our children in gaining ‘real-life’ experiences that are transferable in the wider curriculum. Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional science learning outside the classroom.   For example, Year 3 visit Fox Howl, in Delamere Forest, to consolidate their learning on Animals and their habitats and even take part in soil sampling.  Year 6 children visit the Catalyst museum and Year 5 children attend Safety Central.

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