Science

Summer-

WWW

• The children enjoy science.
• The children all said they have science lessons 'at least every week'.
• There was lots of positivity about engaging in 'hands on science' and investigations.
• Most classes shared being outside for science recently, and enjoying this.
• Y4 and Y6 were very positive about quiz. quiz, trade.
• Most were clear that retrieval happens every lesson and could understand that this was helping them to remember things.
• Most classes could recall knowledge that they had been taught.
• KS2 children were really clear re the 5 types of enquiry and much better at articulating when these might be used.

EBI KS1

• Some children struggled to articulate their learning clearly and use this to reason about their science. The children could tell me facts, and could name various pieces of scientific equipment they would use for different tasks.  A next step would be for children to tell me why, make links with own experiences or really give deep responses. For example, KS1 could tell me what plants need to grow and be healthy really confidently, but some struggled to tell me how they would prove this (and also struggled to articulate the differences between pictures of healthy and unhealthy plants). This will be rectified through additional retrieval on the topic of plants. 

EBI KS2

• Some children are struggling to write conclusions or more detailed predictions as their understanding isn't quite deep enough, and their ability to plan their own investigations to answer a given question, really thinking about why they will explore in a given way, requires more development. 

Action

• Teachers to use science reasoning cards for topics being taught, or a unit previously taught as a retrieval session, with your class, and adapt teaching to include the use of these resources to support the children to better articulate their learning, make connections and really reason with science, using and applying skills and knowledge they have acquired. 

 

Spring-

WWW 

• The children LOVED science week. They all spoke really positively about how much they enjoyed science week, all the investigations that they were involved with and the experiences that they had. The whole school rocket launch was a favourite again and the children were able to tell me that we had been carrying out a comparative investigation, trying to find out if the amount of water in the bottle affected how high the bottle went. The children also enjoyed the after school science fayre and showing their families what they had been exploring. Evie commented that she had learnt never to eat mentos and drink coca cola because you might explode!!!
• The children were clear that they all had a weekly science lesson and all stated that they liked and enjoyed science. 
• KS2 children could tell me that every lesson started with retrieval and they knew why-to help them to remember things that they have been taught before and make sure that they were learning.
• KS1 children spoke positively about engaging in science outdoors-something they enjoy. 
• Year 2 children are enjoying the science at home boxes and seeing what their friends have been doing.

EBI

• KS1 children could develop their understanding of why we have retrieval at the start of the lesson-varied responded in KS1 re retrieval.
• KS2 children were able to take part in quiz quiz trade activities as a form of retrieval and the vocabulary relays more often-the children feel this happens when we have visitors but not so much when we don't.
• Science at home boxes were sent out by all classes regularly.

 

Autumn 2-

WWW KS1 

• The children showed in-depth knowledge about how we group animals, the different animal groups, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores and were also able to share how they would go about exploring a big question to find an answer-they were superb! 

EBI and next steps

• There were some misconceptions about mammals and how many legs they do/do not have - revisit and retrieve.
• Some confusion between how many seasons and how many moths there are - revisit and retrieve.

WWW KS2

• Children could clearly recall knowledge linked to units of work taught this year and in previous years.
• Children spoke positively about the updated retrieval and knew that this was to help them remember previous learning and use skills they had been taught before.

Next steps for KS2:

• KS2 staff will take part in a session in the new year to look at the different types of SE.
• Retrieval grid to be adapted to include a 'scientific enquiry' section. 

 

 

Autumn 1- 

The children worked in groups, discussing what they love about their science learning at All Saints' and haring their thoughts on what they think could make their learning even better.