Subject Leader for Science: Mr Potts

The Primary School Quality Mark programme ensures effective leadership of science, enables schools to work together to share good practice and is supported by professional development led by local experts. It encourages teacher autonomy and innovation while at the same time offering a clear framework for development in science subject leadership, teaching and learning. Schools that achieve PSQM demonstrate commitment and expertise in science leadership, teaching and learning.

The Primary Science Quality Mark is led by the University of Hertfordshire, School of Education in collaboration with the Primary Science Teaching Trust.

Associate Professor Jane Turner, PSQM National Director said:

“There was never a more important time for primary children to have a high-quality science education. The Coronavirus Pandemic has made everyone aware of the impact of science on our daily lives. Primary schools have an important role to ensure that children understand how science

works and keeps us healthy and safe. Schools that have achieved a Primary Science Quality Mark have demonstrated a significant commitment to science teaching and learning, even at this challenging time for schools. The profile and quality of science in each awarded school is very high. Children are engaging with great science both in and outside the classroom, developing positive attitudes towards science as well as secure scientific understanding and skills. Science subject leaders, their colleagues, head teachers, children, parents and governors should be very proud.”

Our school Science vision and principles

Above you will be able to read our science vision, it is made up of the principles on how the children and staff feel that science should be learnt and taught here at Stella Maris.

There are two main strands to the teaching of Science in our school.  The first is to ensure that the children are taught the specific scientific knowledge set out in the National Curriculum, and covering topics including:

• plants
• animals including humans
• evolution and inheritance
• living things and their habitats
• electricity
• forces
• Earth and space
• the seasons
• light and sound
• materials

 The second is to encourage a spirit of curiosity about the world around them and to develop the skills of scientific enquiry: to be able to predict what will happen in a practical activity, to conduct a fair or comparative tests and to record their results accurately, describing clearly what they have discovered.

As part of this, children become increasingly aware of the type of scientific enquiry that they are carrying out or need to carry out to answer their scientific questions.

The types of scientific enquiry are:

• Observation over time
• Research
• Pattern Seeking
• Comparative and Fair testing
• Classifying and sorting
• Problem solving

In the process of learning about Science we also try  to teach the children to appreciate the magnificence of the created world and  to develop an appropriate respect for it and an awareness of issues concerning  pollution, the environment and sustainability.

We use the PLAN (Pan-London Assessment Network) assessment resources that support schools to plan and assess effectively the science National Curriculum for England.

More detail can be found here: https://www.planassessment.com/introduction-to-plan

We use the progression of skills documents that have been created by PLAN.

We also use the PLAN knowledge matrices to support teaching and learning in science. This enables us to have a better understanding of the prior and future learning needs in each area of the curriculum. It also provides possible misconceptions that may be encountered as well as subject specific vocabulary and learning outcomes.