First Federation Trust
Intent:
At St. Budeaux Foundation we aim to help the children to develop into independent, scientific thinkers and investigators. We strive to offer variety through the National Curriculum and deliver a combination of lessons that are targeted at developing both subject knowledge and skills in scientific enquiry. Wherever possible, we create links with every day life by delivering science through our creative curriculum in order to give relevance to the topics under study. We also aim to keep our units up-to-date by making sure that staff's continuing professional development is ongoing.
Implementation:
As part of our focus on skills in scientific enquiry, the school is enrolled in the Focus4TAPS program. This is a national study being conducted by Bath University, involving 7 regions across the UK, which aims to develop and improve teaching and assessment in primary science. Through this program our science subject lead and one of our Year 5 teachers are attending training sessions and receiving and using resources to strengthen coverage and development of the working scientifically objectives. Later on in the year, this will be rolled out to all year groups. The new creative curriculum in school helps us to make children's learning more relevant by giving topics real-life context, for example; children working in Year 3 learn about rocks whilst covering their time-travel unit and learn about plants whilst covering their jungle explorers unit. In addition, we go beyond the confines of the curriculum to broaden children's scientific experiences by inviting the staff from Babcock in for STEM days, having live science shows and the inflatable space dome. Staff are supported in their delivery of science through professional developments sessions that are run by the subject lead and by attending subject knowledge courses provided by the local science hub.
Impact:
The children in the school have a great, natural curiosity and this is fostered and encouraged through opportunities to investigate scientific questions and ideas. The children that are involved in the Focus4TAPS teaching in particular are making huge strides in their skills in terms of scientific enquiry and are showing a developing ability to think critically and question the universe around them. We know that the children's greater learning experiences - such as the space dome - have an impact because these sessions are often followed by a multitude of questions that have occurred to the children and piqued their curiosity throughout. In addition, many of our children choose to broaden their knowledge of the topics covered through their choice of reading materials when selecting books from our library to read both in school and at home.