Aims and Objectives

The objectives of teaching science are to enable children to:

· ask and answer scientific questions;

· plan and carry out scientific investigations, using equipment (including computers) correctly;

· know and understand the life processes of living things; physical processes and materials and their properties;

· evaluate evidence, and present their conclusions clearly and accurately.

Approaches

We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in science lessons. Our principal aim is to develop children’s knowledge, skills, and understanding. Sometimes we do this through whole-class teaching, while at other times we engage the children in an enquiry-based research activity. We encourage the children to ask, as well as answer, scientific questions. They have the opportunity to use a variety of data, such as statistics, graphs, pictures, and photographs. They use computing in science lessons because it enhances their learning. They take part in role-play and discussions, and they present reports to the rest of the class. They engage in a wide variety of problem-solving activities. Wherever possible, we involve the pupils in real scientific activities, for example, investigating a local environmental problem, or carrying out a practical experiment and analysing the results.

We recognise that in all classes children have a wide range of scientific abilities, and we ensure that we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this in a variety of ways:

· setting tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses; setting tasks of increasing difficulty;

· providing resources of different complexity, matched to the ability of the child;

· using classroom assistants to support the work of individual children or groups of children.