SCIENCE AT OLC

OLC SCIENCE CURRICULUM

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.”

Plutarch

OUR ETHOS

At Our Lady of Compassion School, in line with our Catholic ethos, we believe that everyone has a special part to play in God’s plan. As a fully inclusive school, we welcome all children with their individual strengths and needs and strive to give them the best opportunities to be able to participate in school life, progress and achieve their full potential. We believe that all children are entitled to a rich and diverse curriculum that is delivered through high quality teaching and differentiated to meet the needs of all children. The school has a supportive ethos, and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others.

OUR CURRICULUM INTENT

The children of Our Lady of Compassion have a natural curiosity about the world in which we live in. They enjoy questioning the ideas of Science and are eager to understand the Science behind daily aspects of their lives. Therefore, we ensure that the teaching and learning of Science in our school has the prominence it deserves and requires.

All children are provided with a knowledge rich, broad and balanced Science curriculum which permits the children to become enquiry based learners; collaborating through questioning, investigating and evaluating memorable experiences. Our Science curriculum therefore facilitates all children to cover the aims of the Science National Curriculum in an accessible, innovative and engaging way.

With the children at the heart of everything we do, we ensure our Science lessons are highly stimulating and challenging experiences to help every child secure and deepen their scientific knowledge and vocabulary, as well as igniting a love for learning through practical hands on experiences. 

We have devised a Science curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge, so our children know more and remember more. We endeavour that Science at Our Lady of Compassion provides the children in our care with the confidence and enthusiasm that they need to further develop their skills into the next stage of their education and life experiences. To support us with achieving this aim, we use Hamilton Brookes Mixed Year Science.

OUR CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION

Hamilton's Science planning is systematically organized to capitalize on seasonal study opportunities and ensure the development of scientific working skills, all while adhering to the National Curriculum for England. Each academic year consists of six blocks, each comprising six sessions dedicated to a specific Science domain, culminating in a meaningful outcome. The program provides the children with opportunities to engage in a comprehensive range of scientific investigative approaches, including pattern seeking, exploration, problem-solving, fair testing, and analysis of secondary sources.

We follow the targeted two-year rolling program for mixed-year classes in each key stage. The blocks are carefully devised to allow us to teach whole classes together with appropriate adaptations while covering a whole key stage's worth of objectives over the course of two years. Therefore, teaching and learning exhibits progression across all key stages in Science. We equip children with essential scientific vocabulary and concepts to facilitate their comprehension and application in both written and verbal communication. We incorporate practical investigative opportunities into Science lessons and ‘Memorable Moments’ which utilize a variety of resources to enrich children's knowledge and understanding, fostering their scientific enquiry and learning process. We facilitate the building on of prior knowledge, fostering the ability to connect ideas and promote enquiry-based learning, as well as, encourage reflection on past learning and strive to establish cross-curricular connections whenever feasible. Finally, we assess children’s attainment at the end of each unit via teacher assessment.

OUR CURRICULUM IMPACT

At Our Lady of Compassion, we ensure that children have ample opportunities to acquire and retain scientific knowledge within real-life contexts. Our aim is to foster their ability to question concepts and critically reflect on both existing and newly acquired knowledge. The Science curriculum promotes collaborative and hands-on learning experiences, encouraging students to engage in investigations and experiments while enhancing their scientific knowledge. Through this approach, the children develop the capacity to articulate their methods and engage in scientific reasoning effectively. Our Science curriculum is meticulously designed to ensure high quality and progression across different phases and topic areas. Emphasis is placed on the continuous development of both substantive knowledge and disciplinary skills. We evaluate the effectiveness of our curriculum through various methods, including a discussion based pre-unit assessment of subject-specific vocabulary and prior knowledge, in-class questioning, documentation of practical learning through images and videos, gathering student feedback, book scrutinies where student work is reviewed and discussed among senior leaders, annual reporting of curriculum standards, marking of children’s work and utilisation of the FFT Aspire online assessment tool.