Science
Science
At Stonehill School we want children to be naturally curious about the world around them. Our science curriculum aims to promote this curiosity and ensures full coverage of the national curriculum. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about natural processes, phenomenon and scientific enquiry.
Our aim is to ensure children:
- Have a broad understanding of the world around them.
- Have developed scientific enquiry skills that can be used to make sense of the world around them.
- Have the knowledge and skills to access further employment opportunities linked to science.
At Stonehill School we aim to teach science through interesting, engaging lessons with scientific enquiry at their core.
We intend to do this by:
- Ensuring our children have access to a high quality science curriculum that clearly covers all aspects the curriculum.
- Providing a stimulating, challenging and engaging learning environment.
- Ensuring children are curious scientists who are not afraid to ask questions and investigate them.
- Fully developing independent learners with inquisitive minds who have secure scientific knowledge and enquiry skills and a keen interest in expanding this knowledge throughout their lives.
Skills and Knowledge Progression Document
Autumn Term Science Topics
Year 1 - Everyday Materials | This project teaches children that objects are made from materials. They identify a range of everyday materials and their sources. Children investigate the properties of materials and begin to recognise that a material's properties define its use. |
Year 1 - Human Senses | This project teaches children that humans are a type of animal known as a mammal. They name and count body parts and identify similarities and differences. They learn about the senses, the body parts associated with each sense and their role in keeping us safe. |
Year 2 - Human Survival | This project teaches children about the basic needs of humans for survival, including the importance of exercise, nutrition and good hygiene. They learn how human offspring grow and change over time into adulthood. |
Year 2 - Habitats | This project teaches children about habitats and what a habitat needs to provide. They explore local habitats to identify and name living things and begin to understand how they depend on one another for food and shelter. |
Year 3 - Animal Nutrition and the Skeletal System | This project teaches children about the importance of nutrition for humans and other animals. They learn about the role of a skeleton and muscles and identify animals with different types of skeleton. |
Year 4 - Food and the Digestive System | This project teaches children about the human digestive system. They explore the main parts, starting with the mouth and teeth, identifying teeth types and their functions. They link this learning to animals' diets and construct food chains to show the flow of energy. |
Year 4 - Sound | This project teaches children about sound, how sound is made and how sound travels as vibrations through a medium to the ear. They learn about pitch and volume and find out how both can be changed. |
Year 5 - Forces and Mechanisms | This project teaches children about the forces of gravity, air resistance, water resistance and friction, with children exploring their effects. They learn about mechanisms, their uses and how they allow a smaller effort to have a greater effect. |
Year 5 - Earth and Space | This project teaches children about our Solar System and its spherical celestial bodies. They describe the movements of the Earth and the other planets relative to the Sun, the Moon relative to Earth, and the Earth's rotation to explain day and night. |
Year 6 - Circulatory System | This project teaches children about the transport role of the human circulatory system, its main parts and primary functions. They learn about healthy lifestyle choices and the effects of harmful substances on the body. |
Spring Term Science Topics
Year 1 - Seasonal Changes | This project teaches children about the seasons, seasonal changes and typical seasonal weather and events. They learn about measuring the weather and the role of a meteorologist. Children begin to learn about the science of day and night and recognise that the seasons have varying day lengths in the UK. |
Year 2 - Uses of Materials | This project teaches children about the uses of everyday materials and how materials' properties make them suitable or unsuitable for specific purposes. They begin to explore how materials can be changed. |
Year 2 - Plant Survival | This project teaches children about the growth of plants from seeds and bulbs. They observe the growth of plants first hand, recording changes over time and identifying what plants need to grow and stay healthy. |
Year 3 - Forces and Magnets | This project teaches children about contact and non-contact forces, including friction and magnetism. They investigate frictional and magnetic forces, and identify parts of a magnet and magnetic materials. |
Year 4 - States of Matter | This project teaches children about solids, liquids and gases and their characteristic properties. They observe how materials change state as they are heated and cooled, and learn key terminology associated with these processes. |
Year 4 - Grouping and Classifying | This project teaches children about grouping living things, known as classification. They study the animal and plant kingdoms and use and create classification keys to identify living things. |
Year 5 - Human Reproduction and Ageing | This project teaches children about animal life cycles, including the human life cycle. They explore human growth and development to old age, including the changes experienced during puberty and human reproduction. |
Year 6 - Electrical Circuits and Components | This project teaches children about electrical circuits, their components and how they function. They recognise how the voltage of cells affects the output of a circuit and record circuits using standard symbols. It also teaches children about programmable devices, sensors and monitoring. They combine their learning to design and make programmable home devices. |
Summer Term Science Topics
Year 1 - Plant Parts | This project teaches children about wild and garden plants by exploring the local environment. They identify and describe the basic parts of plants and observe how they change over time. |
Year 1 - Animal Parts | This project teaches children about animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and invertebrates. They identify and describe their common structures, diets, and how animals should be cared for. |
Year 2 - Animal Survival | This project teaches children about growth in animals by exploring the life cycles of some familiar animals. They build on learning about the survival of humans by identifying the basic needs of animals for survival, including food, water, air and shelter. |
Year 3 - Plant Nutrition and Reproduction | This project teaches children about the requirements of plants for growth and survival. They describe the parts of flowering plants and relate structure to function, including the roots and stem for transporting water, leaves for making food and the flower for reproduction. |
Year 3 - Light and Shadows | This project teaches children about light and dark. They investigate the phenomena of reflections and shadows, looking for patterns in collected data. The risks associated with the Sun are also explored. |
Year 4 - Electrical Circuits and Conductors | This project teaches children about electrical appliances and safety. They construct simple series circuits and name their parts and functions, including switches, wires and cells. They investigate electrical conductors and insulators and identify common features of conductors. It also teaches children about programmable devices. They combine their learning to design and make a nightlight. |
Year 5 - Properties and Changes of Materials | This project teaches children about the wider properties of materials and their uses. They learn about mixtures and how they can be separated using sieving, filtration and evaporation. They study reversible and irreversible changes, and use common indicators to identify irreversible changes. |
Year 6 - Light Theory | This project teaches children about the way that light behaves, travelling in straight lines from a source or reflector, into the eye. They explore how we see light and colours, and phenomena associated with light, including shadows, reflections and refraction. |
Year 6 - Evolution and Inheritance | This project teaches children how living things on Earth have changed over time and how fossils provide evidence for this. They learn how characteristics are passed from parents to their offspring and how variation in offspring can affect their survival, with changes (adaptations) possibly leading to the evolution of a species. |
British Science Week 2023
This year the theme for British Science Week was 'connections'. We took part in various activities across the school which involved us thinking about and looking at different connections and how we are all connected to each other.
We held a poster competition, with some fantastic entries. The winners will be announced on 31st March!
Connections poster competition entries
British Science Week 2022 - Chicks
STEM Club (Year 4)
Crest STEM Club (Year 4)
We have been running a weekly STEM club for our current Year 4 class. Each week we investigate something new. We have built rafts, bridges, made cheese and taken fingerprints. We are working towards the Crest award and all participants will receive a certificate and badge on completion.
During academic year 2021 - 2022, we have had 18 children achieve the Crest award.
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