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
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. |
Spring Term Science Topics
Year 1 - Seasonal Changes | In the Seasonal Changes project, your child will learn about the four seasons. They will go out into the local environment to experience the weather. They will examine the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees, observing trees in the local environment. They will learn about how the seasons affect animals and make comparisons between them. They will find out what the weather is, what types of weather there are and what causes the weather. They will learn about what the weather is like in each season and discover why the lengths of daytime and night time change in different seasons. They will learn about the Sun and how to protect their skin from the Sun’s rays. They will observe and measure the wind, recording their data on a bar chart. They will learn how to read the temperature from a thermometer and record temperatures over a series of days. They will measure rainfall and carry out an investigation into the rain. They will learn about weather forecasts and symbols. |
Year 2 - Uses of Materials | In the Uses of Materials project, your children will learn the names and uses of everyday materials. They will find that materials can be shaped in different ways to make them more useful. They will test how different materials can be shaped and whether they will return to their original shape. They will learn that the properties of materials mean they can be used in different ways and that objects are made from materials that have suitable properties for their purpose. They will find that objects can be made from one material or more than one material and that the same object can be made from different materials with similar properties. Your child will label objects with their materials and think about their properties and uses. They will learn about paper and test the properties of different paper types. They will also find out about recycling and sustainability. |
Year 2 - Plant Survival | In the Plant Survival project, your child will learn the names of the different parts of a plant and how they grows. They observe how the seasonal changes affect how plants grow. They will learn how new plants can grow from seeds and bulbs and what they need to germinate. They will use their observational skills to find out where plants like to grow and investigate what plants need to grow and stay healthy. Your child will then use their research skills to find out about some unusual plants. |
Year 3 - Forces and Magnets | In the Forces and Magnets project, your child will learn what forces are and what they do. They will learn about pushing and pulling forces and sort different actions into pushes and pulls. They will identify and explain contact forces. They will learn about and investigate frictional forces. They will use force meters to measure the forces needed to carry out everyday tasks and record their measurements. They will learn about magnetism (a non-contact force) and explore bar magnets. They will find out about magnetic attraction, repulsion and magnetic fields. They will test the magnetic properties of different objects. They will learn about the magnetism of the Earth and how this enables compasses to work. They will use this knowledge to make compasses. They will learn about the uses of friction and magnetism and carry out research. They will use different methods to investigate the strength of magnets. |
Year 4 - States of Matter | In the States of Matter project, your child will identify and classify solids, liquids and gases. They will learn the properties of solids, liquids and gases and discover that some materials have properties of more than one state. They will learn that particles make up all matter and how their arrangement determines whether the material is a solid, liquid or gas. They will find that materials can change from one state to another and learn about how materials can change state. They will use thermometers to measure the temperature of water and observe what happens when water changes state. They will investigate melting ice and record their data on graphs. They will also learn about melting and boiling points, researching various materials' melting and boiling points. |
Year 4 - Grouping and Classifying | In the Grouping and Classifying project, your child will learn why we sort and group things and the important classification skills of observing and questioning. They will learn what classification keys are and how they identify living things. Your child will learn the characteristics of the five vertebrate groups and the six main invertebrate groups. They will learn how to identify vascular and non-vascular plants and sort vascular plants into the three main groups. They will also examine and classify real plants and create a classification key based on their observations. They will learn about some newly discovered plants and animals and use a classification key to classify each discovery. |
Year 5 - Human Reproduction and Ageing | In the Human Reproduction and Ageing project, your child will learn what life cycles are, order the stages of life cycles for different animal species and compare them. They will learn what mammals are and the five key mammalian characteristics. They will sort vertebrates, deciding whether or not they are mammals. They will look closely at different mammalian life cycles and make comparisons. They will investigate the relationship between the mass of mammals and how long they carry their young by creating and interpreting scatter graphs. They will learn about the stages and processes of the human life cycle. They will learn about human gestation from embryo to birth. They will investigate how humans change and develop from infant to adolescence in the juvenile stage. They will learn about the changes that happen during puberty. They will interpret data about human growth and learn about the human reproductive system and sexual reproduction. They will learn about how humans change as they get older. They will investigate how ageing affects reaction times. |
Year 6 - Electrical Circuits and Components | In the Electrical Circuits and Components project, your child will consolidate their understanding of the components that make up a circuit, such as a lamp, cell, wire and switch. They will make a range of circuits and use symbols to draw circuit diagrams. Your child will learn about electric currents and measure the voltage of different cells. They will discover how cells produce electricity and research questions about cells and batteries. Your child will also learn how the voltage across a circuit affects the performance of different components. They will explore how programmable devices are used in everyday life and create a program to switch a light on and off via a light sensor. They will use the knowledge gained throughout the project to design, make and evaluate a programmable home device. |
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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