Overall Aims
The Science faculty at Queensbury is a progressive department with a focus on active student learning; in which staff have high expectations of themselves, each other and our students. We believe that student’s lives can be enriched by a knowledge and understanding of science. Through science, pupils understand how major scientific ideas contribute to technological change – impacting on industry, business and medicine and improving quality of life.
| KS3 | Intent (Why are we doing it) | Implement (How we are going to do it) | Impact (What we want to see and develop) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Learning to Be and Live together Focussed on developing common everyday aspects of science, including science of their own bodies and science in their homes. | Help develop and extend our pupil’s scientific concept of themselves and daily encounters through concrete learning. | Skills which equip them to progress from their starting points, and within their everyday lives. |
| Explorer | Learning to Live together and Know Immersed in scientific vocabulary, which aids children’s knowledge and understanding not only of the topic they are studying, but of the world around them | Build on our students’ natural curiosity and developing a scientific approach to problems through real life context. | A richer vocabulary which will enable our young learners to articulate their understanding of science around them. Developed use of scientific language, recording and techniques. |
| Navigator | Learning to Know and Do Through building up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts, pupils are encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. | Encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes. | Enable the children to articulate scientific concepts clearly and precisely, assisting them in making their thinking clear, both to themselves and others. |
| Venture | Learning to Know and Do Flexibility in the learning of science to suit the cohort. Build up a body of key foundational knowledge and concepts, pupils are encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. | Encouraged to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes. | Enable the children to articulate scientific concepts clearly and precisely, assisting them in making their thinking clear, both to themselves and others. |
| Quest | Through the delivery of Science, we aim to develop the understanding of the body and science in the home. | Help develop and extend our pupil’s scientific concept of themselves and their daily encounters through investigations to concreate their understanding. | Skills which equip them to progress from their starting points, and within their everyday lives both in and out of the home. |
| KS4 | Intent (Why are we doing it) | Implement (How we are going to do it) | Impact (What we want to see and develop) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Learning to Be and Live together Developing student’s ideas and ways of working that enable them to make sense of the world in which they live. | Help our pupils acquire a growing understanding of the nature, processes and some methods of scientific ideas. | Acquire knowledge related to the science curriculum, but also skills which equip them to have a greater awareness of themselves, their environment in which they live and the world around them. |
| Explorer | Learning to Live together and Know Develop pupil’s ideas and ways of working that enable them to make sense of the world in which they live through investigation, as well as using and applying process skills. | Prepare our students for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world today and in the future. | A wide variety of skills linked to both scientific knowledge and understanding, and scientific enquiry skills. |
| Navigator | Learning to Know and Do Equipped with the scientific skills required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future. Support them in their journey for life after school. | Encouraging open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance and developing the skills of investigation – including: observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating. | A wider variety of skills linked to both scientific knowledge and understanding, and scientific enquiry/investigative skills. High aspirations, which will see them through to further study, work and a successful adult life. |
| Venture |
Examples
The learning is supported through educational trips/ visits such as the yearly trip for KS4 students to RAF Cosford. At KS3 some groups visit the butterfly farm whilst learning about living things. Students have an opportunity to enter national competitions such as the ASDA plastics pollution poster competition.
Careers has been embedded within the science curriculum. We aim to have a mixture of trips/ visitors to support our students understanding of the careers within science and other STEM subjects.
This year we will be introducing STEM Ambassadors. The ambassadors will be involved in supporting activities relating to STEM including supporting the yearly British Science Week activities.
* Learning to Be, Learning to Live Together, Learning to Know and Learning to Do are the four pillars of education described by Jacques Delors in his report for UNESCO on Education in the 21st Century.