Science

Intent

At Kielder Primary School and Nursery, our science curriculum is designed to develop curious, knowledgeable and articulate scientists who understand the world around them and can explain it with increasing accuracy, confidence and precision. We aim to inspire pupils to ask questions, investigate phenomena and make sense of the natural and physical world through a carefully sequenced and ambitious curriculum.

Our bespoke science curriculum has been deliberately designed to ensure that all pupils, including those in mixed-age classes, build secure scientific knowledge over time, revisit and strengthen key concepts, and progressively develop the skills required to work scientifically. Units are structured to ensure that pupils acquire both substantive knowledge (the scientific facts, concepts and content) and disciplinary knowledge (how science works, including enquiry, evidence and evaluation).

We intend for pupils to:

• Develop a secure and connected body of scientific knowledge across biology, chemistry and physics from EYFS to Year 6.

• Learn, use and retain precise scientific vocabulary, enabling them to talk, read and write about science with increasing clarity and accuracy.

• Understand and apply the processes of working scientifically, including observing, questioning, investigating, measuring, recording, analysing and evaluating.

• Apply scientific thinking to real-world contexts, including through meaningful links to our local rural environment and wider curriculum.

• Communicate scientific ideas confidently through discussion, practical work and purposeful writing, in line with national expectations and the school’s approach to literacy.

Our science curriculum is ambitious for all learners and is designed to ensure that pupils are well prepared for the next stage of education, regardless of cohort size or age mix. This aligns closely with our Thrive and Excel @ Kielder Framework by developing pupils’ academic confidence, curiosity, communication, resilience and reflective thinking, supporting them to thrive as independent learners and critical thinkers.

Implementation

Our science curriculum is implemented through clearly sequenced units that set out:

• Core knowledge that all pupils are expected to learn and remember.

• Key vocabulary, including both disciplinary (Tier 2) and topic-specific (Tier 3) vocabulary, which is explicitly taught, revisited and used in context.

• Progressive ‘I can’ statements that show increasing depth, accuracy and independence across year groups.

• Planned opportunities to work scientifically within every unit, ensuring consistent development of enquiry skills.

Curriculum Structure, Sequencing and Mixed-Age Design

Units are mapped carefully across KS1 and KS2 to ensure full coverage of the National Curriculum without unnecessary repetition. Knowledge is deliberately revisited and built upon so that pupils make meaningful connections between concepts over time.

In our mixed-age classes, progression is secured through:

• Clear expectations for different year groups within the same unit.

• Carefully sequenced ‘I can’ statements that show increasing complexity and independence.

• Long-term curriculum mapping that ensures pupils encounter and revisit key scientific ideas in a logical order.

This ensures that learning is pitched to pupils’ stage of development, rather than simply their chronological age, and that individual pupils build securely on prior learning as they move through curriculum cycles.

Knowledge and Vocabulary Progression

A distinctive strength of our science curriculum is the explicit focus on vocabulary progression. Across both KS1 and KS2, pupils are taught to use:

• Tier 2 disciplinary vocabulary (e.g. observe, measure, fair test, variable, evidence, conclusion), which supports understanding of how science works.

• Tier 3 topic-specific vocabulary (e.g. habitat, friction, orbit, condensation), which enables pupils to talk precisely about scientific content.

Progression frameworks in both KS1 and KS2 clearly set out increasing expectations for how pupils use this vocabulary — from recognising and naming in earlier years, to explaining, analysing, evaluating and justifying using precise scientific language in upper KS2. This ensures that pupils not only learn new words, but use them meaningfully to think, reason and communicate like scientists. 

Teaching and Learning

Lessons are structured to build understanding over time and to develop both knowledge and disciplinary thinking.

Teachers:

• Activate prior knowledge and explicitly introduce or revisit key vocabulary at the start of lessons.

• Use practical investigations purposefully to deepen conceptual understanding, rather than as isolated activities.

• Model scientific thinking and language, supporting pupils to explain what is happening and why.

• Encourage pupils to ask questions, make predictions, plan enquiries, collect data, record findings and evaluate outcomes.

This approach ensures that pupils develop secure understanding of both scientific content and the processes of scientific enquiry.

Working Scientifically and Skills Progression

Opportunities to work scientifically are built into every unit. Across the school, pupils progressively develop skills in:

• Observing closely and using appropriate equipment.

• Measuring and recording accurately.

• Identifying variables and planning fair tests.

• Collecting, presenting and interpreting data.

• Drawing conclusions and using evidence to justify ideas.

• Evaluating methods and suggesting improvements.

Expectations for these skills increase from KS1 to upper KS2, enabling pupils to move from simple observation and recording to designing investigations, analysing data and evaluating reliability and accuracy.

Literacy, Oracy and Communication in Science

Science makes a strong contribution to the school’s literacy and oracy curriculum. Pupils regularly engage in:

• Structured scientific talk, including partner discussion, whole-class explanation and questioning.

• Note-making, explanations, reports and evaluations.

• Purposeful scientific writing with clear audiences and purposes.

This supports pupils to apply transcriptional and compositional skills in meaningful contexts, while also strengthening their ability to reason, justify and explain using scientific language. This aligns with the TEK Framework’s emphasis on communication, metacognition and academic confidence.

Assessment, Adaptation and Inclusion

Ongoing formative assessment and Proof of Progress (POP) tasks are used to identify what pupils know, remember and can apply. Teachers use this information to:

• Revisit key knowledge and address misconceptions.

• Adapt teaching and provide targeted support or challenge.

• Ensure that learning builds securely over time.

SEND pupils are supported through careful scaffolding, adapted resources and pre-teaching of vocabulary, ensuring access to the same ambitious curriculum and enabling all pupils to succeed.

Impact

The impact of our science curriculum is seen in pupils who:

• Know more and remember more about key scientific concepts as they move through the school.

• Use scientific vocabulary accurately and confidently when speaking and writing.

• Can explain their thinking, justify conclusions and reflect on investigations using evidence.

• Show curiosity about the natural and physical world and confidence in exploring scientific ideas.

• Demonstrate increasing independence and sophistication in working scientifically.

• Are well prepared for the demands of science at Key Stage 3.

Assessment information, pupils’ work, discussions and lesson observations demonstrate that learning builds securely over time and that pupils are developing both strong substantive knowledge and increasingly secure disciplinary understanding.

Through our science curriculum, pupils leave Kielder Primary School and Nursery with the knowledge, skills and confidence to question, investigate and understand the world around them. They also demonstrate the TEK Framework competencies of curiosity, communication, resilience and reflective thinking, enabling them to thrive as learners and as informed, scientifically literate citizens.