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The Future is Mine

Science

Along with English and Maths, Science remains one of the main core subjects in Primary Schools. Science can be one of the most exciting and practical subjects and, as a result, is a real joy for teachers and pupils. Children love the chance to learn through being totally hands-on and finding things out for themselves - Science is the perfect way to understand the world around us, as we live in an age of Science. It is present all around us, whether we're looking at how sugar dissolves in our cup of tea or why the light comes on when we flick the switch. At Chopwell we believe, a positive primary science experience is also key to encouraging future generations to not only study this at secondary school, but also potentially to follow it as a career.

Curriculum Maps

Science Policy

Science Policy 2018.docx

Science in EYFS

Understanding of the world educational programme (taken from the EYFS Framework 2020)

Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.

The children in Chopwell Primary School :

Explore their own bodies and their senses
Learn to name the parts of the body and what we use them for.
Learn about animals and their habitats, including pets, farm animals and wild animals.
Observe changes such as chicks hatching and caterpillars turning into butterflies, the seasons changing, plants and flowers growing. They are supported to notice and talk about what is happening and why.
Learn about being healthy, including eating a range of foods and taking part in exercise.
Develop a sense of curiosity and exploration through a range of resources relating to our topics, eg magnets, magnifying glasses, colour paddles, things to smell and taste etc, and through the continuous provision areas such as sand, water, small world, construction etc.

Year 1 Science - Plants

This week in science Year 1 have been learning all about wild plants. In Year 1 we can name lots of wildflowers including: nettles, dandelions, dog roses, daisies, buttercups, ivy and clovers. The children went on a hunt around forest school to see how many they could find. They also planted some wildflower seeds to grow- Mr Lockey kindly helped! The children can't wait to see how the wildflowers grow next year.

Year 4 - Observing how shadows change during the day

Reception Space Parent Workshop

Reception children and their parents enjoyed working with Newcastle University during a STEM workshop. We read a space story and then used Lego to create a range of things we might find in space!

Year 5 have been learning about Earth and Space this half term. Today we learned about the phases of the moon and we used Oreos to represent each phase.

Year 5- Light

In Year 5 we have been studying 'light'. We have been looking at how different materials are: absorbed, transmitted and reflected. We tested out different materials and ordered them from most reflective to most transmitted. After this, we investigated whether it is possible to see around corners. We discovered that light can reflect off mirrors and we can use mirrors to see around a corner, as long as they are on an angle. We looked at periscopes and discovered that they are used today. Miss Hillary set us a challenge to make a our own periscope using 2 mirrors, cereal boxes and tape- we really enjoyed it and some of the periscopes worked, as we played eye spy on some of the teachers in school!

Year 5 - Light

Year 6 - Heart Dissecting

Today year six were taking their learning about the heart one step further by dissecting hearts - well, the children weren't exactly dissecting the hearts themselves. The children (that wanted to) got to explore how blood travels through the heart by examining the heart of a sheep closely. They were able to use scientific language to explain the process and were able to get hands on; touching and poking parts of the heart that they recognized.

Bringing our year 3/4 electricity topic to life at Cragside.

STEM club

We try lots of things at STEM club- for the last few weeks we've been using Polydron to build different structures, following instructions but also discussing what makes our structures strong.