Science teaching at St. Helen’s CE Primary School aims to give all children a strong understanding of the world around them, whilst acquiring specific skills and knowledge to help them to think scientifically, to gain an understanding of scientific processes and also an understanding of the uses and implications of Science, today and for the future. This will help them to think and act as scientists.

As a school, we want children to love science; have a deeper understanding and knowledge of the world around them and of the physical, chemical and biological processes that make our world; and to realise that these processes are based on a range of scientific evidence. We want our children to think, act, feel and believe that they are scientists. 

At St. Helen’s CE Primary School, scientific enquiry skills are embedded in each topic the children study and these topics are revisited and developed throughout their time at school. Topics, such as plants, are taught in Key Stage one and studied again in further detail throughout Key Stage two. This model allows children to build upon their prior knowledge and increases their enthusiasm for the topics, whilst embedding this procedural knowledge into the long-term memory.

All children are encouraged to develop and use a range of skills including observations, planning and investigations, as well as being encouraged to question the world around them and become independent learners in exploring possible answers for their scientific based questions. Specialist vocabulary for topics is taught and built up, and effective questioning to communicate ideas is encouraged. Concepts taught should be reinforced by focusing on the key features of scientific enquiry, so that pupils learn to use a variety of approaches to answer relevant scientific questions.