Lydgate Junior and Infant School

Here at Lydgate, our goal is to encourage our children to be curious about the world around them and question what they see every day. Science is taught regularly throughout the school, beginning in Reception, and these lessons build up the children’s scientific skills and knowledge, equipping them with solid foundations for understanding the world. Through these lessons, the children are able to learn about a variety of biology, chemistry and physics topics, including plants and animals, everyday materials, light, sound, and earth and space.

Reception - Science runs through the English lessons in Reception and the children are taught about materials, habitats, plants and water. Reception children are provided with lots of hands on learning opportunities, such as planting seeds, investigating whether materials are waterproof, and observing butterflies and chicks hatch and grow.

Key Stage 1 and 2 - As the children move up through school, our science lessons provide the children with a variety of opportunities to work scientifically, set within the context of exploring the world around them. We carry out comparative tests, classify and group, observe over time, research and look carefully for patterns, while in KS2 we also aim to develop the children’s awareness of the uses and implications of science. Practical lessons are at the heart of what we do, and the children really enjoy them! In these lessons they are encouraged to make predictions about what might happen, explain the method that we are using, and begin to analyse and reason about the results. At Lydgate we are very fortunate to have access to our brilliant school grounds, which we use at every possible opportunity to give the children more first-hand experience, particularly with looking for and identifying plants and other living things.

As teachers we are always looking for ways to make links across the curriculum, and science lessons provide us with excellent opportunities to do this. Asking the children to measure and record their own data works on their maths skills, while writing explanations about their findings improves their English abilities to name just two. We also feel that it is really important to teach the children about significant people who have influenced science, including Carl Linnaeus, Mary Anning, and Charles Darwin.

As we have mixed classes, we cover science for the key stage in a two year cycle.