St Wulstan's Catholic Primary School

We come to school to Love, Learn and Share in the Light of Jesus

Church Lane, Wolstanton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. ST5 0EF

01782 973722

Science at St Wulstan's

Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world’s future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science.

VISION

At St Wulstan’s Science is important to us because it gives the children opportunities to think innovatively about and develop a curiosity towards, the world around them. Our pupils are able to explore and engage in scientific topics that challenge their thinking and encourage curiosity. Through enquiry led approaches and practical investigations our pupils are inspired to gain knowledge whilst working scientifically. Through St Wulstan’s already creative curriculum, we are striving to develop our impact on the pupils’ science capital by ensuring that regardless of their background and prior exposure we aim to inspire all our children to see that science is ‘for them’In increasing our influence on science capital, we hope to build a strong science legacy, raising standards of progress and attainment and developing our pupils’ natural curiosity to improve their future prospects of growing up in a world heavily defined by technological and scientific advances. Through our science teaching, we hope to engender a sense of responsibility as we develop understanding our role as custodians of God’s world for future generations 

 

Assessment in Science
At St Wulstan's Catholic Primary School, we employ ongoing formative assessment as a central strategy for assessing children’s retention of knowledge in Science. Assessments focus on the key knowledge identified in the subject’s curriculum plans.
The key knowledge is transformed into precise questions for each lesson. Once the lesson is complete, children answer these questions through personal responses that demonstrate their understanding.
Staff may support children by providing key vocabulary for contextual accuracy and visual prompts or scaffolds as needed.
The outcomes of these responses are used to identify and address misconceptions, facilitate focused discussions, and inform the planning of future lessons, including retrieval activities to consolidate learning.
For SEND children or those with barriers to writing, staff may scribe verbal responses or use assistive technologies such as Talking Tins to capture the child’s understanding effectively.
Following their initial responses, children reflect and improve their answers using purple pen. This process, supported by teacher feedback and peer discussion, encourages deeper understanding and refinement of their knowledge.
At the end of each unit, children complete a summative assessment. Teachers mark these assessments, and any identified misconceptions are addressed through targeted teaching in subsequent lessons.
A combination of summative unit assessments, responses to key questions, and ongoing formative assessment informs termly teacher assessments. These are recorded on Insight and shared with governors during Standards and Provision meetings.

 

PRINCIPLES

Within our Science teaching the key principles are:

 

  • The development of strong enquiry skills.
  • The chance to investigate and solve real life issues.
  • The experience of using up to date scientific resources.
  • The chance to work both independently and collaboratively on tasks.

 

Science in the classroom

Look at some of the fantastic activities that we have been doing to help us with our science learning...