Science
Intent
At Edgware Primary School, we want every child to experience the excitement of science — to ask questions about the world around them, investigate with curiosity and build a deep, lasting understanding of how and why things work. From the Early Years Foundation Stage onwards, children begin to develop a body of foundational scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding that grows progressively throughout their time with us.
Our curriculum is designed to develop children as scientific thinkers — able to observe, question, hypothesise, investigate and evaluate with increasing confidence and rigour. Scientific vocabulary is taught and applied throughout, and children are given regular opportunities to discuss their thinking, challenge ideas and communicate their findings in a variety of ways.
We want our children to:
- Acquire and apply scientific skills, knowledge and language with growing independence.
- Develop the skills of scientific enquiry — including observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, interpreting and evaluating.
- Use ICT effectively to support investigation and recording.
- Become confident communicators of scientific ideas, facts and data.
- Develop a natural curiosity and a scientific approach to problems.
- Foster concern for, and active care of, our environment.
Implementation
Science is taught weekly in focused topic blocks, giving children the time to develop their knowledge and skills in depth. The curriculum is carefully sequenced so that each year group builds upon prior learning, with key strands running across year groups and key stages to ensure breadth, depth and coherence.
Our approach is progressive across the school. In the EYFS, children explore their environment through play and guided interaction — sorting, observing, asking simple questions and making early recordings. In KS1, children begin to investigate more formally, developing skills in questioning, measuring and recording. By KS2, children demonstrate their understanding through fair testing, scientific prediction and increasingly sophisticated presentation of data and findings.
Across all year groups, children carry out investigations using a range of enquiry approaches, including:
- Fair testing
- Research
- Observation over time
- Pattern seeking
- Identifying, grouping and classifying
- Problem solving
Key vocabulary is introduced at the start of each topic and applied throughout. Before teaching begins, teachers pre-assess children's existing knowledge and understanding, using this to inform planning. Assessment for learning is embedded in every lesson to identify and address misconceptions as they arise, and children reflect on and consolidate their learning at the end of each topic.
We enrich the curriculum through educational visits, visiting speakers and an annual Science Week, which deepens children's engagement and brings science to life beyond the classroom. As an accredited Eco School, we embed environmental responsibility throughout our science teaching, encouraging children to understand their relationship with the natural world and take action to protect it.
Impact
By the time children leave Edgware Primary, they will have built a secure body of scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding, across different areas of science. Children will be able to recall and apply key vocabulary accurately, and will understand not just what scientists have discovered, but how and why scientific enquiry matters.
Children will have developed strong practical and analytical skills — able to plan investigations, record data carefully, identify patterns and evaluate their findings with increasing sophistication. They will be effective communicators of scientific ideas, comfortable presenting their thinking in a range of forms.
Above all, we want children to leave with a genuine love of science — curious, questioning young people who see science not just as a curriculum subject, but as a way of understanding and engaging with the world. Our Eco School accreditation reflects our commitment to ensuring that this curiosity extends to a real sense of environmental responsibility and stewardship.
The impact of our curriculum is monitored through teacher assessment at the start and end of each topic, lesson-level assessment for learning, and regular review by leaders to ensure progression is being achieved for all pupils.