
Science





Learners maintain their natural curiosity through exploring, investigating and researching as scientists, noticing links to the wider world and their futures.
Vision
Children ask their own questions about the world and are supported to discover the answers themselves.
Children experience awe and wonder, and maintain their natural curiosity in how the world works.
All children work as a scientist and see that science is an important part of our world, and part of many jobs they could have in the future.
Children are enabled to explore new concepts through a broad range of topics within the curriculum, making links to their prior learning and other subjects.
Science teaching and learning is good at Craneswater when …

Overview
Year 3
Autumn
Topic: Animals including humans
Knowledge:
• identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat
• identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement
Skills: All working scientifically skills with a focus on asking questions and making predictions
Topic: Rocks
Knowledge:
• compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties
• describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock
• recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter
Skills: All working scientifically skills with a focus on asking questions and recording data
Spring
Topic: Forces and Magnets
Knowledge:
• compare how things move on different surfaces
• notice that some forces need contact between 2 objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance
• observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others
• compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials
• describe magnets as having 2 poles and predict whether 2 magnets will attract or repel each other
Skills: All working scientifically skills with a focus on making predictions and observing and measuring
Topic: Plants
Knowledge:
• identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers
• explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant
• investigate the way in which water is transported within plants
• explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal
Skills: All working scientifically skills with a focus on setting up tests, interpreting and communicating results, and evaluating
Summer
Topic: Light
Knowledge:
• recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light
• notice that light is reflected from surfaces
• recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes
• recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object
• find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change
Skills: All working scientifically skills with a focus on making predictions and observing and measuring
Year 5
Autumn
Topic: Forces
Knowledge:
• explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object
• identify the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces
• recognise that some mechanisms including levers, pulleys and gears allow a smaller force to have a greater effect
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on observing and measuring, and interpreting and communicating results
Topic: Earth and space
Knowledge:
• describe the movement of the Earth and other planets relative to the sun in the solar system
• describe the movement of the moon relative to the Earth
• describe the sun, Earth and moon as approximately spherical bodies
• use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on asking questions and making predictions
Spring
Topic: Properties and changes to materials
Knowledge:
• compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties
• know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution
• use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating
• give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials
• demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes
• explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on setting up data, recording data and evaluating
Summer
Topic: Living things and their habitats
Knowledge:
• describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird
• describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on observing and measuring, and interpreting and communicating results
Topic: Animals including humans
Knowledge:
• describe the changes as humans develop to old age
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on making predictions and recording data
Year 4
Autumn
Topic: States of Matter
Knowledge:
• compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases
• observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C)
• identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature
Skills
All working scientifically skills with a focus on making predictions, setting up tests and recording data
Spring
Topic: Sound
Knowledge:
identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating
• recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear
• find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it
• find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it
• recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases
Skills
All working scientifically skills with a focus on asking questions and observing and measuring
Topic: Living things and their habitats
Knowledge:
• recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
• explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment
• recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on asking questions and interpreting and communicating results
Summer
Topic: Animals including humans
Knowledge:
• describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans
• identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions
• construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on making predictions and interpreting and communicating results
Topic: Electricity
Knowledge:
•identify common appliances that run on electricity
• construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts
• identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit
• recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit
• recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on making predictions and evaluating
Year 6
Autumn
Topic: Electricity
Knowledge:
• associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit
• compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches
• use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on making predictions and observing and measuring
Topic: Light
Knowledge:
• recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines
• use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye
• explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes
• use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on setting up tests and interpreting and communicating
Spring
Topic: Animals including humans
Knowledge:
• identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood
• recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function
• describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on recording data and evaluating
Topic: Living things and their habitats
Knowledge:
• describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants and animals
• give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on asking questions and interpreting and communicating results
Summer
Topic: Evolution and inheritance
Knowledge:
• recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago
• recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents
• identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution
Skills:
All working scientifically skills with a focus on asking questions, making predictions and interpreting and communicating results