🔬 Science at St Mary’s Primary School Trust
Curriculum Intent
At St Mary’s Primary Schools Trust, we believe that Science unlocks curiosity, wonder, and a deeper understanding of the world around us. Our curriculum is designed to build the knowledge, skills, and vocabulary needed for children to observe, question, investigate and explain — laying the foundations for lifelong scientific thinking.
Implementation
🌱 Early Years Foundation Stage
In the EYFS, children begin to explore the natural world around them through purposeful, hands-on experiences. Our provision encourages:
- Curiosity, questioning and observation
- Exploring simple changes, patterns, and lifecycles (e.g., growing plants, observing minibeasts)
- Using their senses to investigate materials, living things, and seasonal changes
- Beginning to use scientific vocabulary such as plants, weather, light, grow, change, floating, melting
Learning is embedded through child-led exploration and guided enquiry, often linked to stories, outdoor learning, and cross-curricular themes.
🔍 Key Stage 1: Working Scientifically
As children move through KS1, they are taught to:
- Ask scientific questions and make predictions
- Carry out simple experiments and record observations
- Sort, classify and compare materials, living things, and conditions
- Use age-appropriate scientific language to discuss and describe findings
- Develop skills of enquiry through observing closely, measuring, identifying, grouping, and evaluating
Vocabulary such as observe, habitat, material, experiment, prediction, investigate, lifecycle is explicitly taught and embedded into daily practice, both orally and in writing.
🔍 Key Stage 2: Working Scientifically
We follow the PlanBee Primary Science scheme, which offers a carefully sequenced, knowledge-rich curriculum aligned with the National Curriculum. Each unit balances substantive scientific knowledge (what we know about the natural world) with disciplinary knowledge (how scientists work) in order that pupils not only learn facts, but also develop skills of enquiry, observation, analysis and critical thinking. Our approach is built on hands-on investigation, purposeful experimentation and real-world contextualisation. Pupils are encouraged to generate their own questions, test ideas, evaluate evidence and draw conclusions. We revisit key concepts across years to allow deepening of understanding and connection between topics. Differentiated tasks ensure all children—regardless of prior attainment—can access challenges and progress.
🔬 Scientific Knowledge and Concepts
Children are supported to explore key areas of scientific knowledge, including:
- Biology – animals, humans, plants, habitats and basic needs for survival
- Chemistry – everyday materials and their properties
- Physics – seasonal changes, light and forces (such as pushes and pulls)
Our science curriculum is taught through engaging topics and themes that are meaningful and connected to children’s experiences, including outdoor learning, visits to the local environment, and hands-on exploration.
💬 Talk for Science and Vocabulary Development
We place a strong emphasis on the development of scientific talk and vocabulary, in line with the National Curriculum’s focus on spoken language. Children are encouraged to:
- Use scientific terms in context
- Discuss their ideas clearly and confidently
- Explain their thinking using sentence stems and modelled structures
- Ask and answer ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what if’ questions
This helps build their cognitive, linguistic and social understanding, which supports both science learning and broader communication skills.
Impact
🌍 Awe, Wonder and Connection to the World
At St Mary’s, we foster a love of nature, respect for the environment, and care for all living things. Our children learn to see themselves as scientists and stewards of the Earth, making connections between classroom learning and real-world experiences.
Through science, children are encouraged to:
- Think critically and evaluate evidence
- Explore how things work and change
- See themselves as active investigators and problem-solvers
- Appreciate the beauty and complexity of God’s creation
By the time they leave St Mary’s, pupils are scientifically literate: they can reason, evaluate evidence and make informed decisions, ready to continue their journey in secondary school and become thoughtful contributors to a complex, changing world.