Science

At Falcons School, pupils are encouraged to work independently as well as collaboratively. Careful planning ensures that all the areas of the national curriculum for science are visited, often several times, throughout a child’s time in the school.  Creative, practical lessons with investigative work are at the core of our teaching to inspire pupils to develop their own sense of curiosity and understanding of the scientific world.  Science covers the three main areas of Life and Living Processes, Materials and their Properties and Physical Processes.

Early Years

Four and five year olds approach the world with great curiosity and use their imaginations to help understand it.  Hands-on explorations help them to separate reality from fantasy.  The pupils at Falcons are given the opportunity to participate in the planning and implementation of simple scientific investigations, and over the course of the year, will increase their abilities to make observations, gather information, compare data, describe and discuss observations, and form explanations.

Key Stage One

Five to six-year-olds are creative and enthusiastic problem solvers. They offer progressively more imaginative ideas for how to do a task, make something or solve longer-term or more abstract challenges.  As they participate in a variety of new experiences, our Year 1 pupils are able to ask more analytical questions and weigh their choices.  They are also more social as they learn new things and prefer activities that involve other children.

Scientific discovery for children in Year 2 is affected by their tendency to straddle the world between make-believe and reality. The Falcon School curriculum offers wonderful Science experiences, where pupils are immersed in first-hand investigation of the world around them.  This enables them to continue to build a reservoir of experiences from which they can begin to draw, as their thinking becomes more sophisticated.

Key Stage Two

Seven to eight year olds are endlessly curious; they ask lots of questions. In Year 3 pupils are encouraged to try to refrain from giving answers to questions too quickly, thus broadening their thinking and scientific development.

Eight to nine year-olds enjoy having the opportunity to solve problems independently.  At Falcons School the Year 4 pupils are given the opportunity to demonstrate more highly-developed thinking skills and to solve problems with creative strategies.

Year 5 sees a step up in scientific concepts, and our nine to ten-year-olds are encouraged to develop several skills as they explore germs to galaxies and everything in between. The pupils particularly enjoy excursions which allow them the opportunity to escape their local environment and test predictions in new settings

In Year 6 we focus on the nature of scientific inquiry as well as further developing our pupils’ ability to carry out a scientific investigation. The pupils are encouraged to ask questions about scientific concepts and then carry out experiments to find out the answers.

Trips and visits which complement the learning.

Each year we hold a whole school STEAM week giving our pupils the experience of visitors and well as workshops.  Throughout the year we also support the learning of science through educational visits which have included the Science museum, Kew Gardens and the Year 3, 4 and 6 residential trips.

Co-curricular activities that support science.

Co-curricular activities help in the overall development of personality and instil many values to our pupils.  Pupils can also become Eco-Warriors, representing their year group, with the mission of making the school greener, cleaner and more sustainable.