Vision
The vision for science at Mawnan School is to encourage curiosity in children. We understand the importance that Science is growing rapidly in the modern world. We want all children to seek empowered action; to ask questions that fuel explorations and investigations about the world we live in through purposeful enquiry and a rich stimulating environment. Children at Mawnan school are challenged in science in order to develop a deeper understanding and become lifelong scientists.
Intent
At Mawnan School it is our aim to provide a high quality, meaningful Science curriculum which sparks passion, curiosity and respect for the world around us. It is our intention to harness our pupils’ inquisitive nature to empower them to question, explore and pursue scientific enquiry.
Research shows that the more ‘Science Capital’ a child has, the more likely they are to follow STEM subjects in their later life. We aim to bridge the STEM gap by offering our children rich, contextual experiences: utilising the wealth of nature on our doorstep; forging local links to higher education and STEM professionals; and interweaving relevant scientific links throughout our cross curricular topics. Through doing this we hope our children see how science is relevant to their own lives and interests as well as the value of scientific discoveries in modern day living and the future to come.
At Mawnan School we intend to:
- Evoke a sense of awe and wonder for phenomena, through the teaching and learning of scientific knowledge and concepts.
- Enable our children to understand and use scientific vocabulary to communicate their thinking and reasoning.
- Equip our children with the resilience, skills, methods and processes of scientific enquiry to help them answer questions about the world around them.
- Empower and inspire our children to see themselves as scientists, whereby they question, explore and challenge their thinking to create their own scientific enquiries.
- Excite and create a culture of enjoyment towards science, helping to instill scientific confidence, lifelong curiosity and inspire future generations of young scientists.
Implementation
At Mawnan, we foster positive attitudes towards science learning and reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving in science.
We implement:
- A curriculum that builds on prior knowledge and skills year on year. Due to the structure of our school, our curriculum, in most classes, is on a three year rolling cycle where we have taken our termly expeditions in to consideration: enabling contextualisation and the interweaving of scientific links across the wider curriculum where possible. Where some learning does not fit into this, it is taught discretely alongside an expedition to ensure full coverage of the ‘National Curriculum programmes of Science 2014’ and ‘Understanding the World’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
- Sequences of learning that challenge our pupils to ‘think scientifically’. Scientific enquiry skills are embedded into lessons across the curriculum to ensure these skills are being developed throughout our pupil’s learning journey at Mawnan. Over the course of an academic year, we aim for our pupils to carry out a range of hands-on investigations involving the different types of enquiry:
- Comparative and fair testing
- Research
- Observation over time
- Pattern seeking
- Identifying, grouping and classifying
- Problem solving
As our pupils progress through the school and their knowledge and understanding increases, they will become more proficient in selecting and using scientific equipment, collating and interpreting results and in turn, grow confidence in their ability to come to conclusions based on evidence.
- Built in opportunities for our pupils to discover and problem solve for themselves. Our teachers create safe, nurturing environments where our pupils can ask questions, hypothesise and explore their ideas as scientists. Teachers embed opportunities for our pupils to look at things from different lenses, build resilience and to work as a team to overcome challenges.
- Experiences that expose our pupils to the endless possibilities of careers in STEAM. We believe it is important for our pupil’s to see a diverse picture of ‘what a scientist looks like’. As such, we regularly utilise links with parents, Penryn College and Exeter University, as well as reaching out to the wider community and initiatives to inspire our children and hopefully evoke aspirations of a career in science.
- Enrichment days, such as Science week, school visits and in-school workshops which provide broader provision and opportunities to acquire and apply knowledge and skills in new contexts.
Penryn Creativity Collaborative Action Research Project
We are excited to be part of the Penryn Creativity Collaborative Action Research project. We are a part of the following group of schools and local businesses who are researching how creativity is manifested in the partnership, how those skills progress for all pupils and how this prepares us all for a creative future in the workforce.
The question that we are researched was, "How can children utilise creative skills to show empowered action in the KS1 science curriculum?"
Initially our focus was with our year 1/2 class with am aim to understand more at how the creative pedagogies are linked to Science, how children can use the creative skills to enhance their scientific enquiry approaches and to see how we can give children opportunities to develop their awe and wonder, their questioning or their thoughts behind science and to take more ownership.
From this research project, we know understand more about a creative curriculum and how this encourages learners to apply skills, apply knowledge and make creative decisions in their learning. Our learning has spread across the whole curriculum where all children have the chance to use their creative skills to harness and enhance their learning.