Science

“The future belongs to the curious. The ones who are not afraid to try it, explore it, poke at it, question it and turn it inside out.”

Anonymous

At St Lawrence Catholic Primary School, the intent of our science curriculum is to ensure all children leave the school with a secure foundation of scientific knowledge and practical skills. This understanding will help to ensure all children have the ability to be successful in any potential future learning and enjoyment in the scientific field. We want our children to be determined, enthusiastic and motivated about science learning. We nurture the natural curiosity of our children during science lessons, enabling them to become independent in thought and actions and encouraging them to develop self-motivation and a life-long love of science learning.

We believe that science stimulates and excites children's curiosity about phenomena and events in the world around them. It also satisfies their curiosity with knowledge. This is because science links direct practical experience with ideas and it can engage learners at many levels. We believe that science will lead to a better understanding of ourselves and the world. It provides opportunities to appreciate scientific facts and concepts and to experience scientific discovery. Science is a crucial subject to expand curious minds. St Lawrence Catholic Primary School is a member of the Association for Science Education. Our primary science curriculum provides a useful starting point for teachers in planning and developing science lessons.

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in Science, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. We plan to ensure full coverage of, ‘The National Curriculum programmes of study for Science 2014’ and, ‘Understanding of the World’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

We ensure that all children are provided with rich learning experiences that aim to:

Prepare our children for life in an increasingly scientific and technological world today and in the future.
Help our children acquire a growing understanding of the nature, processes and methods of scientific ideas.
Help develop and extend our children’s scientific concept of their world.
Build on our children’s natural curiosity and developing a scientific approach to problems.
Encouraging open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance and developing the skills of investigations including: observing, measuring, predicting, hypothesising, experimenting, communicating, interpreting, explaining and evaluating.
Develop the use of scientific language, recording and techniques.
Develop the use of computing in investigating and recording.
Make links between science and other subjects.

Our Science Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.

The successful approach to the teaching of Science at St Lawrence Catholic Primary School results in a fun, engaging, high-quality science education, that provides children with the foundations for understanding the world.Teaching staff use a wide range of formative assessment tools during lessons to judge the impact that the teaching of science is having on the children's learning.

The Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) is an award scheme to celebrate the quality of science teaching and learning in primary schools. St Lawrence Catholic Primary School is very excited to be working towards the PSQM (Primary Science Quality Mark). Through staff and pupil questionnaires, our starting points have been established and a range of activities and strategies are being implemented to ensure that learners remain enthused and inspired by science as well as challenged and resilient.

19.10.22 - In September 2022, we were thrilled to achieve the Primary Science Quality Mark. Primary Science Quality Marks have been awarded to schools to celebrate a commitment to excellence in science teaching and learning. The Primary Science Quality Mark is led by the University of Hertfordshire in collaboration with the Primary Science Teaching Trust.

Celebrating Science Week at St. Lawrence - A round of applause for the incredible students at St. Lawrence who have shown outstanding enthusiasm and curiosity during Science Week 2024!

Exploring the theme of Time, our budding scientists have embarked on a journey of discovery through a wide range of captivating investigations. From experimenting with cornflour slime to creating vibrant rainbows and lava lamps, every activity has been an opportunity to unlock the mysteries of science.

We've witnessed the joy and excitement as the children tested waterproof boats, built towering spaghetti and marshmallow structures, and looked into the secrets of ink in pens. Their confidence in describing their findings reflects their deep engagement and understanding of the scientific process.

Congratulations to all the students for their curiosity, creativity, and dedication to exploring the wonders of science. Let's continue to nurture this spirit of inquiry and discovery throughout the year!

Well done, children of St. Lawrence! Keep shining brightly as the future scientists and innovators of tomorrow!

Science Week at St Pauls Catholic College - On Thursday 9^th March 2023, some of the year 5 students went on a trip to St. Paul’s Catholic College to experience the joys of Science Week. It was a truly amazing event. We did a variety of different science experiments, including heat, light, sound and many more. For example, for the heat experiment, we used a battery and put it on some metal strings. As a result, we saw small sparks appear on the metal strings. Another experiment we did was an experiment to do with sound. In this experiment, we listened to the difference in sound when changed by an amplifier. Lastly, we did and experiment with magnets where we put 3 magnets into tubes of different materials (plastic, metal and metal with copper wire twisted around it). We observed that the magnet went through the plastic tube the quickest, as there was no magnetic force pulling on it. All in all, it was an amazing afternoon and everyone enjoyed it. Thank you Ms Lapinska and Mrs Sullivan for arranging it for us. By Maria

The Science Club at St Lawrence Catholic Primary School allows the science ambassadors from Year 1 all the way to Year 6 to develop their passions for science, through exciting, hands on experiments.

Due to coronavirus restrictions, science club is held online with meetings on google classroom every Thursday under the supervision and guidance of Ms Lapinska.

Our children were given many opportunities to participate in fun experiments that they could do in their own homes. They learnt important science skills such as predicting and observing through enjoyable practical activities. They experimented with bubbles, tested reflective materials with light and made music with household objects. Our scientists were encouraged and given lots of time to fully expand their science skills and gain new practical skills while carrying out hands on activities.

Look at how much fun our Science Club ambassadors have had !

The Chicks have Hatched - Autumn 2021 - Children in Year 2 learned about life cycles as they carefully observed chicks hatching from their eggs. The children learned how to care for the chicks, providing them with food, water and shelter. They also observed their growth and documented their changes in a daily diary.

Science Week 5th-9th July 2021 - We celebrated Science week by incorporated all areas of the curriculum into a fun filled week based on the theme ‘Innovating for the future’. Our children engaged in a wide range of scientific experiments and even designed their very own inventions. Year 3 and 4 also joined a live Zoom session ‘All about Earth’ and year 5 and 6 ‘All about Space’. Our children had so much fun expanding their science skills through practical activities.