Aims & Purpose

Each subject leader regularly reviews the purpose and aims for their subjects.  These are based upon the National Curriculum statements, developed by a range of educational and subject-specific experts.  These statements lay out the aims of each subject at Dorney School.

Science

At Dorney School it is our intention to constantly enhance the Science Curriculum, which aims to develop scientific knowledge and skills alongside an enquiring mind as pupils learn how Science influences everyday life and our world.

Our Science enquiry encourages children to ask important questions about how things work and why things happen in a certain way. Ultimately, we believe this will help all children to understand the world they are growing up in and provide them with life skills to better access it as well as becoming creative thinkers and adults who strive to seek solutions to problems and answers to life’s questions.

Alongside scientific knowledge and the understanding of concepts, our children will develop curiosity and excitement about the natural world as well as use their skills to understand how Science can be used today and in the future.

All teachers ensure that pupils are exposed to high-quality teaching and learning experiences, which also allows children to explore their outdoor environment and engage with practical experiments. We immerse our children in scientific vocabulary, which aids children’s knowledge and understanding not only of the topic they are studying, but of the world around them. We intend to provide all children with a broad and balance science curriculum.

All children are provided with rich learning experiences that aim to:

• Be fully inclusive and ensure all pupils have full access to the Science Curriculum
• 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;
• Encourage open-mindedness, self-assessment, perseverance and developing the skills of different 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; and
• Make links between science and other subjects.

Curriculum Overviews

Our curriculum has been mapped to ensure that there is clear progression across the school. Subject leaders regularly review the topics taught in each year group to ensure that pupils are taught the right content at the right time.