In the Foundation Stage children begin by exploring and finding out about the world around them through practical experiences, through independent play opportunities and also through more structured focused explorations guided by the nursery staff. This continues into the Reception classes where learning is still very much play based and led by the child’s discoveries and interests. Assessment is included as part of the child’s learning journey and is formally assessed at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage against the Understanding the World area of learning.

In Key Stage 1 and 2 the pupils follow the new national curriculum for science which ensures that they :

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
• develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them.
• are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

Science for our Key stage 1 pupils continues to be based around play and exploration but also focuses more on trying to explain why things might have happened and beginning to think about testing and investigating children’s own ideas about what they see happening in the world around them. We follow the New National Curriculum and work on the themes of working scientifically, plants and animals including humans, habitats, everyday materials and their uses and seasonal changes. We also enrich the curriculum by including some work on electricity, forces and care of the environment.

In Key Stage 2 we follow the New National Curriculum and link our work closely with the termly themes that children are working on. Science is taught well and Aslacton Primary School has recently received the National Primary Science Award. The topics covered fall under the categories of working scientifically, plants and animals including humans, the digestive system and teeth, forces and magnets, states of matter, electricity, sound, properties of materials, mixtures and solutions, light and shadows, evolution and inheritance and micro-organisms.

In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 we assess children against the new national curriculum expectations to say where they are working in relation to age related expectations (beginning, developing, embedded and depth).