Curriculum
Our curriculum is based around the National Curriculum 2014.
Overview
The national curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.
Follow this link to the Department of Education website.
Please use the links below to find out what our children will be taught.
Our Curriculum
please expand the topics below for more information
Curriculum Support
Leaflets showing National Curriculum Objectives for Each Year Group
Click here for a Primary Curriculum Website
Phonics:
Spelling and Grammar:
Remember! Only use the Internet with an adult’s permission.
If you see something you don’t like, tell an adult about it.
Please use the links below to our favourite websites:
Conker KIRFs – Practise your KIRFs the fun way
Hit the Button – Tables practice
SAT Booster
Please click on the link (picture below) to see how your child can prepare for their KS2 mathematics SATs whether they are in Year 5 or 6. For Year 6, there are topic boosters and past papers with video tutorials to help target specific weaknesses. For Year 5, there is a mini-maths (less than 5 minute) video for every day of the year to help establish a daily routine and thinking-outside-the-box puzzles. The resources can be used on PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile phones via the website.
Ask for the password at school to unlock the pages.
YouTube help buttons for every question!
Art and Design
Intention
At Mill Hill we believe that:
- A high quality art education provides the specific skills in a variety of themes and through studying a range of artists and art movements/styles.
- Art inspires children, developing their knowledge and understanding, and curiosity about inspirational artists and artwork.
- Art enables children to develop techniques and a range of skills.
Implementation
At Mill Hill, Art and Design is planned carefully to allow children from Foundation stage up to Year 6, exposure to a range of knowledge and skills, building and mastering techniques so by the end of their time with us, will be confident in drawing, painting, sculpture and other forms of art and design techniques. End of year expectations and detailed progression maps for the whole school support accurate assessment in art and ensure a dynamic and exciting curriculum is offered.
Techniques on a page
British Values
At Mill Hill Primary School we uphold and teach pupils about the British Values as directed under Ofsted guidance, September 2014:
‘ensure that they and the school promote tolerance of and respect for people of all faiths (or those of no faith), cultures and lifestyles; and support and help, through their words, actions and influence within the school and more widely in the community, to prepare children and young people positively for life in modern Britain’
British Values are defined as
- democracy
- rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect
- tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs
We aim to actively promote British Values through our assemblies, whole school systems and structures, such as electing and running a School Council. We also promote the British values through ensuring that our curriculum planning and delivery includes opportunities for exploring these values.
Democracy
Children, parents and staff have many opportunities for their voices to be heard at our school. Democracy is central to how we operate – we are proud to be a Community Primary School and see ourselves as being central to our community.
Rule of law
The importance of laws and rules, whether they are those govern the class, the school or the country are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days.
Individual Liberty
Pupils are actively encouraged to make choices at our school, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school we provide opportunities for our children to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe and planned curriculum.
Mutual Respect
At Mill Hill we show respect to each other regardless of any differences. Different cultural events take place throughout the school year encouraging children to learn about and show respect for different cultures.
Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs
At Mill Hill we aim to enhance pupils’ understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society through a range of experiences.
Design and Technology
Intention
Design and Technology teaches pupils how to work logically, researching, exploring, creating and evaluating. Projects in each year group focus on developing the pupils’ problem solving skills alongside promoting creative thinking. Key knowledge and skills are developed through giving pupils opportunity to research, design, make and evaluate. Pupils develop an understanding of the role design and technology plays both in our society and globally.
Implementation
Each year group completes 3 projects during the year, one which focuses on cooking and nutrition. Projects are planned around the 3 p’s principle – a product for a person with a purpose. Key knowledge and skills for each year group are identified and pupils are assessed in relation to these at the end of each project. Skills include cutting, joining, assembling and shaping.
English
Mill Hill understands the need for all pupils to develop their knowledge of writing, reading, speaking and listening as an essential skill to access the wider curriculum and world.
Intent:
- For every child to see themselves as writers and readers
- For children to be inspired by and to love reading and writing a variety of genres
- To provide a consistently planned and sequenced curriculum which has been designed and developed with the needs of the children at its centre.
Implementation
In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in English, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school.
Planning for English is a process in which all teachers are involved to ensure that the school gives full coverage of, ‘The National Curriculum programmes of study for English 2014’; ‘Communication and Language’ and ‘Literacy’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage. English teaching at Mill Hill involves adapting and extending the curriculum to match all pupils’ needs. A daily writing opportunity is provided for all children at Mill Hill through high quality texts and teaching. Our planning is carried out in team year groups of Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6 to ensure that children are pushed and challenged throughout their writing education. Teachers plan a series of lessons across a half term that are linked to the chosen text, with an expectation of approximately one unit outcome every fortnight. Within this, a variety of genres and writing opportunities are provided for all children to develop a varied writing experience. Across school, teachers and children follow the ‘Collect, Collate, Create’ process. This ensures that children are taught relevant skills, exposed to high level vocabulary, and have a regular opportunity to write at length. When appropriate, children will be able to publish their writing in line with the purpose of their text.
We ensure that all children are provided with rich learning experiences that aim to:
- Prepare our children for life in an increasingly text-rich world and inspiring them to possibilities for the future.
- Build on our children’s natural curiosity and interest through choosing appropriate books for pleasure.
- Encouraging the drafting process by self and peer-assessment and perseverance.
- Develop the use of spelling, grammar and punctuation in line with our policy.
- Develop the use of computing for typing at length and publishing needs.
- Make links between other subjects and current world events.
Impact:
The impact of our rigorous English curriculum, ensures that children are exposed to the appropriate age related knowledge. Along with this, they gain the skills which equip them to progress from their starting points, and within their everyday lives.
All children will have:
- a wider variety of reading, writing and speaking and listening skills
- a richer vocabulary which will enable children to apply in their writing, along with their everyday lives
- high aspirations, which will see them through to further study, work and a successful adult life
English plays an important part in the social and personal development of children. We teach our pupils to read, write, speak and listen so as to promote not only enjoyment but also a sense of achievement. We give our children opportunities to develop all their language skills through narratives, poetry, non-fiction and plays amongst other genres.
We provide a large and varied selection of books in the class and school library. We actively encourage parents to support the child’s reading at home, making reading pleasurable and free from pressure.
Phonics and Reading
In Reception we will teach your child to read using phonics. This is where the children learn the sounds each letter makes and blend these together to make words. In school we have just moved onto using the validated scheme ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ and are rolling this out through Summer Term 2022 for a full launch in September 2022. For more information on how this scheme works click on this link for resources for parents https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Click to see our:
Whole School Reading Curriculum Overview
Spoken Language Curriculum Overview
Early Reading and Phonics Policy
Spelling Rules for Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
Geography
Intention
At Mill Hill we believe that:
- A high quality geography education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the knowledge of location, interactions and development.
- Geography inspires children, developing their sense of excitement and curiosity about the world around them.
- Geography enables children to develop an essential range of skills that are useful across all learning.
Mill Hill uses Kapow’s Primary Geography scheme of work as a resource and aims to inspire pupils to become curious and explorative thinkers with a diverse knowledge of the world; in other words, to think like a geographer. We want pupils to develop the confidence to question and observe places, measure and record necessary data in various ways, and analyse and present their findings. Through our scheme of work, we aim to build an awareness of how Geography shapes our lives at multiple scales and over time. We hope to encourage pupils to become resourceful, active citizens who will have the skills to contribute to and improve the world around them.
Our scheme of work encourages:
- A strong focus on developing both geographical skills and knowledge.
- Critical thinking, with the ability to ask perceptive questions and explain and analyse evidence.
- The development of fieldwork skills across each year group.
- A deep interest and knowledge of our locality and how it differs from other areas of the country and the world.
- A growing understanding of geographical terms and vocabulary.
Implementation
The National curriculum organises the Geography attainment targets under four subheadings or strands:
- Locational knowledge
- Place knowledge
- Human and physical geography
- Geographical skills and fieldwork
Our Geography scheme of work has a clear progression of skills and knowledge within these four strands across each year group. Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of each key stage. Our National curriculum mapping document shows which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the four strands.
History
Intent
At Mill Hill we believe that:
- A high quality history education provides the foundation for understanding the influences on shaping the modern world.
- History inspires children, developing their sense of excitement and curiosity about all worldwide current and past events
- History enables children to develop an essential range of skills that are useful across all learning.
Mill Hill uses Kapow’s Primary History scheme of work as a resource through which it aims to inspire pupils to be curious and creative thinkers who develop a complex knowledge of local and national history and the history of the wider world.
We want pupils to develop the confidence to think critically, ask questions, and be able to explain and analyse historical evidence. Through our scheme of work, we aim to build an awareness of significant events and individuals in global, British and local history and recognise how things have changed over time.
History will support children to appreciate the complexity of people’s lives, the diversity of societies and the relationships between different groups. Studying History allows children to appreciate the many reasons why people may behave in the way they do, supporting children to develop empathy for others while providing an opportunity to learn from mankind’s past mistakes.
Mill Hill’s Primary’s History scheme (Kapow) aims to support pupils in building their understanding of chronology in each year group, making connections over periods of time and developing a chronologically-secure knowledge of History. We hope to develop pupils’ understanding of how historians study the past and construct accounts and the skills to carry out their own historical enquiries. In order to prepare pupils for their future learning in History, our scheme aims to introduce them to key substantive concepts including power, invasion, settlement and migration, empire, civilisation, religion, trade, achievements of humankind, society and culture.
Implementation
In order to meet the aims of the National curriculum for History and in response to the Ofsted Research review into History, we have identified the following key strands:
- Substantive concepts.
- Disciplinary concepts.
- Historical enquiry.
- Chronological awareness
Mill Hill’s Primary scheme (Kapow) emphasises the importance of chronological knowledge across all strands to support the development of substantive concepts, historical skills and historical enquiry. These strands are interwoven through all History units to create engaging and enriching learning experiences which allow the children to investigate history as historians do. Each unit of work has a focus on chronology to allow children to explore the place in time of the period they are studying and make comparisons in other parts of the world.
ICT / Computer
Intention
At Mill Hill we believe teaching computing to a high quality allows pupils to work using logical thinking and problem-solving skills. It develops pupils’ ability for a particular purpose, and also to use technology in other areas of the curriculum and in the wider world. E-Safety gives the children opportunities improves pupils’ understanding of the risks involved in using the internet
Implementation
Pupils will explore the three areas of the computing curriculum:
DIGITAL LITERACY (including e-safety) – evaluating digital content, using technology safely, respectfully and responsibly and identifying a range of ways to report concerns.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY – using technology to create, manipulate and retrieve digital content and present data and information.
COMPUTER SCIENCE – design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals
Links to British Values
Computing allows children to develop respect and tolerance in exploring and appreciating other opinions and cultures via the internet. Collaborative learning provides opportunities to express democratic principles, innovative thinking and problem-solving.
Maths
The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practise with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately;
- Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language;
- Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
We aim to place investigations, problem solving and reasoning skills at the heart of our mathematics teaching. The expectation is that all children welcome challenge, can link mathematical topics to each other and build a strong understanding of the relationships between them.
Through careful assessment, planning and preparation we aim to ensure that all children progress once the basic concept is understood. All children are given the opportunity to use concrete manipulatives to enhance their understanding of each mathematical concept, they will then be asked to create or show examples of how this could look pictorially. This ensures that all children can make clear links between concepts and can see what is happening, the changes that have taken place and the outcomes of that method. Those who grasp new material quickly will be able to access a range of fluency challenges leading onto rich problem solving and reasoning tasks.
Show: Children will use manipulatives to show understanding of a question or concept. They will then move along the working wall at their own pace as follows.
Do: Children will demonstrate their understanding of a concept using manipulatives and pictorial representations, moving to abstract representations.
Think: Convince me that… Children will prove their answers by explaining their reasoning.
Explain: What is the Same? What is different? Children will be able to find different ways to get to the answer and be able to explore the problem deeper if a variable changes.
Solve: Pupils deepen their understanding by investigating, sorting, comparing or by looking for patterns and rules in the representations they are exploring the problem with. Children will be expected to use a range of mathematical concepts to reason and problem solve.
Click to see:
Maths Presentation Policy
National Curriculum Maths Leaflets
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
Long Term Plans – click on the Year Group title for a detailed plan (White Rose Maths)
Modern Foreign Languages
At Mill Hill Primary School we teach and learn French
Intent
Mill Hill’s Primary’s French scheme of work aims to instil a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures. We want pupils to develop the confidence to communicate in French for practical purposes, using both written and spoken French. Through our chosen scheme of work, we aim to give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to learning further languages, developing a strong understanding of the English language, facilitating future study and opening opportunities to study and work in other countries in the future.
Implementation
Mill Hill’s French scheme of work is designed with six strands that run throughout. These are:
- Speaking and pronunciation
- Listening
- Reading and writing
- Grammar
- Intercultural understanding
- Language detective skills
Our National curriculum mapping shows which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands. Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills and knowledge that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of Key Stage 2. Through Mill Hill’s Primary’s French scheme (Kaopw), pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French, although in Year 3 the focus is on developing oral skills, before incorporating written French in Year 4 and beyond. The scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key skills and vocabulary revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout the units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning.
Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work. Our work focuses on developing what we term ‘language detective skills’ and developing an understanding of French grammar, rather than on committing to memory vast amounts of French vocabulary.
Strong subject knowledge is important for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective languages curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. Lessons include a section entitled, ‘Teacher knowledge – language points’ to explain key grammar and other details to the teacher before the lesson, together with a Key vocabulary and pronunciation presentation with sound files to demonstrate the correct pronunciation.
Impact
Pupil’s should leave school equipped with a range of language-learning skills to enable them to study French, or any other language, with confidence at Key Stage 3.
The expected impact is that children will:
- Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g., ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion.
- Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases, and short texts.
- Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
- Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
- Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.
- Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.
- Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.
- Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for Languages
Music
Intention
At Mill Hill we believe that:
- a high-quality music education provides the foundations for exploring the cultural world through the use of their voices, bodies and a range of musical equipment.
- music inspires children, developing their sense of excitement and curiosity about a range of musical genres, experimenting, composing, playing and performing music, as well as appreciating and understanding live and recorded music.
- music enables children to develop an essential range of skills to enable collaborative and independent practice and performance.
At Mill Hill, we aim to:
- Develop the child as a whole through engagement in musical activity.
- Ensure all pupils are able to access musical activities.
- Explore and understand how sounds are made and can be organised into musical structures.
- Explore how music is made through a variety of instruments.
- Develop the interrelated skills of composition, performance and music appreciation.
- Explore how music is composed and written down.
- Explore how music is influenced by the time, place and purpose for which it was written.
- Develop and nurture pupils’ sense of self, and allow opportunities to explore their own ability.
- Explore thoughts and ideas through their imagination.
- Develop pupil’s knowledge and understanding by having opportunities to practise skills.
- Create a platform to recognise and celebrate the diverse culture of our school through music.
Music Implementation
Mill Hill uses the Charanga scheme of work to teach Music. Each year group follows at least 2 of the units from the scheme which are adapted to suit the needs of the pupils. We believe that singing lies at the heart of good music teaching, therefore our teaching focuses on developing the pupil’s ability to sing in tune and with others. Each unit is taught through learning to sing and play a song. These songs develop in complexity and length as the pupils progress through the school. Through learning these songs, opportunities are also provided for listening to and appraising different styles of music, improvising and composing music, and learning about the features of music (e.g. tempo, texture, dynamics, structure, rhythm, pitch etc.). The Charanga scheme builds upon prior learning and provides opportunities for pupils of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each unit.
Personal ,Social, Health, & Citizenship Education (PSHCE)
Intention
At Mill Hill we believe that:
- A high quality PSHCE education provides the foundations for understanding the world themselves and how to play an active role within it.
- PSHCE inspires children, developing their sense of self and community.
- PSHCE enables children to develop an essential range of life skills to enable them to become emotionally resilient citizens.
Implementation
Our PSHCE teaching follows the North Yorkshire County Council’s framework which includes the DfE RSE and health education statutory learning and focuses on the following five themes:
- Me and my relationships
- Keeping myself safe – Online safety
- My Healthy Lifestyle – Emotional health and wellbeing
- Me and My future
- Becoming an active citizen
Each year group covers six units a year, each time building on previous learning and with opportunities for pupils to reflect upon their personal progress. The PSHCE curriculum is delivered using a range of teaching and learning styles, including drama, discussion, group tasks, artwork and circle time. The scope of these units includes exploring the causes and types of bullying, strategies for coping with transition and change, understanding our emotions, body awareness and growing up, and road and water safety. E-safety is an integral part of some of these units as well as being covered through the ICT curriculum.
PSHCE is not only taught in regular discrete lessons, but also enriched and applied in many aspects of school life. These include opportunities for ‘Show and Tell’, weekly awards for ‘Star of the Week’ and ‘Thumbs up’. We tailor our teaching to also reflect the needs of our community in which our children live and what may be applicable to their lives at a particular time.
Links to our School Vision
- Pupils learn about what it means to belong to a community
- Pupils learn strategies for developing and sustaining positive relationships
- Pupils are encouraged to develop self-esteem, explore their emotions and learn strategies for dealing with change
- Pupils are taught the importance of respect, tolerance and to value diversity
- There is a focus on developing pupils’ self-esteem, both through explicit teaching and through opportunities to celebrate talents and achievement
British Values
The British Values, and the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC) form an integral part of the PSHCE curriculum. Mutual respect, tolerance and an appreciation of diversity underpin our approach to teaching as we create a learning environment where we listen to the views of others. Pupils are equipped with the knowledge and skills to make independent and informed choices. The Rule of Law is explored in terms of rights, responsibilities and understanding how rules benefit us all.
Physical Education
Intent
At Mill Hill we believe that:
- High quality physical education experiences provide the foundations for understanding the need to participate on regular disciplines – gymnastics, dance, games, athletics, etc
- Physical Education inspires children to develop their sense of excitement and curiosity about a healthy mind and body
- Physical Education enables children to develop an essential range of skills that are useful throughout their lives
Implimentatiom
At Mill Hill all children will have a range of opportunities to develop their competence, knowledge skills and understanding through various activity. We encourage at least 2 hours a week of physical education, incorporating one indoor and one outdoor session. As well as this structured curriculum time we also encourage regular activity breaks in the children’s learning and offer extra-curricular clubs and physical challenges at lunchtimes. We encourage and promote participation and competition for all whether that will be against class mates, in house competitions or other schools in a range of sports throughout the sporting calendar. We will also use play leaders and sports leaders across the school to coach, support and officiate a variety of activities. Across all of our PE opportunities we encourage sportsmanship through identifying and praising particular behaviours and highlighting these as positive examples to one another.
Safe practice is fundamental to development of skills and access to well maintained and appropriate resources and equipment used within a safe environment will further develop progress within this subject. Safe practice also includes wearing appropriate clothing and being prepared to participate in physical activity, eliminating the risk to yourself and others. We work in partnership with the North Yorkshire County council following their developed scheme of work and the local schools partnership (SCSSP) where we regularly attend meetings and have access to a range of opportunities to evolve the PE curriculum and develop staff and pupils within this subject.
Finally we celebrate PE by regularly recognising sporting talent and achievements across a wide range of sports in assemblies, newsletters and on the website.
Religious Education
Intention
Religious Education at Mill Hill
- develops deeper level thinking through enquiry based learning.
- is relevant to the Mill Hill community.
- provides opportunities for engagement with the Church, the wider Northallerton community and a range of religions.
- Our RE curriculum is designed to meet the content requirements of the North Yorkshire agreed syllabus.
Implementation
Our RE lessons are based on a big question each half term. We make connections and collect clues to help us answer the big question. Teaching of RE runs throughout the school and includes visits out to different places of worship. The Mill Hill RE curriculum includes study of Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Humanism. The end of year statements ensures progression of knowledge and skills from learning in previous year groups. This is used to support pupils’ reflection and form teacher’s assessments based on what we are learning about and what are we learning from.
RE links to the School Vision
- Our curriculum is designed to reflect and understand faiths within our school community.
- Ethical questioning and critical thinking is developed through the RE curriculum. Pupils also learn about ‘rules’ of different religions and how they impact how we live today.
- Planning is progressive and skills are taught from early years to Year 6.
- We teach tolerance, respect and compassion towards all faiths and communities.
- Diversity is celebrated through different faiths.
- Our curriculum develops children as a ‘Global Citizen’ and provides experiences with the wider world through church links and visits.
- Cross curricular opportunities including art, music, PE are embedded in the RE curriculum. Pupils are exposed to the rich diversity of wider society.
- We embrace and celebrate all faiths in our school and invite pupils, parents and visitors from the community to share their faiths with one another.
Links to School and British Values
Our curriculum develops the British value of mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith. Understanding of rule of law, individual liberty and respect for democracy is taught and explored in depth through debate and critical thinking activities.
Assembly
We hold a daily assembly where we come together as a group to sing and focus on themes. On Thursdays we have a sharing assembly when children’s work and achievements are celebrated and on Fridays we have a Celebration assembly where rewards are given out.
Parents have the right to withdraw their child from Religious Education and the Collective Act of Worship. Please contact the Head Teacher if you wish to discuss this option.
Science
The Intent, implementation and Impact of our Curriculum – Science.
Mill Hill understands the need for all pupils to develop their Scientific ability as an essential component of all subjects and as a subject in its own right. A good understanding of scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding helps to support pupils work across the curriculum.
The National Curriculum for Science aims to ensure that all pupils:
1. develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
2. 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
3. are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.
Intent
At Mill Hill we believe that:
- a high quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.
- science inspires children, developing their sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena.
- science enables children to develop an essential range of skills that are useful across all learning.
Implementation
In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in science, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school.
Planning for science is a process in which all teachers are involved to ensure that the school gives full coverage of, ‘The National Curriculum programmes of study for Science 2014’ and, ‘Understanding of the World’ in the Early Years Foundation Stage. Science teaching at Mill Hill involves adapting and extending the curriculum to match all pupils’ needs. Where possible, Science is linked to class topics. Science is taught as discrete units and lessons where needed to ensure coverage. Due to the varying nature of our school and its’ class structure Science units are planned in a rolling programme for both mixed year group and single year group teaching. This guarantees topics are covered and ensures progression from year to year.
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 investigation – 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.
Science is taught consistently, once a week for one and a half hours, but connections with other subjects and contexts are developed and discussed with pupils. For example, drawing graphs to show the results of an investigation linking with maths and the botanical/observational drawings of plants with art.
At Mill Hill we aspire to promote children’s independence and for all children to take responsibility in their own learning, therefore we have implemented self/teacher assessment sheets for each unit. The children use this as a working document to track their achievements and progress throughout a topic. Alongside this we use Knowledge mats for each unit which introduces new vocabulary.
Impact
The impact and measure of this is to ensure children not only acquire the appropriate age related knowledge linked to the science curriculum, but also skills which equip them to progress from their starting points, and within their everyday lives.
All children will have:
- A wider variety of skills linked to both scientific knowledge and understanding, and scientific enquiry/investigative skills.
- A richer vocabulary which will enable to articulate their understanding of taught concepts.
- High aspirations, which will see them through to further study, work and a successful adult life
Science Progression of Learning
Science Knowledge and Skills Coverage Year 1
Science Knowledge and Skills Coverage Year 2
Science Knowledge and Skills Coverage Year 3
Science Knowledge and Skills Coverage Year 4