Science at Longlands Primary School
At Longlands, science helps children make sense of the world, ask worthwhile questions and recognise that their ideas can be tested, refined and explained.
Our curriculum uses Kapow Primary as its carefully sequenced core and is adapted through the Longlands Way so that every pupil takes part, thinks hard, talks scientifically and remembers more over time.
Intent
Our science curriculum is ambitious for every child. We aim to develop secure scientific knowledge, curiosity, accurate vocabulary and increasingly independent enquiry skills from EYFS to Year 6. Children learn about biology, chemistry and physics through meaningful practical experiences while building a clear understanding of how scientific knowledge is created, tested and used.
The curriculum is organised through three connected strands:
scientific knowledge and understanding; working scientifically; and science in action.
Pupils revisit ideas in greater depth, making connections between previous learning and new content. They encounter scientists, inventors and scientific careers, including people whose work challenges stereotypes, and consider how evidence, ethics, technology and scientific discovery influence everyday life.
Science reflects the Longlands Way. We set high expectations, teach explicitly, model expert thinking, check understanding, revisit essential knowledge and adapt support without narrowing ambition.
Our values are visible in science: Excellence through precision and perseverance; Empathy through collaboration and care for living things; Creativity through questions, models and problem-solving; Integrity through honest recording and fair testing; and Equality through full participation and diverse scientific role models.
Implementation
Kapow Primary provides the core sequence and resources. In EYFS, science is rooted in Understanding the World through exploration, observation, talk and first-hand experiences. From Year 1 onwards, each year group follows a coherent sequence of units that covers the National Curriculum and progressively strengthens substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge.
- Lessons begin by activating prior knowledge and identifying the essential question, concepts and vocabulary.
- Teachers explain and model new learning in small, carefully sequenced steps, using concrete examples, diagrams, demonstrations and worked examples.
- Pupils work scientifically within the subject content. They ask questions, predict, observe, measure, classify, research, record, analyse, conclude and evaluate with increasing independence.
- Practical work has a clear learning purpose. Pupils know what the investigation is designed to reveal and connect observations to the scientific idea being taught.
- Teachers use planned retrieval, questioning, mini-plenaries and end-of-unit checks to identify misconceptions and adapt teaching promptly.
- Vocabulary is explicitly introduced, rehearsed orally and revisited. Pupils are expected to use precise scientific language in discussion and writing.
- Adaptive teaching includes pre-teaching, visual prompts, structured talk, reduced recording load, equipment support and carefully chosen scaffolds, while keeping pupils on the same ambitious curriculum wherever possible.
- Outdoor learning and the school grounds support observation of seasons, habitats, plants, materials and environmental change.
- Science in action makes links to scientists, careers, current applications, sustainability and responsible decision-making.
Writing, oracy and reading across science
Science gives pupils authentic reasons to read, speak and write.
The Longlands “Talk before you write” approach is used to rehearse explanations, methods and conclusions. Pupils read age-appropriate non-fiction, retrieve and summarise information, discuss evidence, ask and answer questions, and present findings.
Writing opportunities include labelled diagrams, captions, predictions, methods, results, explanations, conclusions, reports, letters, posters and persuasive texts. Teachers retain the purpose and conventions of scientific writing while reinforcing sentence construction, cohesion, spelling and presentation taught in English.
Mathematics across science
Pupils apply mathematics through purposeful scientific activity:
counting and comparing; measuring length, mass, capacity, temperature and time; selecting and using standard units; reading scales; calculating differences and averages; and collecting, tabulating, graphing and interpreting data.
Teachers explicitly connect these applications to the methods and vocabulary pupils know from mathematics, while keeping the scientific question at the centre.
Impact
By the end of Year 6, pupils will have developed a connected body of scientific knowledge and the confidence to use it. They will ask relevant questions; select and carry out appropriate enquiries; make careful observations and increasingly accurate measurements; present data appropriately; identify patterns and relationships; draw evidence-based conclusions; evaluate the reliability of results; and communicate ideas using precise vocabulary.
Impact is evaluated through what pupils know, remember and can apply.
Teachers use ongoing assessment within lessons, review of practical and written outcomes, vocabulary checks, low-stakes retrieval and end-of-unit assessments. Leaders consider pupils’ work and explanations alongside lesson visits and pupil discussion to check that the planned curriculum is being taught, remembered and built upon. Assessment information is used to identify gaps, strengthen teaching and ensure that pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils achieve well from their starting points.
Classroom assessment
• Activate prior knowledge and identify misconceptions before new teaching.
• Use hinge questions, mini-whiteboards, observation and pupil explanations during lessons.
• Check whether pupils can connect practical observations to the scientific concept.
• Review scientific vocabulary in speech and writing.
• Use end-of-unit tasks and quizzes alongside pupils’ practical and written work.
• Reteach essential knowledge promptly and revisit it through planned retrieval
Whole-school science long-term plan
EYFS to Year 6 | Kapow Primary sequence adapted for Longlands
| Year group | Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 / across year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EYFS | Animal adventures | Animal adventures / Changing seasons | I am a scientist | I am a scientist / Changing seasons | Our beautiful planet | Our beautiful planet / Changing seasons |
| Year 1 | Seasonal changes | Everyday materials | Sensitive bodies | Comparing animals | Introduction to plants | Investigating science through stories |
| Year 2 | Habitats | Microhabitats | Uses of everyday materials | Life cycles and health | Plant growth | Plant-based materials |
| Year 3 | Movement and nutrition | Forces and magnets | Rocks and soil | Light and shadows | Plant reproduction | Does hand span affect grip strength? |
| Year 4 | Digestion and food | Electricity and circuits | States of matter | Sound and vibrations | Classification and changing habitats | How does the flow of liquids compare? |
| Year 5 | Mixtures and separation | Properties and changes | Earth and space | Life cycles and reproduction | Unbalanced forces | Human timeline / asteroid crater enquiry |
| Year 6 | Classifying big and small | Light and reflection | Evolution and inheritance | Circuits, batteries and switches | Circulation and health | Are some sunglasses safer than others? |
Progression in scientific knowledge
| Strand | EYFS | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living things, plants and habitats | Names familiar animals and plants; distinguishes living/non-living; explores habitats and seasonal change. | Identifies common plants and animals; names plant and body parts; understands senses and seasons. | Explains habitats, microhabitats, food chains, plant growth, basic needs and life cycles. | Explains plant functions, water transport, pollination, seed formation and dispersal. | Uses classification keys; explains habitat change, food chains, digestion and teeth. | Compares life cycles and reproduction; describes human development. | Classifies organisms including microorganisms; explains circulation, health, inheritance, adaptation and evolution. |
| Materials and changes | Explores floating, sinking, melting and freezing through sensory and practical play. | Distinguishes objects and materials; names, describes, compares and groups everyday materials. | Links material properties to uses and explains how solid objects can change shape. | Classifies rocks; explains fossils and soil formation. | Explains solids, liquids, gases, changes of state and the water cycle. | Explains mixtures, solutions, separation, properties, reversible and irreversible changes. | Applies material knowledge within enquiries and design contexts. |
| Forces, Earth, space and energy | Explores pushes, pulls, sound, light, shadows, day and night. | Observes weather, seasons and changing day length. | Applies simple ideas about force when changing shapes. | Explains contact/non-contact forces, magnets, friction, light and shadows. | Explains sound, vibration, pitch, volume, electricity and simple circuits. | Explains the Solar System, day/night, gravity, resistance and mechanisms. | Explains light travelling in straight lines and predicts effects in electrical circuits using voltage and components. |
Progression in working scientifically
| Strand | EYFS | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Questions, planning and prediction | Asks questions with support; shares ideas; makes simple guesses. | Raises simple questions; follows an ordered method; predicts from experience. | Recognises different enquiry types and whether a simple test is fair. | Asks relevant questions; plans comparative and fair tests with support. | Selects enquiry approaches and identifies what should be changed, measured and kept the same. | Plans different enquiry types; recognises and controls variables. | Justifies enquiry design, controls variables and uses prior evidence to make testable predictions. |
| Observation, testing and measurement | Uses senses, handles simple tools and notices change. | Observes closely; uses simple equipment and standard/non-standard measures. | Performs simple tests and measures more consistently. | Makes systematic observations and takes measurements using standard units. | Chooses equipment and records repeat or time-series observations where appropriate. | Measures with increasing accuracy and precision; takes repeat readings. | Selects equipment, considers precision and records anomalies or limitations. |
| Recording and presenting | Draws and labels; recognises simple tables. | Uses diagrams, tally charts, pictograms and block graphs. | Records results in simple tables and labelled diagrams. | Uses scientific language, keys, tables, bar charts and labelled diagrams. | Presents discrete and continuous data appropriately, including line graphs where suitable. | Uses tables, classification keys, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs. | Chooses efficient representations and uses recognised circuit symbols and complex graphs. |
| Analysing, concluding and evaluating | Describes discoveries from practical work. | Uses results to answer simple questions and notices unexpected results. | Identifies patterns and gives simple evidence-based answers. | Draws conclusions, makes new predictions and suggests improvements. | Explains patterns and uses evidence to support findings. | Explains causal relationships and degree of trust in results. | Evaluates methods, reliability and evidence; supports or refutes ideas and proposes further enquiry. |
Progression in science in action
| Strand | EYFS | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientists, careers and applications | Notices that people have jobs that involve observing, caring, making and finding out. | Explores the work of people such as weather reporters, firefighters, zoologists and primatologists. | Connects botany, materials science, health and engineering to real-world jobs. | Explores palaeontology, nutrition, forces and plant science through practical applications. | Considers dentistry, electrical safety, acoustics, ecology and medicine. | Examines changing scientific ideas, space science, materials, reproduction and engineering. | Considers classification, evolutionary theory, optics, electrical engineering and cardiovascular health. |
| Evidence, ethics and society | Shares observations and learns to care for the natural world. | Understands that observations help people make useful decisions. | Considers healthy choices, environmental responsibility and material use. | Uses evidence to improve designs and explain everyday phenomena. | Considers human impact, conservation and responsible use of electricity and sound. | Considers evidence, discovery, climate effects and how scientific models change. | Evaluates source reliability, risk, ethics, sun safety and the effect of lifestyle choices. |
| Longlands values in action | Curiosity, cooperation and care. | Accurate observing; taking turns; respectful questions. | Persevering with tests; honest recording; care for habitats. | Creative modelling; precise measurement; fair comparison. | Collaborative enquiry; safe practice; evidence-based discussion. | Independent problem-solving; responsible innovation; critique of evidence. | Rigorous enquiry; integrity in conclusions; informed decisions that affect people and planet. |
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Progression in scientific vocabulary
| Strand | EYFS | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry vocabulary | observe, notice, question, sort, same, different | plan, predict, test, measure, diagram, table, compare, pattern, result | research, group, classify, tally, evidence | investigate, method, fair test, variable, bar chart, conclusion | control variable, temperature, classification key, trustworthy | hazard, testable, data, estimate, line graph, mean average, reliable | anomaly, relationship, scale, secondary source, evaluate, evidence, line of best fit |
| Biology vocabulary | animal, plant, living, non-living, habitat, grow | senses, mammal, bird, fish, reptile, amphibian, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, root, stem | microhabitat, food chain, life cycle, germinate, hygiene | skeleton, muscle, joint, nutrient, pollination, reproduction, seed dispersal | digestion, oesophagus, intestine, producer, predator, prey, vertebrate, invertebrate, conservation | gestation, metamorphosis, sexual/asexual reproduction, offspring | organism, microorganism, circulatory system, adaptation, inheritance, variation, evolution, natural selection |
| Chemistry and materials vocabulary | object, material, float, sink, freeze, melt | wood, plastic, glass, metal, rock, waterproof, absorbent | property, flexible, elastic, suitable | crystal, fossil, sediment, soil, hardness | solid, liquid, gas, evaporation, condensation, precipitation, water cycle | soluble, insoluble, solution, mixture, filtering, sieving, reversible, irreversible, conductivity, rusting | revises and applies precise materials vocabulary in comparative and applied contexts |
| Physics vocabulary | push, pull, light, dark, shadow, sound, day, night, season | weather, daylight, Sun | force, friction, magnet, attract, repel, pole | light source, luminous, opaque, translucent, transparent, reflection | vibration, pitch, volume, circuit, cell, switch, conductor, insulator | planet, orbit, spherical, gravity, air resistance, water resistance, lever, pulley, gear | light ray, ray diagram, current, resistance, voltage, circuit diagram |
Science at Longlands Primary School
