St John's Science Week 2024

What is British Science Week?

British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths that takes place between 8th-17th March 2024.

The theme this year for British Science Week is Time.

British Science Week 2024 marks the Week's 30th anniversary which makes this year a very special celebration, celebrating TIME!

At Saint John's we have enjoyed celebrating British Science Week in lots of different ways.

This Year's Whole School Challenge

To fit with this year's theme "Time" all the classes and the staff were asked to participate in a number of timed challenges.

We were wanting to investigate the following questions;

Would the older children be quicker at certain tasks?

Were the younger children quickest at other challenges?

Were the staff going to be the quickest because they were the oldest?

Challenge 1: A timed obstacle course.

Challenge 2: How long it would take to build a 5 block tower in succession.

Challenge 3: How many star jumps could be performed in 1 minute.

Challenge 4: An average time for completing one lap of our school path.

Visitors from Victrex

Once again this year, we were lucky enough to have scientists from Victrex come to work with all of our classes. Key Stage 1 carried out an experiment to look at how different liquids affected the time it took for the browning or "oxidation" of a piece of apple. Key Stage 2 had the opportunity to design their own sand timers.

Live Lessons....

The children had the opportunity to tune into live lessons during the week including:

A day in the life of a farmer.

A day in the life of a farm vet.

Poster Competition....

A whole school competition was also launched to find entries for this year's British Science Week competition. A STEM prize was provided for the winning entry from every class.

Here are our winners for St John's Poster Competition 2024.

Science at St John's.........

Science makes a significant contribution to the education of our children. Through their investigations and enquiries children are able to acquire an awareness of:

• The importance of science in everyday life
• The part science has played in the development of many of the things they use in real life
• The need to treat their environment with care and sensitivity
• The need to treat all living things with the respect they deserve as part of God’s creation.

Intention

Through Science our intentions are:

• To encourage children to enquire, explore and observe, so that they can ask questions about themselves and their environment.
• To encourage children to test or experiment in order to progress towards answers in their questions.
• To encourage children to look for links and patterns in their studies.
• To teach children how to record their findings as accurately as possible in appropriate ways for their age and ability.
• To teach and encourage children to draw conclusions or answers from their work.

At St John’s, science is a subject that stimulates and excites pupils' curiosity about the world around them. We aim to give every child a broad and balanced science curriculum which enables them to confidently explore and discover what is around them, so that they have a deeper understanding of the world we live in. Scientific investigation develops understanding through practical activity, and encourages critical and creative thought. An important aspect of science at St John's is for the children to learn and use scientific vocabulary in the correct context, both while in discussion during practical investigations and also when recording their findings . Children are exposed to different ways of investigating and get the chance to develop their skills at predicting likely outcomes. Making predictions is a key skill used across the curriculum as it teaches children that making a mistake, or not getting something quite right is a natural part of learning.

The pupils need to understand that there are many cross curricular links within science, ranging from creating tables, graphs and interpreting data, to discovering materials from different climates and countries. Pupils are encouraged to work in groups to carry out investigations, so they are constantly developing their co-operation and communication skills, which is key to working effectively as part of a team.

We want our children to remember their science lessons in our school and to embrace the scientific opportunities they are presented with. To achieve this, we aim to provide practical hands on experiences that encourage curiosity and questioning.

We want to equip our children with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the science National Curriculum, but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Implementation

At St John’s, science topics are taught within each year group in accordance with the National Curriculum.

There is a clear progression in each unit and this can clearly be seen throughout the school in each year group so that children are extending their knowledge from learning in previous year groups.

At St John's, teachers pride themselves on planning stimulating lessons that will challenge pupil’s ideas about science and the world around them and to ensure they are always trying to make links with other areas of their learning.

• Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
• Every year group will build upon the learning from prior year groups, therefore developing depth of understanding and progression of skills.
• Children explore, question, predict, plan, carry out investigations and observations as well as conclude their findings.
• Children present their findings and learning using science specific language, observations and diagrams.
• In order to support children in their ability to ‘know more and remember more’ there are regular opportunities to review the learning taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons.
• At the start of each topic children will review previous learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about a current topic.
• Children are given a knowledge organiser either at the start or end of each topic which details key vocabulary, learning and information. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and are used as a reference document.
• Effective use of educational visits and visitors are planned, to enrich and enhance the pupil’s learning experiences within the science curriculum.
• Teachers use highly effective assessment for learning in each lesson to ensure misconceptions are highlighted and addressed.
• Effective modelling by teachers ensures that children are able to achieve their learning intention, with misconceptions addressed within it.
• Through using a range of assessment tools, differentiation is facilitated by teachers, to ensure that each pupil can access the science curriculum.
• Cross-curricular links are planned for, with other subjects such as maths and English.

The Impact of our Science Curriculum

The impact of the science curriculum at St John’s is that all children will make progress over time, across key stages, relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills. Children will be expected to leave St John’s reaching at least age-related expectations for science. Through wider opportunities such as science visits and visitors as well as our annual Science Week in school, we instill a love of science and enthusiasm for enquiry, investigation and learning about all that is science. Children will understand how science has changed all our lives for the better and may strive, in the future, to embrace STEM careers themselves, having been empowered through visiting STEM ambassadors and science role models.

The impact of St John’s science curriculum is evidenced in a range of ways including, pupil voice, questionnaires, children’s work, displays seen around school and their overwhelming enjoyment and enthusiasm for the subject.

Science News.....

During Science Week in 2023 we were lucky enough to get to work along side scientists from VICTREX. 

VICTREX as a company actively work to bring STEM careers to young people.

Today VICTREX donated a selection of STEM-based books to add to our school library which we are very grateful for.

St John's Science Week 2023

What is British Science Week?

British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths that takes place between 10th-19th March 2022.

The theme this year for British Science Week is CONNECTIONS.

At Saint John's we have enjoyed celebrating British Science Week in lots of different ways.

Whole School "Connections" Challenge

Science Week 2023

This year's whole school challenge was to pass a message from Year 2, to Reception, to Year 1, to Year 3, then 4, 5, 6 before the message finally reaches Ms Almond's office. "Connecting" the classes!!!!

The message needed to be  passed through school using different STEM methods which the children came up with, using  science, technology or maths.

Here are a few of the methods we came up with.......

Visitors from VICTREX

During Science Week, we were lucky enough to have some STEM Ambassadors visit us from Victrex. During the day the whole school had the opportunity to plan, design and construct using the theme "Connections."

Key Stage 1 had a fantastic time designing then constructing their own marble runs.

Key Stage 2 enjoyed designing and constructing their own spaghetti and marshmallow structures.

During Science Week we all had the opportunity to watch live STEM sessions and explore questions like........

How are tractors connected to space?

How are pigs connected to jumbo jets?

And how are sheep connected to seaweed?

There were also live lessons about Forces and Space to watch!

A Scientist Like Me

We had the opportunity to learn about "A Scientist Like Me." We learnt about what their job entails as well as their interests and what led them to become a scientist.

Year 3 were even lucky enough to hold a live Zoom chat with their chosen scientist!

During the week we had the opportunity to investigate and explore different "Connections".

We held a competition to find the best Connections Posters that were then entered into a National Competition.

Here is a selection of photographs from during our week.

Other Science going on around school.........