“Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.” 

Edwin Hubble

Science pervades every moment of our daily lives. The Science Department at Birkdale aims to provoke curiosity in our students so they have a desire to find out how the world around them works.  We want our students to explore the Universe and in doing so find awe, wonder, knowledge and joy.

We recognise that students have a range of scientific knowledge & experience and variation in their cultural capital. Irrespective of starting points, we aim to develop students’ capacity to understand the world around them by improving knowledge, skills and habits needed to become effective learners. Within our science curriculum, we seek to provide students with:

• Fundamental knowledge, secure in long term memories, across a range of “big ideas” that underpin future learning.
• Experience of making connections within and between science and non-science subjects.
• Skills to plan & carry out practical science, analysing and evaluating resulting data.
• A strong grasp of tier 2 vocabulary with multiple applications and more specific tier 3 science related vocabulary.
• An appreciation of the historical development of scientific ideas and the application of science in current and future technologies and careers.
• Opportunities to develop healthy habits in home work & responses to knowledge gaps.

The goal of science education is not knowledge of a body of facts and theories but a progression towards key ideas which enable understanding of events and phenomena of relevance to students’ lives. We want our students to make connections between what they learn and the big ideas that are intrinsic to science.

Big ideas of science 

1. All material in the Universe is made of very small particles. 
2. Objects can affect other objects at a distance. 
3. Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it. 
4. The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but energy can be transformed when things change or are made to happen. 
5. The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring within them shape the Earth’s surface and its climate. 
6. The solar system is a very small part of one of millions of galaxies in the Universe. 
7. Organisms are organised on a cellular basis. 
8. Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they are often dependent on or in competition with other organisms. 
9. Genetic information is passed down from one generation of organisms to another.
10.  The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

Big ideas about science:

1. Science assumes that for every effect there is one or more causes. 
2. Scientific explanations, theories and models are those that best fit the facts known at a particular time. 
3. The knowledge produced by science is used in some technologies to create products to serve human ends. 
4. Applications of science often have ethical, social, economic and political implications. 

We explicitly teach key tier two vocabulary that is assigned to each unit to ensure that we are addressing the closing of the word gap. We develop tier 3 vocabulary throughout each unit to support learning. Both tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary is assessed and developed with google forms quizzes as part of the homework policy. Through verbal questioning, science teachers continually check on cultural capital and ensure that contexts are based on prior experiences or students are introduced to important concepts using effective scaffolding. We provide all students with opportunities to improve their cultural capital during extra curricular activities and educational visits, such as STEM competitions, Science Live Lectures, Animal Club, Science Fiction Film Club, Garden Design & Build, Silversmithing Club & others.

Students of all abilities work towards 2 or more GCSEs in science. We have a fluid process of setting in years 8-11 to ensure that all students are able to access the right level of support where it is needed but are also pushed to achieve as highly as possible. Prior and current attainment are used to support decisions made in setting. Disadvantaged and SEND students have priority seating to allow for enhanced scaffolding and teacher assessment & feedback within work checks. We actively encourage selected disadvantaged and SEND students to opt for triple science, allowing access to this higher attaining, more comprehensive route with greater learning hours.

Arbor data with lower thresholds for groups are used to trigger enhanced parental communications.

From 2021, disadvantaged students will receive GCSE revision guides to support learning. This group will also have priority access to extracurricular intervention / revision sessions