‘Science is everywhere, all the time: it’s about materials, living things, and physical processes. Any good Early Years science teaching always begins with the child and what they know, what they want to do, what they’re interested in, what’s around them, what they find.’ We spoke with Bryony Turford for Primary Huh about how she helps develops the science curriculum to make sure that it is something pupils enjoy doing.
But I think what I want more than anything is for them to be able to work in a scientific manner; that they have a genuine curiosity and interest in the world around them, and have developed skills to explore those things.
‘I want them to have developed skills around observation and measurements, recording data and presenting findings. I want them to be able to decide whether their findings support predictions or ideas before they’ve carried out those practical investigations.
‘I think that sits alongside a rich body of knowledge about the world around them. They will have explored things around plants and habitats, and humans in the biology curriculum. They’ll have explored sound and electricity and forces in the physics curriculum. They’ll have a good understanding of states of matter and how they change within the chemistry curriculum. That will have been stitched together cohesively over the time they’ve been in primary school; they will have been constantly challenged to develop those skills, alongside a rich body of knowledge about the world.
To take an example from early years: A child might come along and say, ‘I found a worm.’
‘Wow, where did it come from?’
‘It came from the ground.’
‘How did it get in the ground?’
There's lots of opportunity for the adult to support with questions. Other children join the conversation, and so it grows. Before you know it, children are jumping up and down on the grass to find more worms. Then talk starts about other types of wriggly things we know: ‘Where else could you find wriggly things? Do they all live in the ground? Do they all come to the ground if you stomp?’
‘In secondary schools we do a practical in science
In primary school we do practical science.
It's a subtle but important difference.’
The following day, we provide additional resources. We might look at worms under a digital microscope, make a wormery and read books about earthworms. Now, that stuff isn’t necessarily in the curriculum, but it’s the enrichment that gives breadth to the content.
What we tend to do at primary is have two objectives in a lesson. You’d have one that’s about working scientifically, which might be around observing, and then you would have one around your knowledge and content.
Here’s an example from forces and magnets in Year 3. The children are learning about everyday materials and how they are attracted to a magnet, and the properties of materials that might be attracted to a magnet. That will be the knowledge they’re learning, but I want them to do work on comparing and grouping; so, the recording would focus on their comparisons in grouping in a two-column table that they’ve constructed. That’s the ‘working scientifically’ aspect that would go alongside the knowledge that I’m teaching them about magnetic materials. The children are constantly doing science while learning science!’
You can watch the full conversation with Bryony on Myatt & Co!
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Until next time
Mary
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