Science

Our Vision

At Southborough, we recognise the value of the STEM subjects and have placed them at the heart of our school curriculum, with science as the overarching lens through which we approach all of these. We aim to provide an engaging and enjoyable introduction to the world of science, through giving the children regular opportunities to take part in practical activities.
We aim to identify and build on each child’s ‘science capital’ and help them recognise the value in careers in this field.
We firmly believe in a ‘hands-on’ approach and strive to ensure that lessons are child-centred and led as much as possible.
We intend to build a curriculum that nurtures the children’s problem solving and questioning skills and caters to their inquisitive natures and appetites for knowledge.

STEM Ambassadors

Our ambassadors continue to play a crucial role in helping to design and lead the learning in the classroom.
They help to resource the lessons and bring excitement to classroom and they are a vital part of science at Southborough. 

Science Week 2024

In Term 4, we celebrate British Science Week 2024.
The theme this year is 'Time' and, as part of this, children will be designing, constructing and calibrating their own time-telling devices.
Pupil Class Councils will then get the chance to decide how they are put to use in the next part of the investigation. 
 

We have live talks and visiting speakers to look forward to from external STEM Ambassadors who work in fields from physiotherapy to computer software engineering. They are coming to deliver workshops on their careers and discuss how time influences the work that they do - this will help to further enrich and enhance children's science capital and their knowledge of STEM-related careers. 
 

These types of events are so important to develop children's independent problem-solving skills and to apply their learning to real-world problems.
Science Week always brings a fantastic buzz to the school and this year will surely be no different.

Come back to this page  after science week to see the wonderful creations that the children made and to find out how they decided to put them to use!

Primary Science Quality Mark

We are immensely proud to announce that, in June 2023, we were awarded the Primary Science Quality Mark.
This is in recognition of the high-quality of leadership, teaching, learning and wider opportunities in science at Southborough and demonstrates the commitment ensuring improvement across these areas.

The purpose was to identify areas of strength and areas of improvement in science and then to drive it forward, creating the best environment possible for science to thrive as the core subject that it is. New processes in the teaching and learning of science have been introduced and the pupil voice that was collected points towards not only greater long-term knowledge retention, but also a great deal more enthusiasm for the subject. The teaching of science has been bolstered by the introduction of Curriculum Maestro and our fidelity to this, and children’s experiences of science have been enriched through wider opportunities that have occurred this year, such as Science Week  and STEM Careers Week.

Associate Professor Jane Turner, PSQM National Director said: “There was never a more important time for primary children to have a high-quality science education. The coronavirus pandemic and climate change crisis have made everyone aware of the importance of science in our world. 
Primary schools have an important role to ensure that children understand how science works and keeps us and our planet healthy and safe.

Schools that have achieved a Primary Science Quality Mark have demonstrated a significant commitment to science teaching and learning.
The profile and quality of science in each awarded school is very high. Children are engaging with great science both in and outside the classroom, developing positive attitudes towards science as well as secure scientific understanding and skills.
Science subject leaders, their colleagues, head teachers, children, parents and governors should be very proud.”

Term 4 Science Topics

Reception

This term children in Reception class cover 2 science-based projects.

The Ready Steady Grow project teaches children about food and farming and explores themes, including where food comes from, what plants and animals need to grow and survive and what constitutes a healthy lifestyle.
 

Signs of Spring teaches children about the changes that happen during the spring, including weather and the festivals that are celebrated at this time of year.

Year 1

The Seasonal Changes project teaches your child about the seasons, seasonal changes and typical seasonal weather and events. They will learn about measuring the weather and the role of a meteorologist. Your child will begin to learn about the science of day and night and recognise that the seasons have varying day lengths in the UK.

Year 2

The Plant Survival project teaches your child about the growth of plants from seeds and bulbs. They will  observe the growth of plants first hand, recording changes over time and identifying what plants need to grow and stay healthy.

Year 3

Th Forces and Magnets project teaches children about contact and non-contact forces, including friction and magnetism. They will investigate frictional and magnetic forces, and identify parts of a magnet and magnetic materials.

Year 4

The Grouping and classifying project teaches children about grouping living things, known as classification. They will study the animal and plant kingdoms and use and create classification keys to identify living things.

Year 5

The Human Reproduction and Ageing project teaches children about animal life cycles, including the human life cycle. They explore human growth and development to old age. Puberty and Reproduction will be covered in R.S.E in Term 6.

Year 6

The Electrical Circuits and Components project teaches your child about electrical circuits, their components and how they function. They will learn to recognise how the voltage of cells affects the output of a circuit and record circuits using standard symbols. Additionally, they will learn about programmable devices, sensors and monitoring. They will combine their learning to design and make programmable home devices.

Southborough Working Scientifically Wheel

When learning about science, it is important that children learn how to work scientifically. This means understanding the processes involved in science; being able to question like a scientist; know how to design and set up experiments; collect and present data; analyse and interpret data and draw conclusions from it.
 

The Working Scientifically Wheel is a visual representation of these steps and helps children see at what stage of the cycle they are at in a lesson. Each lesson focuses on one section of the wheel (perhaps in conjunction with a preceding or succeeding section), focusing on the whole wheel in one lesson would not give children deeper understanding of a particular discipline.

Science Week 2023

March saw one of the highlights of our year so far: Science Week! The children were very excited and enthusiastic and worked incredibly hard throughout the week on designing and making Rube Goldberg machines. These are systems with many complicated processes that aim to accomplish a simple task at the end. As energy conservation is such an all-consuming topic at the moment, the children designed their machine to accomplish a task such as switching  a light off or turning off a tap. The range of systems and processes that we saw across the week was staggering, from pulleys and levers, to bridges, tunnels and towers. The children used all of their scientific knowledge about forces and energy to tackle this complex problem and had to understand how energy could be transferred and maintained in order for the machines to achieve their end functions.