Potters Gate CofE Primary School

Potters Gate C. of E. Primary School

An Academy in the Good Shepherd Trust

Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School Life at Potters Gate C.E. Primary School

Science

"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science." Edwin Powell Hubble

At Potter's Gate and St Andrew's schools, we believe that every child is a scientist. We aspire to take our children's natural curiosity about the world around them and develop their questions into scientific discoveries. Our curriculum opens their eyes to the science they find in their immediate environment, including our school pond, Space to Grow, forest school, Bishop's Meadow and Farnham Park. They can then apply this knowledge and understanding to the wider world and beyond.

We support our children to be aware of the environmental changes happening in the world and how they can make a positive difference as a school community. Through our Eco Council and Generation Restoration projects, we provide opportunities for the children to have a practical impact on taking care of our world.

During their time in our schools, the children will develop their scientific skills alongside a love and enjoyment of science. We participate in British Science Week annually to embrace opportunities to enhance and develop our scientific curriculum through trips, visitors and whole school science events.

Children build on their science skills every year through their learning of different scientific concepts and are encouraged to approach science topics with creativity and innovation.

Science (ID 1048)

  • Gilbert White Field Study
    Reception

    Gilbert White Field Study

    This trip links to our Science topic of minibeasts and our RE topic of our wonderful world. We spend the day outside working in teams to learn how to measure trees and identify trees by their leaves. We shake the tree branches to collect and identify minibeasts. We go bug hunting in the meadow and identify birds in the bird hide. We create a little art book inspired by nature. The children loved collecting plants to put in their concertina books. They also loved finding the animal footprints! The whole trip was full of wow moments!

  • Alice Holt
    Year 1

    Alice Holt

    The children had to be birds and find all the worms! We talked about how animals camouflage into their environment and the ones that do this best are the ones that survive the longest! We used rulers to measure mole hills and tried to predict how big moles were. We were all shocked when we found out that moles are only 10cm long, we thought they were much bigger!

  • Wisley Gardens
    Year 2

    Wisley Gardens

    We investigated all about growing plants. We had a guided walk where we discovered different trees and visited the hot house to make comparisons between the trees here and outside. We learnt what different conditions different trees needed.

  • Farnborough Air Museum
    Year 2

    Farnborough Air Museum

    We learnt how planes have evolved over time, and how forces affect the flight of different aircraft.

  • Local Rock Walk
    Year 3

    Local Rock Walk

    We were rock detectives identifying and classifying rocks in and around our local area and school environment. We realised that there were lots of cobble stones in Farnham and talked about the shapes of stones that had gone through natural erosion and those that were man made. We also had a talk from a local Geologist!

  • Sayers Croft
    Year 4

    Sayers Croft

    The children had the opportunity to bring their Science topic to life and look at what living things lived in the coneyhurst river. The children were able to do a pollution study to analyse how clean the water was based on the living things that lived in that habitat.

  • Winchester Science Museum
    Year 5

    Winchester Science Museum

    Winchester Science Museum brings our topic to life. There are interactive workshops and the planetarium is where they get to explore space. They all come away excited and enthusiastic about the topic.

Science (ID 1048)

Subject Curriculum Overview 

Exemplars of work  

At Potters Gate, we promote our core values through science:  

Fellowship  

We develop and foster fellowship skills within Science in a variety of ways. Through carrying out our scientific investigations, we work closely together to plan and carry out experiments. We listen carefully to each other and show respect for each other’s ideas. When carrying out investigations, we support each other, play our parts and share what we have found out. We celebrate our differences and appreciate the different ideas we can all bring to our learning.  

Trust 

When we are working together as a team we trust each other to complete our different roles and work our hardest. We trust that our ideas and thoughts are safe with other children in our group, especially when we are learning about sensitive issues. We learn about trusting adults and rules to keep us safe, for example when learning about medicines.  

Resilience 

Science provides many opportunities for us to learn resilience. We appreciate that sometimes our experiments may not go the way we think they might and we consider carefully what we might do next when this happens. Sometimes our ideas might not be chosen by the group, and we understand that this does not mean our ideas aren’t appreciated and might be chosen next time. We can still work on other’s ideas and be respectful. We remember that we can try and try again.  

Justice 

Throughout our Science topics and other areas of the curriculum, we grow a love and appreciation for the world in which we live. We feel very strongly about getting justice for animals and working together to make a world where all living things are respected.