Intent

At Aston Rowant School, our intent is to provide a high‑quality science education that develops pupils’ curiosity, critical thinking, and understanding of the world around them, ensuring they are well prepared for the next stage of their education and for life beyond school. 

We aim for all pupils to: 

• Develop secure scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding, appropriate to their age and stage, which builds progressively over time 
• Ask questions, explore ideas, and carry out a range of scientific enquiries, developing the skills required to think and work scientifically 
• Use and understand accurate scientific vocabulary, enabling them to articulate ideas clearly and reason scientifically 
• Build confidence as both independent and collaborative learners, valuing discussion, exploration, and shared problem‑solving 
• Recognise the relevance of science in everyday life and the wider world, understanding how scientific ideas and discoveries shape society and the environment 

Our science curriculum is ambitious, inclusive, and coherently planned to ensure that all pupils, including those with additional needs, can access, engage with, and succeed in science. It fully covers the requirements of the National Curriculum and is carefully adapted to suit our mixed‑year class structure, ensuring appropriate challenge and progression for all learners. 

Science teaching is organised across the school as follows: 

• Hedgehog Class – EYFS 
• Squirrel Class – Years 1 & 2 
• Fox Class – Years 3 & 4 
• Owl Class – Years 5 & 6 

To support this structure, we follow a two‑year rolling programme, which ensures full coverage of curriculum content while avoiding unnecessary repetition and enabling pupils to build on prior learning securely. This approach allows concepts, vocabulary, and scientific enquiry skills to be revisited and extended over time, supporting long‑term retention. 

We deliver science through the Kapow Primary Science scheme, which underpins our curriculum with clearly sequenced learning, strong links between knowledge and skills, and a consistent emphasis on working scientifically. Kapow supports teachers to plan lessons that are practical, purposeful, and progressive, ensuring that pupils know more, remember more, and can do more as they move through the school. 

Through this carefully considered curriculum design, we aim to nurture confident, inquisitive learners who enjoy science, ask thoughtful questions, and are motivated to explore and understand the world together. 

Implementation 

Working Scientifically (Aligned to Kapow) 

Science teaching at Aston Rowant School is underpinned by the Kapow Primary Science framework, which ensures that pupils develop both substantive scientific knowledge and the disciplinary skills of working scientifically in a coherent and progressive way. 

Kapow’s approach to Working Scientifically is embedded across all year groups and is explicitly taught through each unit. Pupils are given regular, structured opportunities to practise and apply these skills through meaningful enquiry. 

Across the school, pupils engage in the full range of scientific enquiry types as identified in the National Curriculum and supported by Kapow: 

• Observing over time – pupils observe changes and processes, make comparisons, and identify patterns across time 
• Identifying and classifying – pupils group, sort, and organise living and non‑living things based on observable features 
• Pattern seeking – pupils explore relationships and trends through observation and data collection 
• Fair testing – pupils plan and conduct controlled investigations, learning to identify variables and ensure reliability 
• Research – pupils gather information from secondary sources to develop understanding beyond first‑hand experience 

These enquiry types are carefully revisited and developed across the two‑year rolling programme, ensuring pupils build confidence and independence as scientists as they move through the school. 

Teachers explicitly model: 

• How to ask scientific questions 
• How to make predictions using prior knowledge 
• How to observe accurately and measure where appropriate 
• How to record findings using age‑appropriate methods 
• How to draw conclusions and explain results using scientific vocabulary 

Teaching is adapted to meet the needs of our mixed‑age classes, using flexible grouping, scaffolded tasks, and opportunities for challenge to ensure that all pupils are supported and stretched appropriately. Assessment within lessons is used to identify misconceptions and inform next steps, ensuring learning builds securely over time. 

Impact 

The impact of our science curriculum is that pupils leave Aston Rowant School with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to think and work scientifically. They are curious, engaged learners who can explain ideas clearly, apply their understanding, and ask thoughtful questions about the world around them. 

Over time, pupils demonstrate that they: 

• Retain key scientific knowledge and vocabulary and can recall and apply it confidently 
• Use a range of scientific enquiry skills appropriately and with increasing independence 
• Communicate findings clearly, using accurate scientific language 
• Show enthusiasm and enjoyment for science and investigative learning 
• Understand the relevance of science in everyday life and the wider world 

Assessment information, alongside evidence from pupils’ work and discussions, shows that pupils make secure progress across all strands of science, including Working Scientifically. Learning builds progressively as pupils revisit and extend concepts, enabling them to know more, remember more, and do more. 

The impact of our approach is further reflected in: 

• Consistency of science outcomes across mixed‑age classes 
• High levels of pupil engagement during practical and enquiry‑based learning 
• Positive attitudes towards science and collaborative learning 

Our sustained achievement of the Primary Science Quality Mark (PQSM), including Gilt Award status, demonstrates the positive and lasting impact of high‑quality science provision across the school. 

As a result of this carefully designed and well‑implemented curriculum, pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their education and approach science with confidence, curiosity, and enthusiasm.