Our vision

At Henleaze Infant and Junior Schools, our children are taught essential aspects of the knowledge, methods, processes and uses of science. We aim to foster a curiosity to understand how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave, and analyse causes – skills essential for life-long learning.

Our Curriculum

At Henleaze Infant and Junior Schools, we follow the CUSP curriculum. It is cumulative, coherent and connected. Across the CUSP Early Foundations and Primary Science sequence, careful thought has been given to how content has been sequenced so that students have the best chance of committing learning to their long-term memory. Complex concepts have been positioned throughout the long-term sequence so that pupils have the opportunity to revisit them and build on them over time. Vocabulary has been carefully mapped to ensure that pupils acquire the language needed to make sense of these concepts and explain their understanding of core curriculum content. Our curriculum focusses on the three domains in Science – Biology, Physics and Chemistry. These domains are introduced and connected in lessons to build coherent schema

We define knowledge as being substantive and disciplinary. 

• Substantive knowledge is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used to learn about the content. 
• Disciplinary knowledge (working scientifically) is knowing how to collect, use, interpret, understand and evaluate the evidence from scientific processes.

Strong Start Blocks are provided each year to support teachers to introduce specific procedures and ‘working scientifically’ knowledge in advance of pupils using it. This helps to deepen their understanding of substantive knowledge.

Impact

Each year group has clear cumulative end goals – these are identified for teachers. Each block identifies the core foundational knowledge pupils are to learn. Disciplinary knowledge and opportunities are mapped across the curriculum to a granular depth with learning questions in blocks identifying the precise skill pupils will apply. Disciplinary knowledge is assessed using TAPS (Teacher Assessment in Primary Science) activities, and substantive knowledge is assessed through quizzes. Subject leaders will also conduct pupil book studies. 

Sublect Overview