Science
Lays the foundations for understanding the world through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
Learning programmes provide foundational knowledge and concepts, and encourage children to recognise the power of rational explanation as well as develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena and the world around them
Science
Key Stage 1
At each Key Stage, your child will learn different science-related topics when attending school. Here, we provide you with some details of what your child will learn as they progress through their academic years.
Year 1
Living things
- Humans and other animals: recognising the major external parts of the body; how we grow; the importance of food and exercise; using our senses
- Plants: identifying the leaf, flower, stem and root; finding out that plants need water and light to grow; how plants grow from a seed
- Living things in their environment: discovering different kinds of plants and animals in the local environment, for example, in the playground, or a local park; how to care for the environment
- The difference between living things and things which have never lived.
Materials
- Exploring different materials using the senses
- How to group materials according to their properties, eg, hard, soft, shiny
- Recognising and naming common materials, eg wood, plastic, metal
- How some materials can change if they are heated or cooled.
Physical processes
- Light and dark: identifying sources of light; learning that dark is an absence of light
- Sound: where sounds come from; how we can hear when sound enters our ears
- Forces and motion: pushing and pulling; movement and speed
- Electricity: discovering which everyday appliances use electricity; how a simple circuit works.
Year 2
Life processes and living things
- Differences between things which are alive and those which have never lived
- How living things (animals and humans) move, feed, grow, use their senses and reproduce
- External parts of the body for humans and animals
- Importance of exercise and healthy eating
- How to treat animals with care
- Plants: how they grow from seeds using water and light
- Naming and recognising the leaf, flower, stem and root
- Living things in their environment: what sort of plants and animals live locally; care for the environment.
Materials and their properties
- Recognising and naming common types of material (for example, wood, plastic, metal, paper)
- Sorting materials into groups according to various qualities
- Using their senses to explore materials and look at differences and similarities
- Thinking about how different materials are used for different purposes
- How some materials can change, for example, if they are bent, stretched, heated or cooled.
Physical processes
- Electricity: everyday appliances; simple circuits using batteries, wires and bulbs; how a switch can break a circuit
- Forces and motion: speed and direction; pushing and pulling
- Light: sources of light, including the sun; how dark is a lack of light
- Sound: making and detecting sound; how sound can get fainter; how we hear sound when it enters the ear.
Science
Key Stage 2
Year 3
Life processes and living things
- Humans and other animals: nutrition, circulation, movement, growth, reproduction and health
- Living things in their environment: how plants and animals adapt to their habitat; food chains; micro-organisms.
Materials and their properties
- Comparing materials according to various criteria (conductors)
- Differences between solids, liquids and gases
- How materials change state
- Evaporation and condensation.
Physical processes
- Electricity
- Forces and motion
- Light and sound
- Sun, Earth and Moon.
Year 4
The three main areas of study include the following topics, but different schools and different teachers will choose to approach the topics differently in KS2.
Life processes and living things
- Humans and other animals
- Green plants
- Materials and their properties.
Physical processes
- Electricity
- Forces and motion
- Light and sound
- Sun, Earth and moon.
Year 5
The three main areas of study include the following topics. In year 5 your child may study one or more of these subjects:
Life processes and living things
- Humans and other animals
- Green plants.
Materials and their properties
- Thermal insulators and electrical conductors
- Rocks and soils.
Physical processes
- Electricity and circuits
- Forces and motion (magnets, friction, gravity)
- Light and sound
- Sound and vibration
- Pitch and volume.
Sun, Earth and moon
- Various elements covered.
Year 6
Life processes and living things
Humans and other animals
- Nutrition: why we need food and a healthy diet
- Care of our teeth
- Circulation: how the heart pumps blood around our bodies; how exercise affects our pulse rate
- Movement: how our skeleton and muscles help us and some animals to move
- Growth and reproduction: the human life cycle
- Health: the importance of exercise; harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.
Life processes and living things
Green plants
- How growth is affected by light, air, water and temperature
- What roots do
- How leaves help a plant to grow
- Parts of a flower
- Life cycle: pollination; seed formation and dispersal; germination
- Identification and grouping of plants and animals
- Living things in their environment: how plants and animals adapt to their habitat; food chains; micro-organisms.
Materials and their properties
- Comparing materials according to various criteria
- Thermal insulators
- Electrical conductors
- Rocks and soils
- Differences between solids, liquids and gases
- Changes to materials when they are mixed, heated or cooled
- Temperature
- Evaporation and condensation
- How to separate particles, for example, by sieving or filtering.
Physical processes
Electricity
- Building a simple circuit
- How to make a light dimmer or brighter
- Drawing a circuit.
Forces and motion
- Magnets
- Gravity
- Friction
- Pushing and pulling
- How to measure force.
Light and sound
- Properties of light, including reflection and shadow
- How we need light to see
- Sound and vibration
- Pitch and volume.
Sun, Earth and moon
- Day and night
- How the sun moves
- Orbits of the Earth and moon.
Science
Key Stage 3
Your child will be working with familiar subjects but the work will be more advanced. Work will be done in laboratories, with your child carrying out more experiments and recording and analysing their results. This will help the children to develop particular areas of scientific learning:
- Practical and enquiry skills
- Critical understanding of evidence
- Communication.
Years 7–9
Energy, electricity and forces
- Light
- Sound
- Renewable energy
- Emerging technologies
- Electrical circuits
- How to measure current and voltage
- Force and its effect on objects
- Magnetic fields
- Electromagnets
- Gravity
- Friction.
Chemical and material behaviour
- Properties and behaviour of matter
- Elements in the Periodic Table
- Atoms and compounds
- Chemical properties and patterns
- pH scale for acids, alkalis and bases
- Solids, liquids and gases.
Organisms, behaviour and health
- Tissues, organs and body systems
- Plant and animal cells
- Life processes
- Human reproduction, including fertilisation and foetal development
- Adolescence
- Importance of healthy eating and exercise
- Effects of drugs such as tobacco and alcohol
- Digestion
- Respiration and breathing
- Effects of viruses and bacteria
- Variation in living things
- Human and animal behaviour
- Living things and their habitats
- Food chains
- Dissection.
The environment, Earth and the universe
- Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock formation
- Weathering of rocks
- Motions of the sun, moon, stars and planets
- Causes of changes in the environment.