To engage and excite our pupils, in and beyond the classroom, to develop scientific skills and knowledge which will help them ask and answer questions about the world around them and to recognise the implications of science today and in the future.
Science Lead: Mrs. Gibson Science lessons at Forest Hall are carefully planned so that there is a good balance between teaching "scientific knowledge" and teaching how scientific enquiries are carried out. Emphasis is given to developing key scientific vocabulary to enable pupils to discuss and make sense of their surroundings, as well as developing a sense of excitement and curiosity about scientific discoveries.
All this begins in early years through hands on activities, where pupils begin to develop key scientific skills to enable them to carry out a variety of scientific investigations in key stages 1 and 2. The pupils are also taught how to collate results and look for patterns, and they are encouraged to communicate their findings in a variety of different ways.
External visits are encouraged at venues such as the Centre for Life, the Rising Sun Country Park and the coast. We also have our own wildlife garden with a pond, which the pupils can access when exploring different habitats and seasonal changes. Our early years team have recently developed a thriving Forest School and our youngest pupils regularly make use of this outside space.
At Forest Hall we are constantly reviewing our practice and striving to give our pupils the very best in quality teaching and learning. In the summer term, an after school STEM club takes please in partnership with the STEM ambassador programme. We encourage our pupils to see the relevance of STEM subjects beyond the classroom walls and every year we have a whole school STEM focus week, where classes take part in a variety of STEM based learning activities. During one STEM week, we hatched chicks and watched them grow and develop over two weeks. As well as lots of science and maths activities, the pupils also designed and made homes for the chicks and there was a lot of food technology going on too with egg based recipes being tried out. We always encourage former pupils and parents, who have careers in STEM subjects, to participate in different ways during that week so please do get in touch if you feel that you have something to offer. We are always open to new ideas and suggestions. |
What will your child will be learning about in science at Forest Hall?
Look at our whole school overview, which shows the key areas of knowledge for each year group. You will see that some of the topics are revisited so that the children have opportunities to revise and consolidate learning, before progressing onto more advanced content. We also encourage all of our children to develop a wide range of scientific skills throughout their time at Forest Hall. Have a look at how these are developed over both key stages, so that when the children transition to High School, they are well prepared for the key stage 3 science curriculum. We also hope that early experiences of learning science at Forest Hall will inspire some of our children to progress onto STEM based careers in the future.