Curriculum Statement of Intent

At Greenshaw Learning Trust, our science curriculum will produce students that are scientifically literate. Our students will:

• Have the knowledge to make critical judgements in their lives.
• Have the skills to critically analyse information.
• Have the examination results, curiosity and passion for science, so that they can pursue science beyond school.

Big Ideas

Our curriculum is based around 17 ‘big ideas’ in science. Four of these big ideas are based around chemistry, six around physics and six around biology. One big idea is based on the scientific process which is the disciplinary knowledge in science. This knowledge should lead into the ‘working scientifically’ section of the specification.

Age related expectations and sub grains

To ensure that teachers across the Trust are teaching to a consistent standard, age related expectations have been defined for each big idea, for each year group. ARE take the form of statements and these are further broken down into the ‘sub grains’ that define the precise knowledge that we want students to know, in order to master each ARE statement.

Working scientifically

Working scientifically (to use AQA language) is vital part of a broad and balanced science curriculum. However, this is better taught within topics rather than as isolated skills. The exception to this is in year 7 where there is a working scientifically topic to ensure students have a grounding in the basics. When designing units, we have integrated the relevant working scientifically skills within the units, providing students with many different opportunities to master the knowledge and skills required.