Science

"The important thing is to never stop questioning."

Albert Einstein

As a core subject, science is given a high priority. It is recognised as an active, practical subject and children are encouraged to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding through first-hand experience where ever possible.

The science curriculum covers the following areas: scientific enquiry, life processes and living things, materials and their properties, physical processes.

Scientific Enquiry & Investigative Skills

Developing investigative skills is a key requirement of the primary science curriculum. One important aspect is thinking about safety, so we always talk about wearing protective clothing, washing hands, and using the correct, well-maintained equipment.

Materials

Your child will learn about the properties of different materials the whole way through primary school, in increasingly complex detail. The lessons encourage children to start understanding the properties of and differences between materials and their possible uses. 

Physical processes

Understanding physical processes is a core science learning objective throughout primary school. This area focuses on sound, forces and electricity. 

Life processes and living things

Your child will study life and living things throughout primary school, looking at the complexity of nature in increasing detail as they advance through each school year. Children learn about humans, animals, plants and the environment.

Science Week. 2023.  

The Theme for this Year : CONNECTIONS

The children at St. Joseph's have had a very exciting week!

They have experiences from various fields in the world of science.  I don't think they realised how science appears in many careers.  

The week started off in EYFS with a visit from Mrs Campion, who had recently been on a holiday in Senegal.  The children watched videos and looked at photos of a variety of animals and plant life that are found in this area of Africa.  They discussed what the animals ate and categorised them into herbivores and carnivores.  Mrs Campion had also brought back some shells and a drum, which the children were able to look at and talk about.

Y1 and Y2 had a visit from Mrs. Bostock.  

Mrs Bostock talked about chemistry in every day lives.  The children watched a very interesting video illustrating how life would be very different without chemistry.  A character woke up in the morning to find everything around him that's made using chemistry had disappeared!  The children then had the opportunity to explore different objects from every day life that are made using chemistry.  Mrs Bostock explained that making something like plastic was like mixing the ingredients to make a cake.  Different quanties of different chemicals determined the outcome of the product.  

KS2 had a visit from Mrs. Brennan.

Mrs. Brennan is a paramedic, and spoke to the children about her role working for the NHS.

Various classes in the school from South Staffs Water.  Emily provided interesting, engaging and informative workshops to all the children

• EYFS were visited by Suzie the Super Saver, a rag doll, who told us how to save water!
• Y2 - Little Drop Water Cycle -  Children learnt about the water cycle through the story of ‘Little Drop’, and  made a model of the water cycle.
• Y4 - Water Cycle and Water Filter Workshop - Children learnt all about where our water comes from and how it is cleaned and treated. Students made a model of the water cycle in a zip-lock bag and conducted an experiment testing filtration materials with the help of a workbook.
•  Y5 - Water Crimes -  A ‘hands-on’, cross-curricular workshop, which included activities such as looking for ‘water crimes’ around school and writing and performing a water saving radio jingle.

KS2 had a visit from Dr. Caroline Gledhill

She spoke to the children about the human body and biomechanics. She has a fascinating job creating the replacements for joints and growing cells to be put back into bodies to heal people. She started by telling the children that she wanted to pursue a career in science when her Mum found out that their family were related to Einsteen!! Amazing! 

Mrs Stilwell and her colleague Alex visited today and Y5 and 6 learned all about ceramics, how they use force to test the strength of them and in Y5 about materials being hydrophilic and hydrophobic, they tested them using a pipette and water and loved the fact they could take home the pipette!