Intent

Science at PMGHS is designed with the vision ‘developing and fulfilling curious minds’. We believe exploration, questioning, thinking, identifying gaps, problem solving and being inquisitive are central to the holistic study and understanding of Science. Key concepts are organised and sequenced to allow the building and development of ideas methodically, with appropriate links to other concepts. The planning of key stage 3 and 4 science follows our ‘developing and fulfilling curious minds’ lesson structure, allowing an assessment of recall, igniting pupils’ minds with a question, focusing on pupil feedback and then embarking on a journey of exploration and understanding. Our aim is to provide the opportunity for pupils to experience aspects of disciplinary knowledge themselves, to appreciate how scientists need to problem solve in order to discover and learn.

The Science department believe that children are highly curious about the world around them. We explore this curiosity by encouraging pupils to ask questions and share their ideas to bring to life the link between science and the real world, the significance of it in society and their own lives and hence provide the foundations for understanding the natural world around them.

The KS3 Science curriculum aims to develop the knowledge, ideas and skills students have gained prior to key stage 2. It is designed to recognise prior learning, build on these foundations, and bridge any gaps in their learning journey. The curriculum is sequenced so that pupils build their knowledge and skills incrementally and acquire more deeper knowledge, allowing them to make links between topics and the wider world.

Language, key vocabulary, how to use the vocabulary and confidence in pronunciation are integral for helping pupils formulate sentences, answers to questions and for them to be able to sequence and organise their thoughts, verbal responses and written answers. This language is a key element of our planning and delivery. Our aim is to develop skills to guide learners to become scientifically knowledgeable and literate by encouraging the use of specialist scientific vocabulary. We encourage discussion and debate on global issues such as the energy crisis, climate change, impact of plastics on the environment, healthy lifestyle, and a variety of ethical issues. This is achieved by incorporating the study of scientific development through history and celebrating the work of world-renowned scientists.

All lessons and tasks are differentiated appropriately at Key Stage 3 and 4; pupils are taught in ability sets from year 7 to allow learning to be finetuned appropriately. The curriculum is rigorously designed and lessons are planned with challenge and high aspirations in mind to give the opportunity for all pupils to make excellent progress. Lessons are scaffolded to allow all pupils to access the curriculum; the curriculum is not narrowed for SEND or disadvantaged pupils. Assessments and teacher judgements are used to provide timely interventions which are explicitly planned and recorded. 

We want our pupils to have high aspirations, to believe in themselves and to know that success comes from all backgrounds, abilities and social settings. We have science assemblies throughout the year to remind pupils of our departmental vision and the belief and care we have for each pupil. We share our own experiences, and how we have overcome any obstacles remaining determined to achieve highly for our own benefit and that of our community. We share the achievements of women scientists of today and of the past,

from different cultures and religions to show the united and diverse network that science has to offer and to show our pupils that they have so much to offer for the continued development of the fields of science and the understanding of the world we live in.

Our young scientists at PMGHS are learning each lesson that the concepts we study are an amalgamation of curious minds, hard work, investigative skills, determination in the face of controversy and lack of acceptance of new ideas and resilience. Working scientifically skills are taught explicitly at the beginning of each year, sequenced appropriately, and then embedded throughout the year to incorporate them within substantiative knowledge, to practise them and develop them further. As a result, by the time our young scientists start GCSE science in year 10, they have a strong foundation of the scientific method and aspects of analysis and evaluation.

Mathematical skills are taught within the working scientifically skills and embedded within each topic. Year 9 are taught mathematics in science so that they have a strong understanding of the importance of maths in science and so we can ensure we have given the maths content the focus, and practise it deserves. The mathematical skills are then embedded within other topics.

Assessments are valued as a learning tool for teachers to gauge an understanding of where their pupils are in their learning journey. Our tailor made, cumulative assessments give pupils the opportunity to practise revision skills, recall and measure retention and understanding. They are followed by structured Action Point lessons to build on gaps identified and an analysis for pupils and teacher to see individual areas of good attainment, areas of development per pupil and per class. This feeds future planning to help each pupil make excellent progress.

At PMGHS Science we want to increase the science capital of our pupils, enriching their cultural capital. To do this we take pupils on meaningful trips including the Zoo, Museum of Science and Industry, Catalyst, GCSE Science Live and are involved in InnovateHer and inviting external guests from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Our STEM club have invited ambassadors, taken part in competitions and designed a whole school enrichment day to promote STEM. British Since Week is one of the highlights of the school calendar since many years, oozing a science department team spirit, which is contagiously passed onto pupils and all staff. We participate in the National theme set by BSW, involve pupils and staff from other departments in ‘demo day’, design engaging activities for Key Stage 3 within science lessons, invite our local community, ‘granny’ group, called ‘granny halaqah’ and invite a primary school. These events promote and encourage a positive science identity in our learners, our staff and local community. The involvement of our local ‘grannies’ and their attendance to our school and science labs enriches our pupils with the great sense of importance of community, our high moral values and ethical standards.

Our Science lessons enhance the appreciation of Allah that we aim to achieve at PMGHS. We make links with the Quran, Hadith and with Fundamental British Values. We explicitly show and teach how good character and being active, considerate citizens are central to being a good Muslim. As our science corridor display promotes, we encourage our pupils to use their senses, to think and to try to understand how the visible and the invisible world around them works. This is the study of science, which also showcases the laws of nature created by Allah.

Implementation

In years 7 and 8 pupils have 10 lessons of science over a fortnight. Increasing to 12 lessons in year 9. At GCSE pupils have 2 lessons of Biology, 2 Chemistry and 2 Physics per week. The duration of each lesson is 50 minutes. All lessons are timetabled as double lessons to allow time sufficient time for meaningful practical work.

Our curriculum is used to formulate lesson plans which are structured uniformly across the department and for each year group. This ensures each class is accessing the same high quality teaching and learning and there is minimal need for adaptation should a pupil move sets or have a different teacher the following year.

At the heart of our planning are our key principles from our Science Department vision:

• Our girls should feel a sense of shared discovery and exploration each lesson
• Do not start new concepts by ‘telling’, gauge what pupils already know, help them to realise that there is a gap in their existing knowledge by prompting them to think and solve a problem
• ‘Education is the training of the mind to think’ adapted from Albert Einstein.
• Provide opportunities for pupils to solve problems and to discover new learning through these prompts and questioning
• Use clear, well structured explanations using accurate key vocabulary
• Provide opportunities for group work, self reflection, diagnostic questions leading to paired or group debates
• Provide opportunities for consolidation and practise.
• Assess throughout the lesson and adapt as required
• Pace the lesson according to the needs of the learners
• Provide scaffolding and extension activities for tasks so that all learners are able to access the work and pupils who finish quickly are stretched further or given the opportunity for further consolidation, whichever is most appropriate.

STEM BEST resources are being implemented in our science lessons to promote group discussions and debate, to encourage pupils to discuss their ideas, to justify view points and to provide opportunities for them to use key language verbally. Teachers observe these interactions closely, before asking for whole class feedback and discussion.

Keywords are recorded in pupil books with definitions and pupils are asked to repeat new keywords aloud in lessons to explicitly give pupils the opportunity to practise pronunciation and build confidence in doing so. Their use is encouraged in written work, when discussing with peers and when asking or answering questions. Marking for literacy is present during diagnostic marking, including keywords, spelling, grammar, and quality of communication. Pupils are encouraged to make links between keywords and words they know from other subject areas or outside of school to appreciate their meaning or clarify misconceptions. Keywords and definitions are listed in pupils’ books each lesson.

Teacher demonstrations and practical work are carried out to strengthen pupil understanding, to develop their skills and to further their understanding of disciplinary knowledge. Working scientifically skills are key in any practical work and are taught from year 7 and developed in years 8 and 9. By Year 10, GCSE, pupils have strong foundations about the scientific method and key working scientifically terminology. At GCSE the working

scientifically skills linked to each practical is mapped out in our long term plans alongside mathematical skills. Our current focus is on enhancing pupils A03 skills further.

We work closely with the maths department with an aim to share best practice of teaching maths skills in science. Between our departments we have shared ideas about solving equations, the 7 step method, language relevant to rounding and significant figures, converting units and working out the gradient of a line.

Our ‘developing and fulfilling curious minds’ lesson plans starts with a Do Now activity, designed to maximise on time, to never allow an opportunity for pupils to learn to pass them by even whilst others may be arriving, settling or during registration. The Do Now activity will consist of concepts from a previously learnt topic, from the same academic year or previous, to enhance pupil recall and retention skills through low stakes testing. By doing so we are teaching pupils the need for review, revision and revisiting in order to transfer ideas into the long term memory.

The Do Now activity is followed by a review activity linked to the previous lesson.

Each topic is accompanied by a Big Picture slide and career links. The Big Picture slide gives an overview of the learning journey, the order of the subtopics so pupils are always aware of what they have already done and where they are going to next in their learning. The career links inform pupils of possible careers linked to the topic, entry requirements and salary. Each topic also includes a ‘why this topic is important’ to enhance pupil appreciation of the relevance to them, to their everyday life, to their community and to their faith.

New learning is initiated by a question. This is the ‘let’s think’ slide. The slide may present a cartoon, a diagram, or a challenge question. It is designed to spark curiosity, to engage thought, to excite learners through challenge. This process should cause the release of dopamine which is known to enhance learning and memory and motivation.

The lesson then embarks on teaching new concepts, consolidation and assessment. Teachers respond to feedback from ‘let’s think’ to measure starting points and pace the lesson accordingly.

End of topic Assessments provide a window of reflection upon our own practice and is used to inform our planning and provide timely intervention. We have a rigorous assessment cycle at PMGHS enhanced by our well structured assessment protocol within the science department. At Key Stage 3 our assessments cover the breadth of the range of grade for each year group. At times the same assessment is provided for all classes to allow comparison. However, when deemed more appropriate, two rigorous versions of a test may be prepared to ensure we are not demotivating learners for whom the highest grades are not yet accessible whilst ensuring they still have suitable challenge and opportunity to achieve grades much higher than their target grade. At GCSE our assessments are prepared using mainly exampro. Foundation test papers consist of low and standard demand questions and Higher tests consist of standard and high demand questions, made to similar ratios to examboard ratios. In line with this each test consists of the A01,2,3 in similar ratios to examboard ratios. Our higher tier learners work towards the AQA GCSE Combined or Separate Science courses and our foundation tier learners work towards the Edexcel GCSE Combined Science course. We have analysed both the courses and believe the wording of questions and the structure of the Edexcel paper for our foundation learners is more accessible compared to the AQA and so moved to Edexcel in 2018.

Assessments are marked and feedback given through structured Action Point lessons.  Pupils are familiar with our analysis process by which they are able to identify areas, skills, command words, literacy aspects as either ‘www’ and ‘to improve further’. Future planning is informed using this information to target individuals. Any areas the whole class has not performed well in prompt the teacher to reflect on planning, if this is a departmental issue then it directs us to look back at departmental lessons plans, MTP’s, sequencing, opportunity to practise recall and quality of revision support. Half termly, teachers are asked to plan the actions they will take to support pupils who are below target. These actions are recorded and displayed in our prep room for reflection.

Each lesson focuses on FBV/ spirituality/SMSC aspects linked to the topic explicitly or creatively. These have included the difference between deformation and defamation in the Hooke’s Law lesson, self regulation and considerate citizens in the plastic topic and appreciation and gratefulness in the vaccinations lesson.

Reading is embedded within our curriculum in order to expose pupils to breadth of knowledge available. We encourage reading of class resources individually or as a group and often use further literature to enhance pupil experience. These may be linked to the topic but we like to include interesting articles which will enhance cultural capital.

Impact

The high quality teaching and learning in our department, alongside a robustly sequenced and thorough curriculum has resulted in pupils engaging exceedingly well in science. They enjoy the varied science lessons and have come to expect questioning and challenge as the norm each lesson. They are highly motivated to achieve well, regardless of their starting points or needs. Pupils know that teachers have the highest expectations of themselves and trust their teachers to help them to make excellent progress.

When pupils enter Key Stage 4, they come with a variety of science knowledge, skills and language which underpin what they are to learn at Key Stage 4. Again, they have come to expect well structured, challenging lessons with explanations which are clearly articulated and questioning to strengthen their learning. About 35% of our pupils study separate sciences. All of our pupils are motivated and encouraged to have high aspirations and self belief. Pupils want to achieve highly and are often reminded of progress success stories to help motivate all pupils. Pupils are keen to understand what they are being taught and have been trained to identify areas of strength and development so that they are self reflective and proactive learners. This is evidenced from lesson observations, drop ins and from discussions with pupils including pupil voice.

Our high GCSE results are a testament to the planning and delivery of our curriculum. Pupils make excellent progress, with a VA Score of 1.24 in combined science and, 0.58, 1.12 and 0.67 in biology, chemistry and physics separate sciences respectively.

Teachers are aware of their professional development targets and continue to build upon their subject knowledge and pedagogy using internal support and external courses. Sharing

good practice is central to our departments ethos, where each teacher matters and we aim to make progress as a team. Teachers are excellent role models for pupils, in their conduct and their use of language ensuring professional language is adopted with use of meaningful keywords. We reflect upon assessment attainment each half term, and action plan interventions. We scrutinise AQA and Edexcel enhanced results ala4lysis to identify areas of development and share good practice to inform future planning. We are a proactive team who are very keen to ensure we give each of our pupils the highest quality science education and experience.

Pupils are building a strong science identity with the experiences they are being enriched with. They understand that science is not limited to the classroom but is at work within them, around them, visible and invisible. Pupils are always very excited as British Science Week draws closer as they have come to expect a week filled with a variety of hands on activities, external providers, a strong science identity across the school, competitions and teachers dressing up as scientists. Pupils have learnt science from a walk in zoo, have visited museums, have worked with STEM ambassadors, have be awarded Crest awards and taken part in inter-school competitions. All our pupils are given the opportunity to learn from current scientists through GCSE Science live, this is an exciting experience that helps to raise aspirations and an ‘I can’ attitude.

Pupils at PMGHS are keen to study science beyond GCSE with an extremely high uptake of science subjects post 16.