Our Science Curriculum
CUSP Science pays close attention to guidance provided by the National Curriculum sequence and content. It is infused with evidence-led practice and enriched with retrieval studies to ensure long-term retention of foundational knowledge. The foundations of CUSP science are cemented in the EYFS through learning within the Natural World, and People, Culture and Communities.
Our ambitious interpretation of the National Curriculum places knowledge, vocabulary, working and thinking scientifically at the heart of our principles, structure and practice. CUSP Science precisely follows the units outlined in the National Curriculum. We also offer guidance on the teaching of foundational knowledge through mixed aged classes. Through studying CUSP science, pupils become ‘a little more expert’ as they progress through the curriculum, accumulating, connecting and making sense of the rich substantive and disciplinary knowledge.
Our Learning Journey
Scientific Educational Visits
As a school we offer a wide range of educational visits that all of the children enjoy very much. Over the years, different classes have been able to visit places such as: Liverpool Museum of Science and Industry, South Lakes Safari Zoo, Westmorland County Show Ground, a local Farm and so much more… It is a great opportunity for our pupils to learn about Science in the wider community and have hands-on experiences in areas beyond the classroom.
British Science Week 2024
This week we have been celebrating the 30th anniversary of British Science Week, with the theme of ‘Time’. We kicked off the week with a whole school assembly discussing what time is, how it can be told and how things change over time. We also looked at important Scientific discoveries and how technology has changed over time.
In each class we were conducting investigations that linked to time, here is what we have been getting up to.
Finches Class- We enjoyed lots of time related challenges and investigations for Science week. We began by thinking about what time it is and how many star jumps we could do and how many times we could write out a name in a minute. We then used this knowledge to predict how long it would take us to sing happy birthday twice and do two laps of the playground.
Swifts Class- In swifts class this week we engaged in Science Week. After taking part in a whole school assembly, we created our own posters based on the theme of ‘Time’. We shared and discussed ideas such as how our grandparents might have told the time and what that looks like now and how the world has changed over time. We then got creative and designed our own posters.
Kingfishers Class- We have been discovering what reactions are, we discussed how our senses pick up on a stimuli or danger, a message is then sent from our brains to different parts of the body through the spinal cord and along our nerves through important cells called neurons. This message tells our body to react a certain way to the stimuli. We tested our reaction times by seeing how quickly we could catch a ruler which was going to be dropped unexpectedly. We then compared our results.
Eagles Class- We have linked Science and Maths together to investigate different time questions such as: How many minutes have I been alive? etc. The children had great time finding out my age (Mr Ashburn’s) by using the inverse!