2014 Science curriculum – what’s new?

With the start of the September term you’ll be starting to grapple with the new 2014 curriculum and ways of delivering the new programmes of study. What medium and short term planning needs to be done? How different will it be? What resources do we need? The list of questions might seem endless, so it’s important to take stock and remind ourselves that we are highly skilled classroom practitioners who are well equipped to keep calm and carry on.

The new curriculum has been in the pipeline for quite some time now. Following various periods of consultation and re-drafting, the final version was published last autumn and will be taught in our classrooms this term. As far as Science is concerned, the Aims set out in the 2014 primary curriculum are to ensure that all pupils:

• develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics
• develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them answer scientific questions about the world around them
• are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future