Planning for Primary Science

When planning Science activities, it is essential that you achieve full coverage of the ‘Working Scientifically’ programme of study. This article contains lesson ideas to cover topics that were new to the 2014 curriculum, alongside Working Scientifically grids to support your planning. The Statutory Requirements column sets out what children are required to cover during Lower and Upper Key Stage 2 and the suggested activities for Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 demonstrate how we might begin to meet some of these requirements.

Lower Key Stage 2

While the trend in the 2014 Key Stage 2 curriculum is to introduce concepts earlier than in previous editions of the curriculum, the flexibility within each phase band provides teachers with an opportunity to accelerate or defer the order in which these are covered. The important deadline to bear in mind is the end of Year 4, when children are expected to have completed all the Lower Key Stage 2 programmes of study.

So, what was new for Lower Key Stage 2 in the 2014 curriculum? In addition to the ‘ Working Scientifically ’ programme of study, Year 3 includes five topic areas:

• Plants
• Animals including humans
• Rocks
• Light
• Forces and magnets