Science

'The important thing is to never stop questioning.'  Albert Einstein

At St James, we believe children learn science most effectively through hands-on observation, experimentation and discovery. We believe Science should excite pupils’ interests, build their confidence, enabling them to take risks, work out problems and raise further questions about the world we live in. 

Our children are natural scientists and are keen to explore, inquire and understand the world around them.  Within the National Curriculum framework we investigate life processes, materials, physical processes and concentrate on developing children's scientific skills, encouraging them to question, investigate and test appropriately.  We focus on group work and collaboration, with lots of practical work and experimentation. We want our children to enjoy Science, and we support their learning in a variety of ways including 'Inspire' days, school trips and fieldwork.   Our Science room is equipped with a huge range of Science resources from the latest microscopes to a full size, anatomical skeleton.  And our Year 6 Science Technicians help to champion this subject across the school and support our younger years with their practical experiements.

Our annual STEAM week makes links to other curriculum subjects and allows the children to apply the science skills they have learnt.

We are delighted to have been awarded the PSQM Outreach award

The Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) was established to enable primary schools to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their Science provision. 

We are delighted to have achieved the prestigious PSQM Outreach this term which is an award that very few schools in the country hold.   In fact only 93 schools in the whole country currently have a valid PSQM Outreach accreditation and of these, only 18 in the London area.  It can only be awarded when the expertise and work of a school is shared with other schools, teaching programmes and the wider community.

At St James Primary, we have successfully demonstrated that our excellent teaching practice and leadership in Science is visible, sustained and evolving across the whole school, and that this practice has had a clear impact on the pupils and organisations beyond the school.

One of the award inspectors said about us, ‘it is clear that excellent practice is established at St James, with a range of teaching and learning approaches, strong teaching of Working Scientifically and a wonderful programme of enrichment.  Congratulations to you and all at the school on a well-deserved PSQM Outreach – I wish you every success in the future.’

Mrs Brady

Science Lead

Science progression of skills

Science progression in working scientifically