Curriculum Aim

The aim of the Science curriculum is to enable Children and Young People (CYP) to continue, or re-engage with, a love of science learning in a safe and positive environment, whatever learning pathway they are on. We aim to recognise all CYP's scientific skills and knowledge gaps and give them every opportunity to succeed and have an appropriate broad and balanced route to recognition of their success. Our curriculum will help CYP develop their skills of critical thinking and analysing evidence, to see how scientific theories become scientific facts. The course will look at the key science that underpins everyday life and showcase the link between the world around them and the science that explains that world.

Context

CYP will be taught Science each week. The lessons will usually be one-to-one bedside, and the length of the lessons will depend on the needs of the individual child. The content is led by the CYP’s home school, particularly where their stay is relatively short. Where the stay is longer or communication from their home school is limited, a safety net curriculum is put in place to support them. The offer is bespoke.

Key concepts, skills and knowledge

The science curriculum addresses knowledge through 10 ‘Big Ideas’ that flow throughout science:

• Biology – Organisms, Genes, Ecosystems
• Chemistry – Matter, Reactions, Earth
• Physics – Forces, Energy, Electromagnets, Waves

The disciplinary knowledge of how to conduct scientific experimentation is studied and developed in three areas:

• Scientific theories and ideas
• How to test theories in the laboratory
• Scientific Enquiry to process findings to come to scientific conclusions.

Curriculum Overview

Alignment with home school curriculum is prioritised. If this is not available, then we have a given range of lessons to build on core scientific principles that are taken from the schemes of work in place for Chapel House.

For KS3 CYP, the teacher and CYP select work from the KS3 route – Year one. When working with a CYP doing GCSE Science, the teacher and CYP select core work from the Year 10 GCSE route.

We can also work with CYP to build on their perceived areas of weakness.